Unfortunately t.u., LSU and OU were invited to the College Rugby Championship in PA coming up in June 2011, which makes absolutely no sense because A&M beats these teams every year.

I wrote an email to USA Sevens Rugby basically stating this fact, as well as some others, and this was their reply:

Cody,

Thank you for your email on the Texas A&M program and the CRC – personally I have a great affinity to your school as my sister and brother in law who is serving in Afghanistan right now with the Army Special Forces where both in the Corp.

We balance with building a new competition the need for a better merit based selection process and the need to create good television with our partners NBC Sports.

There are some natural rivalries that they and the American public understand and we unfortunately are not at a critical mass to the game to mess with this formula in only our second year. As stated we are eager to expand but are in a critical balance right now.

We do appreciate your outreach and candor and to hear you – we hope that you will watch the match and continue to drive A&M forward.

Best,

Dan

Dan Lyle
Executive Vice President
USA Sevens, LLC.

11 Martine Ave, 8th Floor
White Plains, NY 10606

Mobile: 1 303.619.9920
Email: DLyle@USASevens.com
Web: www.USASevens.com

Merit based?! Really?! We've already beaten these teams! And they thought the t.u. vs OU rivalry is bigger than our 117-year rivalry with t.u.! Also, seems like he would know how deep the rivalry between A&M and t.u. is if his family members were in the Corps!

The Aggies need your help now for future invitations to this championship. Let’s show them our Alumni base! Feel free to email Dan Lyle your thoughts and questions on why LSU, t.u. and OU were invited to the College Rugby Championships over Texas A&M, but please keep it somewhat respectful so we don’t hinder a future invitation.

Coincidentally, A&M plays OU this weekend at home as well so if you can show your support it would be greatly appreciated! Sat 2pm at the Rugby pitch just west of the Bonfire Memorial.

Let’s keep our heads up and support the Ags as they beat OU, t.u. and then LSU to show everybody who really deserves to be at the CRC.

BTHOEverybody!!

Cheers,
Cody

www.aggierugby.com
www.facebook.com/#!/TexasAggieRugby

I am not a rugby fan but I like your effort. I think this is an example of how A&M suffers from a lack of marketing skill. Overall, we perform like a top 20 school across the board, but we market like a top 50.

Thanks SpicewoodAg, I agree with you! I have a feeling that the Athletic/Rec Sports Directors and Marketing/Public Affair offices got behind these other teams and contacted the powers to be at NBC and USA Rugby. We didn't have the backing and support like we should have from our own school.

This particular Rugby Championship is to be broadcasted on national tv, NBC Sports, June 4-5! The exposure would have been phenomenal for A&M as well as the sport of college rugby.

If you would like to see the exposure we missed out on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qxxNzvoozo&feature=player_embedded

http://www.usasevenscci.com/

[This message has been edited by bcstringer (edited 3/3/2011 12:06p).]

I know rugby quite well on a playing level and an international stage, not too familiar with it in the USA but this sounds like they just pick whoever they want for this tournament....

Is there no specific selection criteria stated for qualification? If not, I would suggest you get teams together and in the name of fairness, pressure them to create some sort of criteria which must be met for future tournaments....

1) I agree with spice, I definitely support your effort!
2) Everything I've heard about the A&M Recsports department is that they're absolutely brutal when it comes to promoting our teams...it's all about CYA and protecting the brand.
3) "Promoting Natural Rivalries"?? Really?? I believe this is code for "we picked the schools with the best football teams, because we believe that this will translate into the best TV audiences". I think what they neglected is that rugby is NOT football, and the A&M fan base probably supports the "neglected", lower-tier sports better than just about anybody in the country. We consistently lead the nation in attendance in tennis (M&W), women's soccer, and I don't know of official rankings in the other sports, but from looking at lots of box scores, outrank the other listed schools more often than not.

Man, he really knows how to get people behind their tournament...

Thanks Aquabullet. Dan from CRC stated that they chose the teams based on "Merit" and "Alumni base". Both of which Texas A&M and it's Rugby program are superior in.

Thanks AGBlastoff. If #3 were true and they based selection for this rugby tournament off of the football programs then the order would have been LSU, A&M, OU, and t.u. would have been left out. Rec Sports is shady and from my past experience, doesn't follow through. They were supposed to promote us to NBC and USA Sevens Rugby, but dropped the ball. This summer/fall I'm going to try and meet with Texas A&M's VP of Marketing/Communications and see if we can get help through this route.

The operative words were "natural rivalries that they and the American public understand", the "they" in this instance being "NBC Sports". So its just an extension of NBC's perception based on the golden goose of American sports, football.

I doubt t-shirt fans of the aforementioned football schools are going to follow club rugby.

Those fans rarely even follow the other scholarship sports of those schools.

It is a shame that NBC is letting that guide its decisions rather than the best teams.

If you are trying to grow and promote a team sport the worst thing you can do is do it in a way that is contrived and overly marketing oriented rather than showcasing the best teams.

[This message has been edited by Bilbo Aggins (edited 3/3/2011 3:54p).]

I just visited with the rugby coach at the University of Arizona, who confirmed that:

1. The Ags have a superb team, coach, and program.
2. The Ags are better than t.u. and OU, and should have been selected for this tournament.
3. NBC failed.

what do you expect from NBC? this is just horsesh7%$#!

So the public "understands" that teams like OU and t.u. are probably the best, so we'll have those teams in the national championship.

wow!

this is just one winner of an organization- looks like "Bingham Young" was the runner-up last year in the championship.

http://www.usarugby.org/goto/Championships#cc%3D[Application]\\Structure\\Content\\Brand%20Resource%20Center\\Content\\Home\\20907F3F-1296-67B3-8E24-1D5867F7FF1E\\21D9415F-129C-4033-54CE-97B8852FAF20{{Tab%3AView}}

And these are the teams they have determined so far to be in the championship:

Bowling Green, UCSB ,Buffalo, Southern Conn,Harvard,
Northeastern, Minnesota, Davenport

Yeah, I can certainly see how NBC couldn't have some nobody like Texas A&M crashing THAT elite list!

The public probably wouldn't understand it.



[This message has been edited by AnalogyAg (edited 3/8/2011 8:17a).]

Money talks.

Bowling Green and Southern Conn?

BOOOOO

With rugby being a growing sport, it doesnt have much of a leg to stand on in terms of negotiations. If the person who hands the money out says this is who we want, thats who gets invited.

Why NBC felt the need to invite tu is a little mind boggling. But I have a feeling that since tu performed well in Las Vegas, they got the invite. OU has a good program and Bowling Green has a really good program with a future international star player playing for them.

Just my 2 cents. Take it with a grain of salt.