USA Ultimate Competition Working Group Meeting: Club Update
Posted: December 20, 2017 03:21 PM
TCT Event Schedule, Gender Ratio Rules, Women’s Division Regional Scaling Discussed
Colorado Springs, Colo. (Dec. 20, 2017) – USA Ultimate’s Competition Working Group met in Denver earlier this month for its annual meeting to discuss various aspects of the sport’s competition structure across competition divisions – youth, college, club and beach – as well as outreach. The meeting included eight USA Ultimate staff members, two members of the board of directors and 25 key volunteers and was held over two days. Following the meeting, we are releasing summaries of each smaller group’s discussion. The youth competition, outreach, beach and college recaps were released over the last two weeks.
The club working group consists of USA Ultimate Manager of Competition and Athlete Programs – Club Ernest Toney; three national directors – National Men’s Director Adam Goff, National Mixed Director Remy Schor, National Women’s Director Carolyn Finney; and two elected player representatives from each gender division – men’s division representatives Andrew Francis and Chris Novielli, mixed division representatives Isaiah Bryant and Raha Mozaffari, and women’s division representatives Amber Sinicrope and Akina Younge.
2017 Club Working Group
L-R (standing): Goff, Novielli, Mozaffari, Francis, Younge, Toney
(kneeling): Bryant, Schor, Sinicrope, Finney
The club working group started their weekend discussing scheduling for the 2018 and 2019 Triple Crown Tour (TCT) seasons. Given overall satisfaction with the event schedule from 2017, the group elected to make no major changes for the next two years; the 2018 and 2019 schedules will look similar to the 2017 calendar. The regular season will end the weekend before the Pro Championships for teams not participating in the event. The Pro Championships will again to be held over Labor Day weekend and will be the only sanctioned event that weekend. Results from the Pro Championships will be used in determining bid allocations from regionals to the National Championships. The group did discuss one potential addition to the TCT schedule beginning in 2019: a new, second Select Flight Invite event.
In an effort to provide more valuable playing opportunities for women’s division teams, the club working group approved a proposal that will help address the small size of regional events and the quality of sectional events. Women’s teams will be able to earn a sectional growth bid by competing in 10 games over the course of the regular season, which will increase the size of regional events. Other regional scaling rules remain the same, with regional championship events staying capped at 16 teams. This new rule only applies to the women’s division; regional scaling in the men’s and mixed divisions will remain unchanged.
The World Flying Disc Federation’s (WFDF) Mixed Gender Ratio Rule B will be in effect for all TCT events beginning in 2018. The rule was implemented experimentally at the U.S. Open Championships in 2017 after gathering input from mixed division teams and, given positive responses from teams and events using the rule (including the U.S. Open), it will be in full effect beginning next year. Teams will flip at the beginning of each game to determine the end zone which will regulate gender ratios, but unlike WFDF’s current rule, no second flip will happen at half time.
The group also decided, beginning in 2019, to increase the number of regular-season games required for Pro and Elite Flights teams to earn a bye to their regional championship event. Teams are currently required to play in 10 regular-season games, in addition to competing in a required event plus a second TCT event, to earn a bye. That number remains in effect for 2018. A final number for the increase in required 2019 regular-season games has not yet been determined.
Although no final decisions were made, the club working group also discussed ways to encourage roster consistency for Classic and Select Flight teams from the regular season to the postseason and took a look at event formats for consolation rounds where there may be an opportunity to create more cross-flight and cross-region play.
Previous 2017 Competition Working Group Updates:
2017 Competition Working Group
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