The two-day, 20-team Penn Mutual Collegiate Rugby Championship continued to grow in its sixth year. Attendance at PPL Park was up 22% from last year to 24,592, while parts of the seven-on-seven tournament also aired on NBC and NBCSN. NBC drew a 0.6 overnight rating for coverage on Saturday afternoon and a 0.5 rating for coverage on Sunday afternoon. Saturday's rating was up from a 0.4 last year, while Sunday's rating was flat. The tournament is owned by N.Y.-based United World Sports, with NBC Sports Group along as a co-investor. Penn Mutual Life Insurance signed a three-year deal as title sponsor last year. Cal beat Kutztown (Pa.) in OT of yesterday's men's title match to win the tourney for the third straight year. While the tournament is still a minor event on the sports calendar, but it was worth a plane trip for at least one sports business A-Lister -- Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban. Cuban flew to the event on Saturday evening to watch his alma mater Indiana play Clemson, joining the team's cheering section as pool play wound down. Cuban, who played the sport as a college student, predicted big things for rugby as a U.S. sport. Rugby sevens is slated for a return to the Olympics in '16 and NBC continues to have recurring rugby broadcasts. However, he was noncommittal about risking his own money on the sport. Cuban: "I've got one team already that keeps me really, really, really busy. If I didn't own a team, it'd probably be different. Then I could definitely see rugby being something I'm all in on." Cuban said various interests have solicited his involvement in rugby for 20 years, but he has not done a detailed analysis of its commercial viability due to his full schedule. Cuban: "Now that it's an Olympic sport, I think things are going to accelerate, and things will happen a lot more quickly, and it will get a lot bigger. And with NBC behind it, that will accelerate it even more.”
