College Power Rankings, Presented By NUTC [March 18, 2020]

A (final?) update amidst the massive disruption of the spring season.

March 18, 2020 by Will Johnson, Lindsay Soo, Sam Echevarria and Michael Ball in Rankings with 0 comments

Here are this week’s College Power Rankings, presented by the National Ultimate Training Camp!

While our College Power Rankings can always be found on our permanent rankings page, every week during the season we will post the current edition here on the front page to facilitate discussion in the comments and serve as a permalink for each week’s rankings.

As bonus content for our subscribers, we also periodically provide expanded notes on our Top 25 teams. Notes for all ranked teams can be found at the bottom of this post, available to Ultiworld subscribers.

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We are conscious that the coronavirus and related cancellations could very well spell the end of the 2020 college season. We release rankings this week to celebrate the results these teams have already achieved this spring, with full respect for teams that have already seen their season come to a close.

D-I Women’s Power Rankings

D-I Women’s Discussion

• With 12 ranked teams in action at Stanford Invite, results from Stevinson largely confirmed our previous perceptions of the top squads. #1 Carleton looked the part in dispatching all opponents on their way to an undefeated tournament title, while #3 Tufts were similarly unscathed en route to the final. Stanford moves up to #4 after continuing the trajectory started at Presidents Day and UC San Diego remains in the Top 5 as the final semifinalist.
• Three other Top 10 teams saw more dramatic movement coming out of Stanford. Washington climbs four spots to #6 thanks to a one-loss weekend that proved their considerable potential, while #8 UC Santa Barbara saw an equivalent drop after coming up short in the quarters against Superfly and going winless in consolation. In their first sanctioned play of the spring, previous #9 British Columbia couldn’t make it past Colorado in the prequarters and sink to #17, just behind the rising Quandry at #16.
• Returning to the top 25 in this update are Minnesota who went winless in pool play in Stevinson, but put together a 3-0 Sunday to finish atop the consolation pool and earn their spot at #21. Idle Michigan drop out to make space.

D-I Men’s Power Rankings

D-I Men’s Discussion

• Unlike in women’s, the men’s board in almost entirely in flux, as 19 ranked squads experience a swing of at least three slots, one direction or the other.
• An absolutely dominant showing at Smoky Mountain Invite sees North Carolina take over the #1 spot for the first time in 2020. Their margins of victory over other top squads were enough to inch ahead of Brigham Young.
• Successful weekends from Colorado and Massachusetts help both squads rocket up into the Top 10, now standing at #3 and #7 respectively. Another disappointing performance from Carleton sees them slide to #11, as well as depresses the rankings for both Michigan and Brown.
• Georgia, NC State, and Texas all played below .500 ball at Smoky Mountain Invite and slump in our rankings this update. They now sit at #15, #22, and #25, respectively.
• By earning their way into the bracket at Stanford invite and finishing in the top 9, all of California, Colorado State, and British Columbia rise in our list to inside the Top 20, with the latter two earning their first Power Rankings nod of 2020.
• Smoky Mountain shockers UT Dallas also now find themselves in the Top 25 after impressive victories over Carleton and Ohio State in Knoxville, though losing out on Sunday of Smoky Mountain prevents them from climbing any higher than #23.. They have a tough resume to accurately place; they currently sit behind three teams they’ve beaten, but ahead of three squads who bested them.
• Falling out of the rankings are Oregon State, Northeastern, and Alabama. The Beavers crashed out of Stanford Invite by losing to unranked UC Santa Barbara in prequarters, while the Huskies suffered a similar fate at Smoky Mountain, picking up just a single consolation win in Knoxville. Alabama sat idle and are victims of there being too many good teams to include at the back end.

D-III Women’s Power Rankings

D-III Women’s Discussion

• The big winners this update are newly-minted #2 Mount Holyoke. The New Englanders earned their second undefeated tournament victory of the spring by topping a number of D-I squads at The Culture and their ledger now stands at a stellar 11-0.
• Both Truman State and Carleton Eclipse earned their way into the Top 5 with strong showings at Midwest Throwdown. #3 TSUnami advanced all the way to the tournament final before dropping their first game, losing to Northwestern. #5 Carleton were halted by the same opponent in prequarters, but performed admirably in consolation to finish in 7th place with a 5-3 record. St. Olaf lost to both at the tournament and slip to #6.
• Preseason favorites Oberlin slide to #7 thanks to an up-and-down showing at No Sleep Til Brooklyn, dropping a pool play game as well as their quarterfinal before finishing out in fifth. Bates, who managed a third-place finish in Brooklyn, earned a rise of seven spots to #11.
• #15 Brandeis return to the Power Rankings for the first time since mid-February on the back of a fourth-place finish at The Culture that included a split with D-I UConn and a win over D-III #16 Williams.

D-III Men’s Power Rankings

D-I Men’s Discussion

• While things remain constant at the very top of the poll thanks to expected excellent performances from Missouri S&T and Carleton GoP, things shake up a bit in the back half of the Top 10. Marist were a perfect 6-0 at No Sleep Til Brooklyn, earning them a rise to #6. Portland, on the other hand, take a slight step backward to #7 after suffering a loss at the hands of regional rivals Lewis & Clark at PLU BBQ.
• Puget Sound has been reasonably high in the algorithm since Stanford Open, but we have largely discounted their results from that weekend due to the insanely windy conditions. After a dominant tournament win at PLU BBQ, we can no longer ignore their resume. They enter the rankings at #15.
• A trio of Maine programs — Colby, Bates, and Bowdoin — had been enjoying stints in our Top 25 despite almost zero connection to the rest of the rankings set. With Colby underperforming at No Sleep Til Brooklyn, losing to all D-III opponents including previously unranked Amherst, we get a clearer view of their connection to the rest of the division and they all slide out while Army of Darkness enters at #24.

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Bonus writeups for each of our Top 25 teams in each division for subscribers below.