TV Coverage on NBC & NBCSN
Sat. June 4: NBCSN 11 a.m.-1 p.m. PT, NBC 1-3 p.m. PT
Sun. June 5: NBCSN 11-1 p.m. PT, NBC 1-3 p.m. PT
BERKELEY – The Golden Bears seek their fourth straight national championship title in Rugby 7s, the form of the sport that will reenter the Summer Olympic Games after a 96-year absence as a medal sport, when California competes June 4-5 at the Penn Mutual Collegiate Rugby Championship at Talen Energy Stadium outside of Philadelphia.
The Bears come into the CRC having won the national 15s title May 7 at the Penn Mutual Varsity Cup and have quickly transitioned back to 7s training for a couple of weeks in search of the form that earlier in the 2015-16 academic year earned them a 17-0 record in 7s capped by a fourth straight PAC Rugby Conference 7s championship.
Coming into the CRC as the reigning national 7s champion and three-time winner of the event, Cal faces a difficult draw for pool play to position itself for a run to a fourth straight crown. The Bears are joined in Pool A by Arkansas State, which finished third at the 2015 CRC, followed by Maryland and Tennessee, respective runners-up in the Atlantic Coast and Southeastern conferences.
The Bears have had success in the past against both the Volunteers, beating them in the 2010 quarterfinals, and the Terrapins, who were defeated in pool play at the 2014 CRC. But the Blue and Gold have not faced Arkansas State since 2012 at Texas A&M, where Cal lost to the Red Wolves, 10-7.
Then-sophomore Nicklas Boyer and then-freshman Russell Webb started that day in Nov. 2012, when Webb contributed a conversion following Cal's single try before coming off injured, but the Bears could not surmount two unconverted scores by Arkansas State.
Winning pool games on Saturday, and doing so convincingly, will be the primary objective for all the teams at the CRC. Each of the six pool winners gets an automatic bid to Sunday's championship rounds, while only the best two of the rest will advance from the remaining 18 teams to fill the seventh and eighth places in Sunday's knockout bracket.
If the Bears earn their way into Sunday's championship rounds, they will face stern a test beginning immediately in the national quarterfinals, which are followed in succession by the semis and championship final.
Pool B at the CRC includes Atlantic Coast champion Boston College, Big Ten champ Indiana and Notre Dame, which recently nipped the Hoosiers for a big win at the Larrimer Cup tuneup tournament. The role of Pool B favorite, however, goes to Kutztown, the 2014 and '15 CRC finalist and 2016 champ of Rugby East.
The Pool C draw includes PAC Rugby Conference member school Arizona, which advanced to the bowl final at the 2015 PAC 7s, local Philadelphia favorite St. Joe's and both military academy entrants in Army and Navy. While Army is assembling as a 7s outfit for the first time this year at the CRC, Navy has shown skill in its 7s outings to date, having beaten Kutztown at the Virginia Beach stop of the ACRC 7s Cup at the beginning of May.
Pool D includes Penn State, Cal's opponent in the 2014 quarterfinals, which comes into the CRC on a roll having won its last outing at the Larrimer Cup in Columbus, Ohio. The Nittany Lions are joined by Virginia Tech, which gave the Bears a very difficult time before Cal edged the Hokies in their final pool match of 2015, another local Philly favorite in Drexel and Life University, which the Bears defeated in the 2012 bronze medal match, the 2013 final to win their first national 7s title and the 2015 semifinals.
Pool E features Southeastern conference champion South Carolina, PAC 7s runner-up and conference rival UCLA, and two Big Ten powers in conference champion Wisconsin and runner-up Michigan. Fans will remember the thriller that went in Cal's favor against the Bruins in the 2014 CRC semifinals, and the Bears did advance past the Wolverines in the 2015 CRC quarterfinals, but the boys from Berkeley have never faced the Gamecocks or Badgers in 7s.
In Pool F, two former CRC champions will meet head on in Utah, a potent PAC 7s squad that won the inaugural national 7s title in 2010, and Dartmouth, which took the 2011 and 2012 CRC championships after Philadelphia became the host city. They are joined by Temple, the third Philly team that will compete at the CRC, and Clemson, which advanced to the semis of the ACC 7s conference tournament before falling to eventual champion Boston College.
The CRC winner will raise the Pete Dawkins Trophy, so named in honor of the three-time Oxford Blue and Rhodes Scholar who also won the Heisman Trophy as a gridiron halfback for Army before a decorated military career that ended with his rank of Brigadier General.
The Bears have compiled a 31-3 record at the CRC since its inception, with their 2013, '14 and '15 titles title preceded by a 2010 debut that ended in overtime of the championship final, a quarterfinal showing in 2011 and a bronze medal in 2012. Cal's all-time record in Rugby 7s stands at 105-14 (.882).
Coming at a time when the United States is poised to compete in rugby at August's Olympics in Rio, the 2016 Penn Mutual Collegiate Rugby Championship will be seen across the nation on NBC Sports for the seventh straight year as the television network continues to demonstrate its positioning of American collegiate rugby as compelling content that propels its investment in the sport. At the last Olympics to include rugby, the 1924 Paris Games, the United States won gold medals for the second consecutive Games, having also taken gold in 1920 from Antwerp. Eight players on those gold-medal Olympic teams hailed from the University of California. This summer, another Golden Bear could be on the U.S. roster that attempts to bring home another medal.
Before the dreams for Olympic gold can be made a reality, the 2016 Penn Mutual Collegiate Rugby Championship will be an exciting battle in which Cal is only one of 24 teams vying to be named national champion.
