The Liberty Rugby Division 1-AA has 5 major changes in the 2026 season. Binghamton and Niagara are dropping down to Division 2 and will compete with Cornell and the rest of Division 2. The 2 bottom schools from Division 1 are joining Division 1-AA. Those schools are Harvard (Ma) and Iona College (NY). These schools might find the opposition more equal in D-1AA. Princeton only has an Ivy league Rugby 7’s. Princeton will now field a Rugby XV team and will compete in Division 1-AA. This will bring a total of 4 Ivy League teams Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Colombia, to Division 1-AA Rugby 15.
This increases Liberty Rugby League in 1-AA division to 11 schools. That would give 5 home games and 5 away. The top 4 make the playoffs. Another idea would maybe have the 5 Massachusetts play H-A and the NY, NJ, CT schools play home and away games against each other. The reason is the Ma schools are much better. This would have the better schools play each other twice and avoid blowouts- where no one wins. This would also create good rivalries games. Playing a rugby team twice in a season would really intensify the game itself. More competitive games not only elevate the game, it sharpens the players skills more when the games are more equally matched. The games would probably be more intense.
Boston College has won Liberty D 1-AA in 2022, 2023, and 2025. They played in the Rugby national knock out tournament. UMass finished 2nd in 2022, 2023 and 2024. Northeastern went undefeated last year and lost one game by only 1 point to surprise Babson College. I believe Northeastern should have went to the playoffs to represent Liberty Rugby League.
The consistently good clubs have been BC, UMass and Northeastern. Last year the entire league had a surprise Rugby school in Babson College. They upset undefeated Northeastern in the playoffs and went to the national knockout games. This gives the league 4 very good teams. While Yale and UConn have been building in CT, Princeton and Iona could really shake up the standings. This should be a fun year to monitor Rugby.
2026 Liberty Division 1-AA
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