Nine of the Big Ten’s twelve teams will converge on Cottage Grove, Wisc. this weekend for the Big Ten 7s Tournament.

The event is expected to be a qualifier for the upcoming USA Rugby college 7s championships, although that hasn’t been confirmed.

Cottage Grove will also play host to the Wisconsin Collegiate 7s tournament, featuring teams not in the Big Ten, a University of Wisconsin alumni/old boys tournament, and a demonstration game from Madison United youth rugby.

Wisconsin RFC will also play the Rockford Ravens.

It’s a busy weekend, but it highlighted by the first in a series of college 7s events to be held this fall. This follows on the popularity of the USA 7s Collegiate Rugby Championship, which, in its first year in 2010, inspired the advent of several college 7s tournaments around the country.

Now rugby conferences and traditional college sports conferences are getting in on the act.

This weekend, Penn State headlines a tough Pool 1 that also includes Indiana and Nebraska.

Pool 2 includes Ohio State, Minnesota and Michigan State. Wisconsin headlines Pool 3 along with Purdue and Iowa.

Each team will play two pool matches, with the pool winners plus a wild card making it to the Cup Semis, and the next two 2^nd-place teams plus the top two 3^rd-place teams playing in the Plate Semis.

By then, the Wisconsin Collegiate 7s will be over. In that tournament, UW-Madison B, UW-Whitewater, UW-Milwaukee, and Mankato State will play a round robin. The top team from that competition will play the 9^th-seeded team from the Big Ten competition.

Therefore all Wisconsin Collegiate teams will play 3 matches, except the winners, who play four. And all Big Ten teams will play four matches, except the 9^th team, which will play three.

Big Ten and Wisconsin College 7s Tournament Schedules 

The Canadian women's Under-18 national championship game saw the top-seeded Ontario Junior Storm produce a well-deserved 34-18 victory over second-seeded British Columbia. An older and bigger Ontario side led from start to finish and ran in six tries for the win.

"We came to Nationals this year with a younger team and today our inexperience showed," said BC U18 Women's head coach Brad Baker. "They put a lot of pressure on us and just forced us to keep making mistakes."

BC were down 22-8 at the half with their points coming through a Caitie Ryan (Sa Hali) try and a Jess Neilson (Carson Graham/ Meraloma RC) penalty. BC scored two more tries in the second half with Sarah Gordon (Lord Tweedsmuir / Bayside RFC) and Brittany Barbarant (Merritt) each going over.

"At the end of the day, second place in the country is a lot to be proud of," added Baker. "Looking ahead to next year, we've now got a tested group of players that have competed at this level and that bodes well for the future. "