The Major League Rugby Collegiate Draft was introduced in 2020 to provide a pathway for the best college/university-level rugby players from across the USA (and later Canada) to professional rugby. Each MLR club receives 1 pick per round based on reverse order of where they finished during the previous season (bottom team would pick first in each round, Champions would pick last in each round, etc.) with rare exceptions that are explained on the specific pages for each draft. Any expansion clubs that are in place prior to the Draft would automatically select 1st in each round.
The MLR Draft functions similar to other drafts in North American Sports. MLR teams are free to trade draft picks as they would any other assets (players, salary cap considerations, international slots, etc.) which usually results in a flurry of Trade Wire activity as the draft closes in.
The below table shows a breakdown of each MLR club’s draft history, including how many drafts each team has participated in, which rounds did each team pick in and how many times, whether the team has ever had a 1st overall pick, etc. This table is sorted alphabetically and numbers in red represent inactive MLR teams.
MLR Collegiate Draft – Breakdown
Team | Number of Drafts with Picks | 1st Overall Picks | 1st Round Picks | 2nd Round Picks | 3rd Round Picks | Total Draft Picks | Most Capped Draftee | Highest Scoring Draftee |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 6 | N/A | N/A | |
2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | |||
2 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 7 | Noah Brown | Noah Brown | |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A | N/A | |
5 | 3 | 8 | 8 | 5 | 21 | Sam Golla | ||
4 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 9 | Emmanuel Albert | ||
2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 | Watson Filikitonga | ||
2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | Rick Rose | N/A | |
5 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 13 | |||
5 | 0 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 14 | |||
5 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 13 | |||
4 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 14 | |||
1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | N/A | N/A | |
3 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 7 | |||
5 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 14 | |||
5 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 14 | Tavite Lopeti | ||
3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 8 | Owain Ruttan | ||
5 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 6 | 19 |
Draft Year | 1st overall Pick | Drafting Team | Rookie of the Year | Team |
---|---|---|---|---|
2020 | Connor Mooneyham | Andrew Guerra | ||
2021 | Eric Naposki | Tavite Lopeti | ||
2022 | Sam Golla | Sam Golla | ||
2023 | Rick Rose | Junior Gafa | ||
2024 | Erich Storti | TBD | TBD |
MLR Collegiate Draftee Schools – All Time
The below table shows a list of every US & Canadian college that has had at least one player drafted by an MLR team across all iterations of the Major League Rugby Collegiate Draft, sorted from most to fewest and broken down by year.
# | College Name | Logo | 1st Overalls | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | Total MLR Draftees |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Lindenwood | 0 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 20 | |
2 | Life | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 11 | |
3 | St. Mary’s | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 11 | |
4 | Central Washington | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 8 | |
5 | Kutztown | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 7 | |
6 | Victoria | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 6 | |
7 | Penn State | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | |
8 | UC – Berkeley | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 6 | |
9 | Arizona | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | |
10 | Arkansas State | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | |
11 | Brigham Young | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 5 | |
12 | Queens – Charlotte | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | |
13 | St. Bonaventure | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 | |
14 | UCLA | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | |
15 | American International | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
16 | British Columbia | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
17 | Dartmouth | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | |
18 | Indiana | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
19 | Notre Dame College | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | |
20 | Ottawa | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | |
21 | Santa Clara | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
22 | Thomas More | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
23 | Trinity Western | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | |
24 | Bishop’s | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | |
25 | Iona | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |
26 | Iowa Central | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |
27 | Mary Washington | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | |
28 | Memphis | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |
29 | Ohio State | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |
30 | San Diego | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | |
31 | West Point | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |
32 | Western Michigan | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |
33 | Adrian College | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
34 | Alabama | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
35 | Brown | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
36 | Cal Poly | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
37 | Cal State – Long Beach | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
38 | Davenport | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
39 | Fairfield | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
40 | Fresno State | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
41 | Grand Canyon | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
42 | Hofstra | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
43 | Iowa State | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
44 | Louisville | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
45 | Loyola Maryland | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
46 | Marian | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
47 | McGill | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
48 | Missouri S&T | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
49 | Northern Colorado | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
50 | Notre Dame | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
51 | Queen’s | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
52 | Rensselaer Poly | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
53 | Sam Houston State | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
54 | Tennessee | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
55 | Texas A&M | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
56 | Trent | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
57 | UC – Santa Barbara | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
58 | UC – Santa Cruz | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
59 | UMass Lowell | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
60 | Utah | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
61 | Wheeling | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
62 | Wisconsin-Whitewater | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |