USAU College Nationals 2013

(2012 USAU College Nationals Logo)

Many collegiate ultimate programs strive to reach USAU College Nationals year and year again. However, there are only twenty teams that actually get a chance to compete at nationals. Teams from all over the U.S. compete at tournaments spanning from all over the country to earn a strength bid* for their region*. However, the strength bids are not always won by the teams that earns them. Each team must compete in the championship series. Which entails playing at sectionals against teams that are in your section. There are only a certain number of bids given to each section for teams to attend regionals. It is at regionals that those teams compete for those strength bids that were awarded to the region. The teams that place highly enough at regionals get the chance to attend nationals.

Ohio University just recently qualified and attended nationals in 2012. This was after not attending nationals since 1984, the first year of college nationals. The program was on the verge of breaking nationals years before that; winning the section against their big time rival Ohio State two years prior and placing within the top five at regionals all years prior to qualifying.  It was last year that the team planned their season around tournaments that would get them that second strength bid for their region.

This gets me to my final point. If a team wishes to attend nationals, it must have players with great disc skills to compete at the national level. As well as, compete at high level tournaments and do well at them (place high or beat teams that are ranked higher or lower than you). Even though you win a strength bid for your region, your team still has to place at sectionals and regionals and win that strength bid and the chance to compete at nationals.

Thank you for reading and I hope everyone had a great weekend.

Fun Fact: College Nationals this year will be in Madison, WI.


*strength bids - bids to Nationals given to each region based solely on the final rankings before the Championship series which are determined by how the teams compete throughout their season at sanctioned tournaments 
*regions - the U.S. is split into ten regions which is what teams are associated with in rankings