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Major League Rugby has confirmed their league structure for the 2020 season. As expected the competition will grow to 12 teams with the addition of Boston (New England Free Jacks), Washington (Old Glory DC), and Atlanta (Rugby ATL).
The new format will see the creation of a two-conference system – East and West – with six teams in each. Teams will play home-and-home against in-conference teams with one match against each team on the other conference. Each team will be 16 regular season games – split evenly home-and-away.
With weather playing havoc during the early stages of the 2019 season, the regular season will kick off three weeks later in 2020 with the opening day slated for February 15. With three rounds of the new Championship Series set to begin on the June 13 weekend, bye weeks during the regular season will be reduced from three to one.
The conference structure will see the final contested by the winner of each conference bracket in the final to be played on June 28. Top seeds from each conference will be given a bye in the opening round of the playoffs with the second a third seeds going head-to-head for a spot in the conference final.
The league has posted a video on their YouTube channel detailing the changes which can be seen below.
