With the Atlantic Coast South Section being split in two this season, now taking the form of Florida and Georgia/South Carolina Sections, one of the few remaining bright spots of the Sectional weekends has disappeared. The annual reprise of the ‘world’s largest outdoor cocktail party’ (with a slightly different shaped ball) has been shelved along side of formerly heated matchups in Michigan, Texas, and Oregon. Even one of the most contentious rivalries in all of College Ultimate, the one in Southern California, has considerably less appeal, with both teams scuffling through the greater part of the season.
Even with some of the luster gone as the season shifts to the Series and a smattering of tournaments this weekend before a bevy the weekend to follow, there are still a few interesting Sectional tournaments with implications in the National Championship picture. None of those, in Carolina, the Bay Area, or even MetroBoston and the Northwoods, will take the lead-off spot in the Men’s Division.
So, despite the nation’s top ranked team Florida playing in Orlando this weekend, the spotlight is off the top of the division and onto teams attempting to make big breakthroughs in what might be their only UPA tournament of the year. In the afore mentioned Florida Section, the major drama comes from the competition for the third and final bid to AC Regionals. Florida State, Miami, and Florida-B are in position to claim that final spot and the opportunity to advance to the slaughter in Statesboro, likely to draw one of Georgia, North Carolina, North Carolina State, or North Carolina-Wilmington in the first round. Attempting to play the role of spoiler will be Central Florida, a team that has been on the rise the last two seasons, and notched a win over Georgia in this same tournament last season. For any team like Central Florida, trying to make the biggest step and a book a trip to Boulder, the first weekend is the most important.
In the current cycle of players (2004-2007), only 14 of the 64 teams that qualified for Nationals failed to win their Section. In every one of those years until last year, four of the sixteen teams at Nationals did not claim their Sectional title. One in four seems to leave the door open for a team that slips up early, but those numbers are mostly misleading. Of those 14 teams, all of whom finished second in their Section, 8 finished behind a team who also advanced to Nationals, leaving only 6 out of 64 Nationals teams (9%) who recovered from an upset at Sectionals.
Kansas has twice pulled off the feat, finishing as the Runner-Up to Oklahoma in 2004 and Washington University in 2006 in the Ozark Section. Some may remember that Carleton was upset by Minnesota, falling 17-16 in Maple Plain in 2005, but recovered to win its last Regional Title in Northfield two weeks later. California-San Diego, long playing bridesmaid to California-Santa Barbara, fell at Sectionals in that same season, but notched the program’s historic win at Regionals over the Tide to claim its first Nationals Bid on the field. Harvard lost to Boston University in 2006, but claimed the Regional Title, and Indiana lost to Illinois at Central Plains Sectionals last season, but went to Champaign and claimed the second bid from the Great Lakes Region.
A top team like Arizona is well-advised to take care of business in Tuscon, and a team with a shot at Boulder, like Ohio State and Pennsylvania, will be able to start making offseason plans if they fall short in Granville and Lancaster, respectively. These teams aren’t at the heart of Sectional tournaments though. The Cinderella story to rival the George Masons or Davidsons of College Basketball, is the central reason for holding these tournaments. Any team that followed the paperwork rules and shows up at their one of the twenty-nine locations, is given a shot at advancing to the National Championship tournament.
In spite of the theoretical opportunity for any team who submitted an on-time roster to UPA Headquarters to make a pit stop on Table Mesa Drive in May, the reality of the situation is much different. Since 2005, there have been only 6 teams that have finished fourth or lower at Sectionals and finished in the final four at Regionals. That is only 6% of the 96 teams who have been in real contention on a Regional Sunday for a spot at Nationals. Indiana and St. Cloud State have pulled this off twice, both in 2005 and 2006, each having a 5th place finish on their resume. California-Berkeley in 2005 and George Washington in 2007 are also part of this exclusive group, with matching fourth place finishes at Sectionals and Regionals.
With this staggering combination of futility for teams that simply survive Sectionals and become one of the 128 teams still alive in the second stage known as Regionals, the reward is rather minimal. Teams do get a couple of weeks to regroup and get to keep their dream alive. Teams do get to travel to another tournament and have the chance to settle their fate on the field of play. Teams do head toward being overmatched by the great programs of their Regions, and the wrong side of lop-sided defeats in games of consequence.
Everyone enjoys sports for the possibility of an upset, and people tend to pull for the underdog story. College Ultimate provides plenty of those scenarios, but has yet to rise to the level of an Appalachian State football team taking down a Michigan, or a Gardner-Webb basketball team toppling a Kentucky. Until then, these next few weekends of the year are mostly a yawn, and even more as the sport's growth forces splits of the few compelling matchups.
For this next weekend, the first round of qualifying for the National Championship tournament will take a back seat to many things, including the Final Four in San Antonio, but there is still something to keep the Ultimate fan’s interest. The Women’s Division offers three very important events, and should turn all attention there.
Atlantic Coast South Section
While the men split into two Sections, the women will continue one of the more competitive events on the entire slate. Responsible for all five of the National Qualifiers in the past two years, the Section may not be able to claim the distinction again this year, but still has three good teams that usually produce very close games. Georgia, Emory, and Florida have been the class of the Region recently, and all very dangerous on the National stage. Any of the three could sneak back into the top 2 in Statesboro.
Southwest So Cal Section
This section hosts the last two National Runners-Up, with both hoping for even better results this season. UCLA, ranked 3rd in the NUMP and 5th in the UPA Rankings, notched a win at The Stanford Invite, a Runner-Up finish in Vegas, and a Semi-Final trip at Centex. The team that made the Finals in Columbus in 2006 in its first trip to the Big Show and produced the Callahan winner last season, is on the very short-list of contenders this season. Meanwhile, last season, California-Santa Barbara stunned the rest of the Division by winning Centex and advancing to the final Sunday of the season, and has shown no signs of a hangover this season, rising to 6th in the NUMP and 9th in the UPA Rankings. And still, this isn’t even the most important match-up of the weekend.
Northwest Washington/British Columbia Section
The name of the Section says it all, as the top two teams in the NUMP and UPA Rankings reside in the same Section, and could play what is the second of four consecutive Finals of unequaled consequence. Kira Frew leads top-ranked British Columbia, fresh off its win at Centex, down to Burlington to face off with the team they beat in the Finals in Austin, second-ranked Washington. The winner here claims the top seed at Northwest Regionals, where their road in Davis will likely go through the other. Even with six-time National Champion Stanford in the Region, these teams might not need three bids to set up the final showdown in Boulder.
