User:The C of E/rfuc

The 2017–18 RFU Championship will be the ninth season of the professionalised format of the RFU Championship, the second tier of the English rugby union league system run by the Rugby Football Union. It is contested by eleven English clubs and one from Jersey in the Channel Islands. The competition will be unsponsored owing to Greene King's three year sponsorship deal expiring. The twelve teams in the RFU Championship also compete in the British and Irish Cup, along with clubs from Ireland and Wales.

Structure
The RFU Championship's structure has all the teams playing each other on a home and away basis. The promotion format has changed from the previous year as the playoffs have been abolished and replaced by the first ranked team being promoted providing the club fulfills the Rugby Football Union's Minimum Standards Criteria. This change was made to allow the promoted team extra time to prepare for the English Premiership and the Rugby Football Union's Minimum Standards Criteria meaning a number of clubs in the playoffs competed in it but could not be promoted due to failing to meet the criteria. As part of a deal with the RFU, each participating club will receive £530,000 in funding.

Teams
In January 2015, London Welsh RFC were expelled from the RFU Championship and then liquidated. As a result, Rotherham Titans, who had finished bottom of the league, were reprieved from relegation. Former RFU Championship club Plymouth Albion contested this. In promoted in their place were the winners of 2016-17 National League 1 Hartpury College R.F.C., who had made it from the bottom of the English rugby pyramid to the second tier within thirteen years of foundation. London Irish were promoted as champions and play-off winners of 2016-17 RFU Championship. Bristol Rugby replaced them after being relegated after finishing bottom of the 2016-17 English Premiership after one year.