College rugby is played by men and women throughout colleges and universities in the United States of America. Seven-a-side and fifteen-a-side variants of rugby union are most commonly played. Most collegiate rugby programs do not fall under the auspices of the NCAA and are instead governed by National Collegiate Rugby and USA Rugby, two nationwide governing bodies. 27 women's programs participate in the NCAA. College rugby is the fastest growing college sport in the US and one of the fastest growing sports in the nation. Women's rugby has been classified as an NCAA Emerging Sport since 2002. Between 2004 and 2010, rugby was the fastest growing sport in the United States when its popularity increased by roughly 350% (when the estimated active participants increased from 18,500 in 2006 to 65,000 in 2010). There are over 900 college teams—male and female—registered with USA Rugby and hundreds more with National Collegiate Rugby. There are over 32,000 college players registered with USA Rugby, making college rugby the largest section of USA Rugby's membership. In 2011 USA Rugby created a new Division 1-A with approximately 30 schools forming a new premier division. There has been increased interest in college rugby (particularly in rugby sevens) from TV since the International Olympic Committee's announcement in 2009 that rugby would return to the Summer Olympics in 2016. The highest profile college rugby sevens competition is the Collegiate Rugby Championship (CRC), which began in 2010. College club rugby has included several championship competitions since 1980. Rugby has been played in universities since as early as the 1800s, but it was the 1960s when rugby really found a foothold in colleges, led by the Catholic colleges such as Notre Dame and particularly the Jesuit universities such as Boston College and St. Joseph's in Philadelphia. Several schools have increased their investments in men's and women's rugby programs, by creating rugby programs with varsity or quasi-varsity status and funding for scholarships. Alumni from collegiate programs make up much of the United States men's and women's national teams. Major League Rugby implemented its first collegiate MLR Draft in 2020. Players are eligible for the draft after 3 years in college at 21 years old. Free agents can try to join teams at 18 years old. Governance In the United States, college rugby was traditionally governed by (in descending order of authority): USA Rugby, geographical unions (GUs) and local area unions (LAUs) (e.g.,