USA Ultimate

Colorado Springs, Colo. (March 9, 2016) – USA Ultimate, the national governing body for the sport of ultimate in the United States and member of the U.S. Olympic Committee, announced today the first official rankings for the 2016 college season. 

In Division I, the University of Wisconsin sits in the top spot for the men in the first week, while the University of Central Florida took the top position in the women’s division. 

In Division III, John Brown University is number one in the men’s division, and Truman State University sits atop the women’s division. 

Wisconsin has attended two tournaments so far this season – Warm Up: A Florida Affair and Stanford Invite – and have put together an 11-3 record. Their results include several wins over perennially strong teams at Florida Warm Up and a tournament win at Stanford Invite, one of the season’s biggest events. The University of Massachusetts and Stanford University round out the top three in the men’s division rankings.

Central Florida edged out the University of British Columbia in the women’s rankings, thanks to strong early season performances at Florida Winter Classic, Queen City Tune Up and Stanford Invite. They won each of their first two tournaments and lost a close final to Whitman College, who is currently third in the rankings, at Stanford Invite. So far this season, Central Florida has amassed a 19-2 record. 

John Brown is 12-3 through their two tournaments thus far – Big D in Little d and Dust Bowl. They advanced to the semifinals at both tournaments and tallied wins over several Division I schools in the process. Whitman College sits just six points behind John Brown, and Williams College takes the third spot in the initial 2016 rankings.  

Truman State has also attended two tournaments at this point in the year – Big D in Little d and Midwest Throwdown. Truman State has put together a 7-6 record so far, with five of their six losses coming against Division I teams. Their lone loss to a fellow D-III team came against Rice University, who sits in the third spot in the rankings and is the reigning D-III champion. The University of Puget Sound is currently second in the rankings. 

The college rankings are run each week, beginning in March, in the lead up to the division’s postseason. The rankings use data from games between rostered college teams at USA Ultimate sanctioned events that occur during the regular season, which runs January 2 to April 3, 2016. Teams must have competed in five regular-season games to be included in this week’s rankings. The threshold for inclusion will increase to 10 games by the time the final regular-season rankings are run.

The rankings are used to determine regional bid allocations to the Division I and Division III College Championships, which are set to be held May 21-22 and May 27-30 in Winston-Salem, N.C., and Raleigh, N.C., respectively.

The 2016 postseason begins the weekend of April 16-17, when the first conference championship events will be held around the country. 

Each of the nation’s 10 regions is guaranteed one automatic bid to the College Championships, with the remaining 10 bids being allocated to the regions whose teams finish highest in the final regular season rankings. Rankings also determine strength bid allocations from conference championships to regional championships. 

Additional information on the bid allocation process is available in the college season guidelines. The algorithm used to determine the rankings is version 2.0 of the USA Ultimate rankings algorithm. An explanation of the algorithm can be found on the main rankings page. 

 

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