How do College Nationals bids work??
Understanding how College Nationals bids work is crucial for ultimate team hopefuls and fans alike. The top 20 college teams from each division will compete in a three-day tournament to become the 2025 national champions. USA Ultimate college teams are grouped into 10 geographical regions, with Division 1 earning 20 bids and Division 3 securing 16 spots. After the regular season, regional tournaments determine which teams qualify for Nationals. Two types of bids are up for grabs: auto bids, guaranteed for each region's top-performing team, and strength bids, awarded to the next highest-ranked teams in a region based on an algorithmic ranking system. The Northwest region, home to Oregon Ego, has already earned four strength bids, surpassing its maximum five-bid limit. Understanding these nuances is key: teams must compete in at least 10 regular season games to qualify for either type of bid.
Learn how to earn a bid to the UDisc College Nationals with expert insights and strategy.
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In late May, the top 20 college ultimate teams from each division will compete in a 3-day tournament, all with the hopes of becoming the 2025 national champions. But how does a team qualify for the national championships? First, we need to zoom out a bit. Every USA Ultimate college team is grouped by area into one of 10 geographical regions. In Division 1, 20 bids, and in Division 3, 16 bids, are distributed among the 10 regions. After the regular season concludes, and teams battle it out in their respective regional tournaments to qualify for Nationals. There are two ways a team can claim a bid for their region to send a team to Nationals. First, each of these regions is allocated one guaranteed spot for a team to go to the National Championships. This spot is called an auto bid. There is potential for a region to earn a second, third, fourth, or even a fifth bid to Nationals. These are called strength bids. The way that strength bids are allocated is by looking at the algorithmic ranking for each team. First, we remove the top-ranked team from each region. Then, the remaining 10 highest-ranked teams will receive bids for their regions. For example, as it stands, [music] Oregon Ego is the highest-ranked team in the Northwest region. In order to determine who else, if anyone, in the Northwest will qualify for a strength bid, we first remove the highest-ranked teams from each region. This leaves us with our 10 strength bid earners. From this new top 10, four of them are located in the Northwest region. This shows us that the Northwest region has earned four strength bids on top of Oregon's auto bid, resulting in a total of five bids for the region, the maximum. There are some nuances to be aware of. A team must compete in a minimum of 10 sanctioned regular season games to earn an auto bid or strength bid for their region. But any legally registered team can participate in regionals and win a bid to Nationals, regardless of how many regular season games they've participated in. Bids are allocated based on individual team performance, but at the end of the season, the bids go to the region, not to the team. Any team competing at regionals can take a bid based on their finish at the tournament. So, every team...
