Rocky Mountain D1A Commissioner Joe Cox summed it all up pretty perfectly.

The idea that a team plays in two separate conferences "is pretty much unheard of in other sports in the USA, but maybe that is because other sports don't play multiple seasons in one year," he said.

But that's what the University of Utah has been trying to do: play in the Rocky Mountain in the fall and the PAC Rugby Conference in the spring. The Utes want to do that because it guarantees them really tough games throughout the season. While the players and coaches wanted it, they didn't get it. Utah was forced to choose, Rocky Mountain or PAC, and decided on staying in the PAC.

As a result, Utah will play a mostly Rocky Mountain schedule but won't be counted in the standings. And also as a result, BYU was given a second vote to join the conference and won that vote.

BYU Back In The Rocky Mountain Fold

Cox, for his part, didn't have a lot to do with it, as the decision to make Utah choose came from the top.

"The D1A leadership did the right thing by getting conference commissioner input on the matter, not just for Utah's sake but for any team desiring to play in multiple conferences," Cox said. "With the weather patterns affecting many northern conferences, two-season play has become the standard for collegiate rugby. The rub for me with any school participating in multiple seasons and multiple conferences is the effect that it could potentially have on playoff seeding or any influence (consciously or otherwise) that it could have on the rankings structure used currently.

"Teams often play non-conference matches in the offseason (especially fall programs to prepare for spring playoffs) but having one team actually affect two separate conference tables -- both leading to a potential automatic qualification -- was a stretch too far for me. Other commissioners had other concerns as well."



Cox said the Rocky Mountain Conference wanted Utah to remain, but the Utes saw that aligning with the PAC (as in Pac-12) was perhaps a better choice.

"With this being the case, several conference members expressed concerns that our vote on BYU should be retaken to appropriately represent the actual full members in the conference," Cox said. "A motion to re-vote -- for BYU to get associate membership this year leading to full membership next year -- was presented to the full members and seconded."



The vote passed with the required two-thirds majority. Cox said he and the conference as a whole was pleased. What few are saying on the record is that there's been some informal fallout within the rugby community about the original vote -- Rocky Mountain teams took a lot of criticism for not voting in BYU the first time, with the criticism saying that teams were just scared to play the Cougars. This re-vote allowed Rocky Mountain teams to put that to rest.

Both BYU and Utah Valley (another associate member) will not be part of the conference standings (unless renegade journalists put them in anyway) but will play a conference season. If they do well, they can make the D1A playoffs on an at-large basis. Expect BYU to do just that.