Even though it’s technically a club sport, I thought I’d share this, since club is the highest level of college ultimate. Both W&M men’s and women’s teams have qualified for college nationals, only 20 teams in each division qualify (There’s about 400 men’s teams and 300 women’s teams, for reference). The men’s team has made it a few times in the past, this is the first ever appearance for the women’s team.

The only other schools to have both their men’s and women’s programs qualify are UNC, Colorado, Pitt, Washington, and Vermont.

On the men’s side, some of the teams W&M beat include NC State, Virginia, Alabama, Tennessee, JMU, Virginia Tech, South Carolina, Maryland, and Georgetown.

Some of the schools the women’s team beat include Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, JMU, NC State, and Georgetown.

Conferences for ultimate are more geographically based, so there's no P5/G5/FCS type of split, but it's a pretty impressive list of wins.

The championships are in Milwaukee over Memorial Day weekend, the format is pool play followed by bracket play (sorta similar to the World Cup).

You can see the schedules here (all times are central time): https://play.usaultimate.org/events/2022...pionships/

Some of the games will be streamed on Youtube, but that schedule isn't up yet.

Men:

5/27, 2:30 pm – Texas
5/27, 4:30 pm – Brown
5/28, 10:30 am – Utah State
5/28 – 12:30 pm – Cal Poly SLO

Women:

5/27, 8:30 am – Vermont
5/27, 12:30 pm – UC Santa Barbara
5/28, 12:30 pm – Washington
5/28, 2:30 pm – SUNY-Binghampton

Both teams are the bottom seeds in their respective pools, but I think the men’s team actually got a pretty favorable draw, and they both have a good chance to pull some upsets.

Either way, both teams will finish ranked in the top 20 in the country, which doesn’t happen too often in W&M sports.

I graduated a few years back, but I played on the team when I was in college, so it’s neat to see.

And of course, President Rowe is also a big ultimate player, her husband actually coaches the men’s team.

Ultimate Frisbee is just “ultimate” to those in the know? Club travel ultimate? They have playoffs and stuff?

Not trying to be cute, but is there a regulation size frisbee, officials, and is there a course or something like golf? Can you be penalized for not tossing/throwing/wrist slinging a certain way?

(05-25-2022 09:17 PM)Tribal Wrote:  Ultimate Frisbee is just “ultimate” to those in the know? Club travel ultimate? They have playoffs and stuff?

Not trying to be cute, but is there a regulation size frisbee, officials, and is there a course or something like golf? Can you be penalized for not tossing/throwing/wrist slinging a certain way?

Frisbee is actually a trademarked brand name, which is why the sport is just ultimate. Plenty of people call it ultimate frisbee though, people still know what you mean.

There is a regulation disc, the Discraft Ultrastar (https://www.discraft.com/ultimate/ultima...ltimate%2f)

Yep, there's a whole college regular season, followed by playoffs. Usually teams go to 2-3 tournaments in the fall (sorta like a preseason), then 5-6 tournaments in the spring. The playoffs consist of three rounds, sectionals (basically against teams in your state), regionals (teams in the surrounding states, W&M's region is form South Carolina to Maryland), then nationals.

There's also a semi professional league - https://theaudl.com/

Ultimate is more akin to soccer/football, it's played on a field 70 yards x 40 yards, with 20 yard endzones.

There are officials at college nationals, though there are not officials at every tournament. In part because there aren't really that many people interested in officiating ultimate games...

You have to keep one foot on the ground when you throw it, otherwise you're free to throw it in any way you want.

Here's a quick highlight video from the regional tournament - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es58i5GeBCs

It's still obviously a very niche sport, but it's growing steadily - the semi finals and finals will be on ESPN3 and ESPNU. I actually volunteer as a high school coach in the Nova area, a lot of the Arlington and Fairfax high schools have teams.

There's a significant rule book that has a lot of minutiae surrounding the basic rules, but here are the basics that you'll find at any pickup or rec league:

(USA Ultimate is "The National Governing Body for the Sport of Ultimate in the U.S.")
https://usaultimate.org/rules/10-simple-rules/

Ultimate in 10 Simple Rules
1 The Field - A rectangular shape with end zones at each end. A regulation field is 70 yards long by 40 yards wide, with end zones 20 yards deep.

2 Starting Play - Each point begins with both teams lining up on the front of opposite end zone lines. The defense throws (“pulls”) the disc to the offense. A regulation game has seven players per team.

3 Scoring - Each time the offense catches a pass in the defense’s end zone, the offense scores a point. The teams switch direction after every goal, and the next point begins with a new pull by the team that just scored.

4 Movement of the Disc - The disc may be advanced in any direction by completing a pass to a teammate. Players may not run with the disc. The person with the disc (“thrower”) has ten seconds to throw the disc. The defender guarding the thrower (“marker”) counts out the stall count.

5 Change of Possession - When a pass is not completed (e.g. out of bounds, drop, block, interception, stalled), the defense immediately takes possession of the disc and becomes the offense.

6 Substitutions - Players not in the game may replace players in the game after a score and during an injury timeout.

7 Non-Contact - Players must attempt to avoid physical contact during play. Picks and screens are also prohibited.

8 Fouls - When a player initiates contact that affects the play, a foul occurs. When a foul causes a player to lose possession, the play resumes as if the possession was retained. If the player that the foul was called against disagrees with the foul call, the play is redone.

9 Self-Officiating - Players are responsible for their own foul and line calls. Players resolve their own disputes. (Note: like TDenverFan said, in college nationals there are officials, called observers, who rule on disputes if the players can't come to an agreement)

10 Spirit of the Game - The foundation of the rules in ultimate is Spirit of the Game, which places the responsibility for fair play on the player. Competitive play is encouraged, but never at the expense of respect between players, adherence to the rules, and the basic joy of play.

(05-25-2022 09:31 PM)TDenverFan Wrote:  Here's a quick highlight video from the regional tournament - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es58i5GeBCs

(05-26-2022 01:30 AM)WMInTheBurg Wrote:  8 Fouls - When a player initiates contact that affects the play, a foul occurs. When a foul causes a player to lose possession, the play resumes as if the possession was retained. If the player that the foul was called against disagrees with the foul call, the play is redone.

Rule 8 is interesting. It reads like a foul only occurs if possession is lost. If possession is not lost then no harm, no foul (despite extensive contact).
Looking at the video it looked like contact could have been called on many plays but none of them resulted in loss of possession. The feeling on the field seems to be just "let them play" -- which is a good thing, I think. Nobody likes an over-officiated game.

(05-26-2022 08:16 AM)Zorch Wrote:  

(05-25-2022 09:31 PM)TDenverFan Wrote:  Here's a quick highlight video from the regional tournament - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es58i5GeBCs

(05-26-2022 01:30 AM)WMInTheBurg Wrote:  8 Fouls - When a player initiates contact that affects the play, a foul occurs. When a foul causes a player to lose possession, the play resumes as if the possession was retained. If the player that the foul was called against disagrees with the foul call, the play is redone.

Rule 8 is interesting. It reads like a foul only occurs if possession is lost. If possession is not lost then no harm, no foul (despite extensive contact).
Looking at the video it looked like contact could have been called on many plays but none of them resulted in loss of possession. The feeling on the field seems to be just "let them play" -- which is a good thing, I think. Nobody likes an over-officiated game.

Rule 8 is "When a player initiates contact that affects the play, a foul occurs." The reference to possession is with regard to what happens when play resumes after the foul. However, as detailed in Rule 9, the sport is self-officiated. Players become accustomed to what level of contact constitutes a foul, since "affects the play" is up to the judgment of the players.

In the national championships (and some, if not all, regionals that lead to national championships) there are officials that act as arbiters when players disagree about calls.

(05-26-2022 08:16 AM)Zorch Wrote:  

(05-25-2022 09:31 PM)TDenverFan Wrote:  Here's a quick highlight video from the regional tournament - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es58i5GeBCs

(05-26-2022 01:30 AM)WMInTheBurg Wrote:  8 Fouls - When a player initiates contact that affects the play, a foul occurs. When a foul causes a player to lose possession, the play resumes as if the possession was retained. If the player that the foul was called against disagrees with the foul call, the play is redone.

Rule 8 is interesting. It reads like a foul only occurs if possession is lost. If possession is not lost then no harm, no foul (despite extensive contact).
Looking at the video it looked like contact could have been called on many plays but none of them resulted in loss of possession. The feeling on the field seems to be just "let them play" -- which is a good thing, I think. Nobody likes an over-officiated game.

That's basically the gist of it. Since fouls aren't yardage based, if you catch a pass despite there being a foul, the foul doesn't really do anything.

The men's game agains Texas will be streamed (for free) on Youtube tomorrow, starts at 3:30 est.

https://usaultimate.org/watch/broadcast-schedule/

Here's a link to the game against Texas - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bxgs10dakU

And a preview article - https://ultiworld.com/2022/05/26/d-i-col...view-mens/

W&M men lost to Texas 15-12 in a game that was 12-12. It was a good showing, but W&M ran out of gas at the end. W&M didn't have any closer games after that, and finished pool play 0-4. They beat UConn 8-3 today in a placement game for 17th place.

https://play.usaultimate.org/events/2022...ollegeMen/

W&M women went 1-3 in pool play, beating SUNY-Binghamton. They lost to Georgia today, but finished above their seeding for the tournament. Great showing for the first time in Nationals.

https://play.usaultimate.org/events/2022...legeWomen/

(05-29-2022 09:14 AM)WMInTheBurg Wrote:  W&M men lost to Texas 15-12 in a game that was 12-12. It was a good showing, but W&M ran out of gas at the end. W&M didn't have any closer games after that, and finished pool play 0-4. They beat UConn 8-3 today in a placement game for 17th place.

https://play.usaultimate.org/events/2022...ollegeMen/

Yeah, unfortunately 2 of their best players were injured at regionals, including their DLine captain. I think if they were fully healthy they would've had the steam to beat Texas and maybe Utah State.

Still a good showing, and it is pretty neat that our ultimate team can go toe to toe with schools that would consider themselves leagues ahead of us athletically.

Absolutely. For reference for those unfamiliar with the ultimate scene (just about everyone here), college ultimate up through the 2000s was still the domain of smaller private schools. Carleton, Middlebury, Ivies, Tufts, Carnegie Mellon, various small west coast schools all competed at the top level. As the sport grew at the high school level, it was easier for the big schools to start taking over. Florida, Wisconsin, Colorado, were all big schools that started being regulars at Nationals, and they're joined now by Michigan, Texas, Ohio State, and other P5 schools. There's now D1 and D3 college championships, where D3 is 7500 enrollment and under. I think schools are allowed to compete up, but not down, meaning Carleton could send a team to D1 but Ohio State would not be able to send to D3, for example. TDenverFan can probably speak to this better than I can.

tl;dr, the numbers game works against W&M a lot in ultimate, and it's a big achievement to have even one team go to Nationals, let alone 2.

(05-29-2022 11:16 AM)WMInTheBurg Wrote:  Absolutely. For reference for those unfamiliar with the ultimate scene (just about everyone here), college ultimate up through the 2000s was still the domain of smaller private schools. Carleton, Middlebury, Ivies, Tufts, Carnegie Mellon, various small west coast schools all competed at the top level. As the sport grew at the high school level, it was easier for the big schools to start taking over. Florida, Wisconsin, Colorado, were all big schools that started being regulars at Nationals, and they're joined now by Michigan, Texas, Ohio State, and other P5 schools. There's now D1 and D3 college championships, where D3 is 7500 enrollment and under. I think schools are allowed to compete up, but not down, meaning Carleton could send a team to D1 but Ohio State would not be able to send to D3, for example. TDenverFan can probably speak to this better than I can.

tl;dr, the numbers game works against W&M a lot in ultimate, and it's a big achievement to have even one team go to Nationals, let alone 2.

Yeah, that's correct. Carleton actually has teams compete in both the D1 and D3 divisions. Basically their A teams play D1, while their B teams play D3. On the women's side both teams made their respective nationals, the men's programs had some covid issues at regionals and did not make it to nationals.

Katherine Rowe actually was one of the co-founders of the Carleton women's team. She actually also has written a few articles on Ultiworld, the media site that covers ultimate (https://ultiworld.com/2012/10/05/how-we-...khand-lag/)

And that's a pretty accurate assessment. HS ultimate is growing a lot, it's a varsity sport in a few locales (including Arlington). There's a heavy correlation between the HS scene and the college scene - Utah has a huge youth scene for example, hence Utah State is at nationals.

WM’s men’s team posted a season highlight video. A little (read: a lot) more advanced than the ultimate I was playing in the Sunken Gardens at midnight (or, for those who found that to be too late, Midnight Frisbee at Ten).

https://mobile.twitter.com/WMultimateM/s...1331975171