The 2026 Division 1-A Rugby Championship was the fourteenth season of the Division 1-A Rugby championship, the annual university rugby union competition run by USA Rugby involving the top sixteen college teams in the United States. Cal entered as defending champions having beaten Life in the 2025 final 55–38. Cal beat Navy 36–22 for their second striaght final victory.
Teams Sixteen clubs from the five major conferences compete in the 2026 National Championship playoffs.
The distribution of teams is: California: three teams Rugby East: six teams Independent: thee teams Mid-West Conference: three teams Rocky Mountain: two teams
The following teams qualified for the tournament.
California East IndependentMid-West Rocky Mountain Cal Poly Saint Mary's San Diego Army Life Mary Washington Mount St. Mary's Navy Penn State Arizona California Grand Canyon Arkansas State Lindenwood BYU Colorado State
Team locations
Standings
+ Rugby EastTeamRecordPD1 Navy5–0+1444242 Life4–1+1734203 Army3–2+423154 Mount St. Mary's2–3–872105 University of Mary Washington1–4–152046 Penn State0–5–12033
+ Big TenBig Ten East Team Record PDPoints 1 Notre Dame 3–0 +61 122 Michigan 2–1 +40 83 Ohio State 1–2 +32 44 Michigan State 0–3 –133 0Big Ten West Team Record PDPoints 1 Indiana 3–0 +94 122 Wisconsin 2–1 +34 83 Illinois 1–2 –40 44 Purdue 0–3 –88 0
+ Mid-WestTeamRecordPD1 Lindenwood5–0+2514242 Arkansas State4–1+1184203 Davenport2–4–542104 McKendree0–6–31522
+ CaliforniaSouthern CaliforniaTeamRecord1 Long Beach State6–4+817312 Cal Poly6–2+3626303 San Diego5–1–0+2516284 San Diego State5–4–397275 UCLA5–2+1231216 UC Santa Barbara2–1–7–338515Northern CaliforniaTeamRecord1 Saint Mary's8–0+7268402 Santa Clara4–4–1305213 UC Santa Cruz3–6–2784164 UC Davis1–7–3296106 Sacramento State0–9–42966
+ IndependentTeamRecord Arizona10–4 California13–0 Grand Canyon7–4 St. Thomas UBC
+ Rocky MountainTeamRecord1 BYU5–0+3034242 Colorado State4–1+753193 Utah4–1+33194 Colorado2–3–232105 Wyoming2–3–87196 Utah State1–4–67377 Air Force1–4–92268 Utah Valley1–4–11204
Bracket Playoffs
Round 1
Rudy Scholz Award Winner Solomon Williams – California
Finalists Roanin Krieger – Navy Dom Besag – Saint Mary's Solomon Williams – Cal Logan Ballinger – Life
Nominations George Engels – Army West Point Logan Ballinger – Life University Aaron Van Dyk – Arkansas State Roanin Krieger – US Naval Academy Manu Taula – St. Bonaventure Solomon Williams – Univ. of Cal - Berkeley Jack McAllister – Lindenwood Kieran Downs – San Diego Sosaia Pongi – Saint Mary's Coby Baker – Cal Poly Dom Besag – Saint Mary's Drew Baublitz – US Naval Academy Rand Santos – Univ. of Cal - Berkeley Marco Lapierre – Brown Matteo Berenger – Arizona
2025–2026 First Team All Americans Oliver Kirk – University of California – Berkeley Adam Chadwick – Life University Luke Shaefer – Lindenwood University Byron Finley – Lindenwood University Liam Walsh – Army George Engels – Army Maximus Goethals – Davenport University Edmund Soeder – United States Naval Academy Solomon Williams – University of California – Berkeley Rand Santos – University of California – Berkeley Avion Ganse – United States Naval Academy Dominic Besag – Saint Mary's College Andrew Baublitz – United States Naval Academy Masi Koi – University of California – Berkeley Ronan Krieger – United States Naval Academy Ian Bullock – United States Naval Academy Cade Crist – University of California – Berkeley Dalton Slaughter – University of Arizona Logan Ballinger – Life University Austin Taylor – United States Naval Academy Siale Ofa – Saint Mary’s College James Rose – Life University Taoniashe Mapani – St Thomas University
References