USA Rugby, the sport’s national governing body, has brought on IMG to commercially develop its collegiate championships.
IMG will be responsible for marketing, broadcasting, media and sponsorship sales for the national rugby championships held each May. The 10-year arrangement between USA Rugby and IMG is designed to improve the growth and exposure of the college championships for both men and women.
“We’re trying to develop strong, true national championships for the men and women,” said Nigel Melville, who has been USA Rugby’s chief executive for the past seven years. “We’d like to take the college game to a new level.”
Close to 900 colleges play rugby, including men and women, with 40 of them participating at the highest level — Division I-A.
Melville said USA Rugby and IMG are treating this new relationship as a joint venture. USA Rugby has a history on the operational side — events, competition, coaching, rules and referees, and safety. IMG will manage everything on the commercial side.
Jay Ogden, an IMG senior vice president who works with a number of properties, including the Rugby World Cup, is taking the lead with USA Rugby. Hillary Mandel, a senior vice president in IMG Media, will work on broadcasting opportunities. Rich Cortez of USA Rugby oversees the development of college rugby.
“Our goal with IMG is to make these collegiate championships attractive for broadcasters, and to make them more appealing to a broad-based audience, in addition to the rugby fans,” Cortez said.
The 2014 championships last May were sponsored by Emirates and played at Stanford. The St. Mary’s men and Penn State women are the Division I defending champions at the highest classifications. The championships were streamed on USA Rugby’s website.
The collegiate championships are not affiliated with the NCAA.
