Men's rugby begins its quest for a USA Rugby D1A 15's National Championship on Saturday against the University of Wisconsin. 

The Lions earned the No. 6 seed in the East bracket and will face the No. 3 seeded Badgers, the Big 10 Conference champions. Even though Lindenwood is ranked fifth in the country, much higher than the No. 18 ranked Wisconsin side, the Lions will travel because D1A Rugby gives preference to conference champions.  Lindenwood finished fourth in the Mid-South Conference, a bit of a surprise, but due to the strength of the teams in the conference, the Lions remain one of the top teams in the country.

The Mid-South is well represented in the eastern half of the 16-team bracket, with four of the eight teams, and with no head-to-head matches in the first round, it's possible that the East semifinals could be completely comprised of Mid-South squads.  It's expected that the most evenly the contested game will be Arkansas State traveling to face Army. 

If the Lions can take care of business against Wisconsin, their next opponent will be the winner of that Red Wolves versus Black Knights match-up.  Both of the East semifinal games will be held at the Jon Prusmack complex at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. The East final will be at Life University in Marietta, Georgia.  The national championship match pitting the West winner against the East winner will take place in Santa Clara, California.  California and St. Mary's are predicted to face each other in the western final. 

This is the first year of a split bracket for D1A in an effort to prevent teams from having to travel back and forth each weekend and save on travel costs.  This is great news for the Lions after the playoff run in 2018 took them to Austin, Texas; back home; then to Moraga, California; back home; then back to Moraga.  Although Lindenwood defeated No. 1 St. Mary's College on their first trip to California last year, there was much less gas in the tank the following weekend against Cal. 

That experience gave reason for the Lions to execute better logistics this season as Head Coach Josh Macy highlighted.

"It was a lack of a planning to deal with all of the travel days," he said.  "That really hurt the team last year against Cal."

It's also a different squad from last year, with 11 players either graduating or moving on from the program since last spring.  Expectations are high, though, as Assistant Coach Nic Tyson explained. 

"I think this roster, specifically this group of forwards, can be even stronger than last year's," he said.

Lindenwood has a big task ahead, but the Lions are hopeful.  It all starts this Saturday at the Wisconsin Rugby Club Sports Complex in Madison, Wisconsin.  The opening kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m.