eight of the top college rugby teams withdrew from the USA Rugby D1A competition and organized their own championship called the Varsity Cup. The media and other rugby commentators viewed the Varsity Cup as equivalent to the USA Rugby D1A championship, given the strength of the teams participating and the fact that the 2013 Varsity Cup finalists – BYU and Cal – finished the spring 2013 season as the consensus #1 and #2 ranked teams in all of college rugby. Four additional schools joined the Varsity Cup for 2014, bringing the number of teams in that tournament to twelve. The Varsity Cup was successful in gaining media exposure, with the 2014 Varsity Cup final televised live on NBCSN. USA Rugby responded to the successful promotion of its Varsity Cup rivals by signing a ten-year contract in October 2014 with IMG that would focus on the marketing and increase exposure of USA Rugby's Collegiate National Championship. The Varsity Cup folded in November 2017 when the organizer, broadcast partner and a major sponsor, Penn Mutual, withdrew their support. The lists below show the champions for the Division 1-A Rugby and the Varsity Cup championships for each year, along with the teams' final regular season rankings, as ranked by RugbyMag/RugbyToday.com. USA Rugby championship: 2013: (#3) Life University 16 – 14 St. Mary's (CA) (#5) 2014: (#1) St. Mary's (CA) 21 – 6 Life University (#3) 2015: (#3) St. Mary's (CA) 30 – 24 Life University (#4) 2016: (#3) Life University 24 – 20 St. Mary's (CA) (#5) 2017: (#1) St. Mary's (CA) 30 – 24 Life University (#2) Varsity Cup Championship: 2013: (#1) BYU 27 – 24 California (#2) 2014: (#2) BYU 43 – 33 California (#4) 2015: (#1) BYU 30 – 27 California (#2) 2016: (#1) Cal 40 – 29 BYU (#2) 2017: (#3) Cal 43 – 13 Arkansas St. (#5) 2018–present 2018: Life University 60 – 5 California 2019: Life University 29 – 26 California 2020: cancelled (pandemic) 2021: cancelled (pandemic) 2022: Army 20 – 8 St. Mary's (CA) National Collegiate Rugby (Men) Division I 2021 (fall) – St. Bonaventure 19 – 18 Penn State Men's Division 1-AA YEAR; CHAMPION; RUNNER-UP 2011: Davenport 38 – 19 UC Santa Barbara 2012: Davenport 39 – 0 San Diego State (Davenport promoted to D-1A for the following season) 2013: Central Florida 27 – 25 Lindenwood (Lindenwood promoted to D-1A for the following season) 2014: