A D1A membership panel has voted for the Liberty Conference to be part of the championship for the next three years.

The 17-team conference was formed out of the Empire and the ECRC, with a couple of teams from the Rugby East.

Only Iona and Delaware were D1A teams in 2016-17, but the conference lobbied hard to join, pointing out that its membership was competitive and provided D1A with a foothold in the Northeast.

The lobbying worked, and it might well have helped that the Liberty Conference was able to field a competitive all-star team for the Atlantic Rugby Cup in Bermuda earlier this month before ever playing a conference game.



The decision adds 17 teams to D1A, bringing the total to 68 the number of college programs in the division.

	Liberty Conference 2017 Matches
Aug. 26	Norwich	at	Colgate	Non-Conf.
Aug. 26	St. Joseph's	at	Iona	Non-Conf.
Sept. 2	Oswego	at	Cortland
Sept. 2	Stony Brook	at	Albany
Sept. 2	Syracuse	at	Queens University	Non-Conf.
Sept. 2	James Madison	at	Iona	Non-Conf.
Sept. 2	New Hampshire	at	UMass
Sept. 2	Northeastern	at	Yale	Non-Conf.
Sept. 2	Rhode Island	at	Brown	Non-Conf.
Sept. 3	James Madison	at	Fordham	Non-Conf.
Sept. 8	Rowan	at	Rutgers	Non-Conf.
Sept. 9	Binghamton	at	Stony Brook
Sept. 9	Cornell	at	Colgate	Non-Conf.
Sept. 9	Delaware	at	West Chester	Non-Conf.
Sept. 9	Albany/Loyola	at	Iona	Non-Conf.
Sept. 9	UConn	at	New Hampshire
Sept. 9	Yale	at	Fairfield	Non-Conf.
Sept. 9	UMass	at	AIC
Sept. 9	Endicott	at	Northeastern
Sept. 9	Rhode Island	at	Providence
Sept. 10	Columbia	at	Fordham
Sept. 15	Delaware	at	Fordham
Sept. 15	Iona	at	Rutgers
Sept. 16	Albany	at	Cortland
Sept. 16	Colgate	at	Binghamton
Sept. 16	Syracuse	at	Brockport
Sept. 16	UMass	at	Fairfield
Sept. 16	Rhode Island	at	Northeastern
Sept. 16	Tufts	at	UConn
Sept. 22	Rutgers	at	Delaware
Sept. 22	Iona	at	Stony Brook
Sept. 23	Binghamton	at	Cortland
Sept. 23	Albany	at	Syracuse
Sept. 23	Brockport	at	Colgate
Sept. 23	Fairfield	at	Tufts
Sept. 23	Northeastern	at	UMass
Sept. 23	Boston College	at	Rhode Island
Sept. 29	Cortland	at	Rutgers
Sept. 29	Iona	at	Fordham
Sept. 30	Binghamton	at	Albany
Sept. 30	Syracuse	at	Colgate
Sept. 30	Delaware	at	Stony Brook
Sept. 30	UConn	at	UMass
Sept. 30	Rhode Island	at	Fairfield
Oct. 6	Stony Brook	at	Fordham
Oct. 7	Brockport	at	Binghamton
Oct. 7	Cortland	at	Syracuse
Oct. 7	Iona	at	Delaware
Oct. 7	Rutgers	at	Albany
Oct. 7	Fairfield	at	UConn
Oct. 7	Boston College	at	Northeastern
Oct. 7	Tufts	at	Rhode Island
Oct. 14	Brockport	at	Albany
Oct. 14	Colgate	at	Cortland
Oct. 14	Delaware	at	Kutztown	Non-Conf.
Oct. 14	Rutgers	at	Stony Brook
Oct. 14	Army	at	Iona
Oct. 14	UConn	at	Boston College
Oct. 14	Fairfield	at	Northeastern
Oct. 14	UMass	at	Rhode Island
Oct. 14	New Hampshire	at	Tufts
Oct. 21	Cortland	at	Brockport
Oct. 21	Colgate	at	Albany
Oct. 21	Syracuse	at	Binghamton
Oct. 21	Iona	at	UMass
Oct. 21	Fordham	at	Fairfield
Oct. 21	Iona	at	UMass
Oct. 21	Northeastern	at	New Hampshire
Oct. 21	Boston College	at	Tufts
Oct. 27	Fordham	at	Rutgers
Oct. 28	Albany	at	Buffalo	Non-Conf.
Oct. 28	AIC	at	Iona	Non-Conf.
Oct. 28	UMass	at	Boston College
Oct. 28	Northeastern	at	Tufts
Oct. 28	Rhode Island	at	UConn
Nov. 3	Colgate	at	Fordham
Nov. 4	Buffalo	at	Binghamton	Non-Conf.
Nov. 4	Delaware	at	Wilmington RFC
Nov. 4	Boston College	at	Iona
Nov. 4	UConn	at	Northeastern
Nov. 4	Stony Brook	at	Rhode Island
Nov. 4	Tufts	at	UMass
Nov. 5	Syracuse	at	Rutgers
Nov. 10	Colgate	at	Northeastern
Nov. 11	Binghamton	at	Rutgers
Nov. 11	Delaware	at	Lindenwood	Non-Conf.
Nov. 11	Colgate	at	Northeastern
Nov. 11	Fordham	at	Rhode Island
Nov. 18	Iona	at	St. Mary's	Non-Conf.
Nov. 18-20	Bow Games			Non-Conf.