A. USA Ultimate College Mixed Regional Overview
1. Mixed Regions – The mixed college division is divided into the following 6 regions. The regions are divided as follows with the corresponding College Series regions listed on the right:
East – Atlantic Coast and Ohio Valley
North – North Central and Great Lakes
Northeast – New England and Metro East
Northwest - Northwest
South – South Central and Southeast
Southwest – Southwest
2. Regional Championships – There will be 6 mixed regional championships that will take place between October 1 and November 24, 2019:
East – College Park, MD - November 9-10, 2019
North – Fair Oaks, IN – November 9-10, 2019
Northeast - Granby, MA – November 2-3, 2019
Northwest – Tacoma, WA - November 9-10, 2019
South – Austin, TX – November 9-10, 2019
Southwest - Santa Barbara, CA November 16-17, 2019
1. Application process – To apply for a bid, a team manager should fill out the application, which can be found HERE. Applications will be reviewed and accepted on a rolling basis
2. Bid Acceptance – Unless an event reaches capacity, which is determined at the discretion of the tournament director with the approval of USA Ultimate, all college teams that apply will be given a bid.
Teams can apply to an event in any region, even if they do not reside in the region of the event. If a mixed regional event approaches capacity, the following criteria will be taken into consideration when awarding bids:
a. ACE Programs: Three, Four and Five Star ACE Program Teams will receive an automatic bid.
b. Host Teams: Teams hosting a mixed regional event will receive an automatic bid.
c. In-Region Teams: Teams located in the region of the event will be given priority over teams traveling from out of the region.
d. Developing Programs: A certain number of bids, to be determined based on the size of the event, but in no case less than four, will be reserved for teams who are considered to be "Developing Programs." A "Developing Program" is a school that does not have a either a men’s team or a women’s team and/or a school that has not consistently participated in the USA Ultimate College Series.
3. Event Requirements – Once accepted, teams attending the college mixed regionals will be required to:
a. Use the online rostering system to submit their roster of participating players for that event to the event organizer. The deadline for roster submission is 5:00 p.m. MT Monday before the event.
b. Play only with players from their online roster for that event.
c. Include on their event roster only players who meet, or who will meet the college mixed eligibility rules set forth in section C.1.a below.
d. Players are required to have college-level, or the equivalent thereto, or intro college level in order to participate in college mixed regionals.
e. All rosters must consists of at least 10 players.
f. College mixed regional tournament directors will be required to:
i. Provide teams in attendance with access to the rosters of all teams in attendance in order to aid with peer-policing of rosters.
ii. Submit or verify the results of games between rostered college teams through USA Ultimate’s online score reporting system.
iii. Comply with all requirements for USA Ultimate-sanctioned event organizers outlined in the USA Ultimate tournament director agreement.
C. Competition Rules
1. Eligibility Rules
a. College teams participating in college mixed regionals will be expected to do so only with players who meet the rules set forth below:
i. Academic Eligibility: All players must be currently enrolled at the school in which they intend to play for.
ii. Participation Eligibility: All participation eligibility rules set forth in the College Eligibility Rules shall apply. With the exception that, players will be allowed to compete in fall mixed regionals, if they completed their five years of eligibility during the spring semester immediately prior. All other participation guidelines will remain as is.
b. Teams that are found to have violated the letter or spirit of these rules or whose behavior undermines the competition structure (e.g., misrepresenting the composition of a team at a specific event, misrepresenting the composition of a team over the course of the season, intentionally playing with ineligible players, etc.) may be subject to ramifications as outlined in the Violations and Sanctions section below. Roster violations should be reported to the National College Directors at ncd@usaultimate.org or Tom Manewitz at tom.manewitz@hq.usaultimate.org. Roster violations during a college mixed regional championship can affect eligibility for the spring college season.
2. Gender Division Eligibility
The eligibility of transgender athletes will be governed by the USA Ultimate Policy on Transgender Athletes. Contact USA Ultimate HQ for more information.
3. Name/Logo/Uniform Guidelines
USA Ultimate reserves the right to alter, or require a team to alter, a team name, player or coach nickname, team logo, jersey graphic, or uniform and/or suggest alternatives at or in conjunction with a USA Ultimate program or event should USA Ultimate personnel determine that the existing name, logo, graphic, or uniform might hinder the mission of the organization or the goals of a specific USA Ultimate program or event. This includes, but is not limited to, sexual references, profanity, drug references, and any discriminatory language or graphics. Alterations must meet with the approval of USA Ultimate personnel.
Frequently Asked Questions on Name/Logo/Uniform Guidelines
4. Uniform Requirements
a. All Regional Events – Names, logos and graphics on jerseys must comply with the Name/Logo/Uniform Guidelines outlined above.
b. College Mixed Regional Finals – Teams participating in the finals of college mixed regionals are required to have players on their team wear the same color jersey while playing. Teams and players are encouraged to follow the uniform requirements for the College Championships set forth in the College Series Guidelines.
5. Formats
Formats will be determined using USA Ultimate guidelines in the USA Ultimate Formats Manual for the Championship Series. In the event that the number of teams exceeds the maximum number of teams contemplated by the Formats Manual, USA Ultimate shall have the discretion to determine the format.
6. Seeding
a. Seeding for college mixed regionals will be done by the tournament director using the following information: input solicited from the captains of participating teams, combined results of the men’s and women’s teams during last year’s College Series, and other applicable information (e.g., team composition, conditions). The tournament director has the authority to adjust seeding according to the best information available.
b. Seeding for the college mixed regionals must be approved by the Manager of Competition and Athlete Programs – College.
7. Forfeit Rule
a. If one team is not ready to play at game time, points may be assessed in accordance with the 11th Edition Rules of Ultimate (Section VIII.A.4). Under these conditions, if the score of the game reaches 8-0, the team that has failed to signal readiness will technically forfeit the game.
b. A team will be considered to have forfeited any game where the number of players that can safely participate falls below the minimum requirement set forth in the USA Ultimate College Guidelines
c. The list of allowable forfeit scenarios is found in the Formats Manual.
8. Rules
a. The 2018 USA Ultimate college mixed regional championships will be played using the current edition of the USA Ultimate Official Rules of Ultimate. Any changes to these rules must be pre-approved by the College Working Group.
The following changes from the USA Ultimate Official Rules of Ultimate have been approved for use in the 2018 college mixed regionals:
End Zone Size – End Zone length will be shortened to 20 yards. This change allows for consistency with WFDF rules used in international competition and increases the number of field sites that can be used for ultimate.
Contact Call - If contact occurs between the thrower and marker that would constitute a foul under XVI.H.3.a but the thrower does not release the disc, "contact" may be called. Play does not stop, and the marker resumes the stall count at "one." Other than resetting the stall count to "one" after the first instance, the "contact" call is treated as any other marking violation. The marker may contest the "contact" call by calling "violation," which stops play. If the thrower calls "contact" after beginning the throwing motion and subsequently releases the disc, it is treated as if the thrower called "foul."
b. Gender Ratio Rule – All games will be playe with a 4:4 or 3:4 male identifying to female identifying ratio. At the start of the game, after the first disc flip, an additional disc flip happens with the winner selecting which endzone is the "genzone." At the start of each point, the team this is at the genzone must choose the gender ratio. This process applies for the entire game (the "Genzone Decides Rule").
9. Observers
Only USA Ultimate Certified Observers are permitted to officiate at USA Ultimate Championship or Championship Series events. If officials are used during the USA Ultimate college mixed regionals, their duties must be in line with those described in the USA Ultimate Observer Manual. Any changes to these duties must be pre-approved by the SOAR Committee.
D. Violations and Sanctions
Failure to abide by any of these guidelines may result in sanctions through the USA Ultimate conduct process. Such sanctions may be imposed on a team or individuals associated with a team deemed to be in violation of the guidelines and may include, but are not limited to, suspension or disqualification from USA Ultimate competition, including suspension from the USA Ultimate College Series. USA Ultimate will continue to work to improve registration procedures and communication of information pertaining to the USA Ultimate college mixed regionals. As these improvements are made by the organization, teams will continue to be held more fully responsible for following USA Ultimate procedures and understanding these guidelines. Because consistency in holding all participants to the same administrative and competitive standards is vital to the integrity of college mixed regionals, because many violations lead to unfair advantages in competition and because it is often difficult to determine intent, guideline violations will result in serious repercussions. Such repercussions will provide an incentive for players and teams to understand the guidelines fully, follow the guidelines carefully and avoid intended or unintended violations in the future.