The men kick off the USA Rugby Collegiate 7s Championships Friday with three brackets and 35 teams in action.

With the D1 bracket from 2018 split now into a D1A and D1AA, we're going to see a new champion, but last year's All-D1 winner, Lindenwood, is back, and last year's D2 winner, UNC-Charlotte, is also back to defend.

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Here's what to look for:

D1A

The pool game between AIC and Lindenwood on May 24 could conceivably be a preview of the final. 

No one really knows how Pool C—Grand Canyon, Minnesota, Notre Dame College, and Utah—will pan out. Likely NDC is the favorite but, really, it's a tossup.

Central Washington, back after a year off, has an excellent chance to win and could garner a slight advantage by having only two pool games (Pool D has only three teams in it).

Some might say it means they lack that extra game to break the rust off. Don't believe it.

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D1AA

With no defending champion, could this be a completely open bracket? Yes, dear students, yes it could. Your supposed experts picked Mary Washington as a favorite, but in UMW's pool are two teams, Florida International, and Oregon State, that have already pulled off some surprises and been unintimidated by big names. 

The Mothers should watch out.

Pool B is really hard, too, with Lindenwood-Belleville, Iowa State, and Western Michigan—all teams that could win out. Pool C is worse. While you could argue that there's a team that will struggle in Pool A and Pool B, not in Pool C. Western Washington is a lower-seeded at-large team because WWU lost in the semis in the NCRC 7s.

But that was an upset, by two points, to the eventual winners Oregon State. Most believe Western to be much better than that. St. Joe's, Stanford, and Kennesaw State are all conference champs. 

D2

Defending champion UNC-Charlotte is back, but needed an at-large bid to get there. There's plenty of expectation that the 49ers won't roll this time.

Especially since they are in the same pool as strongly-favored Iowa Central CC, always-difficult Bloomsburg (took 3rd last year), and Tri-State champion William Paterson.

2019 Upper Midwest 7s Champs. Tritons played lights out today. Tucson here we come!! pic.twitter.com/bzAUxbfdrc

— IowaCentralRugby (@ICCCRugby) April 20, 2019

Watch out for fall 15s winners NC State, which is in a ridiculously tough pool with Wisconsin-Whitewater, Hartford, and Principia, two former champs (Principia and Whitewater), and a serious contender in Hartford.

IUPUI and Norwich could be in very good shape in Pool A. But don't overlook Montana State. Everyone seems to want to.