Cal Heads To National Championship

California rugby is set to face the United States Naval Academy Saturday in the 2026 D1A Collegiate National Championship at Kuntz Stadium in Indianapolis. The game will kick off at 7 p.m. local time, 4 p.m. PT. Fans can purchase tickets here or watch the match live on Youtube.

Cal (16-0) earned the No. 1 seed in the west region after going undefeated in the regular season with a 13-0 record. Highlights from the regular season included wins over BYU (64-21), Navy (52-45), Army (70-18) and Saint Mary’s (66-35), and a World Cup Series victory over British Columbia (38-7).

In the postseason, the top-seeded Golden Bears defeated San Diego (88-5), BYU (96-12) and Saint Mary’s (59-19) in the semifinals last weekend, advancing to the national championship for the second straight season.

East No. 1 seed Navy collected an 8-1 record in 15-a-side action in the 2025-26 regular season. Navy put together wins over Life (29-21), Army (21-16) and BYU (54-28), and its only loss came to Cal (52-45) on March 7 in Berkeley.

Navy defeated Mary Washington in the first round of the playoffs (40-11) before beating Army in the quarterfinals (38-10) and Life (35-21) in the semifinals.

Cal last contested a match with Navy during the regular season on March 7 in Berkeley, where the Bears handed the Midshipmen their only loss of the season 52-45. Cal and Navy last met in a postseason match in the 2023 D1A Collegiate National Championship, a 28-22 defeat for Cal.

Saturday will be Cal’s 37th all-time appearance in an XVs championship match, having won 29 national titles since the championships began in 1980. The Bears defeated Life in the championship match last season, their first XVs national title since winning back-to-back championships in 2016 and 2017.