February 24, 2022 by Charlie Eisenhood in News with 0 comments
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USA Ultimate announced the 2022 college division guidelines today, detailing the procedures for the College Series, bid allocations, and more.
The official college regular season begins tomorrow, February 25th, and runs through April 3rd. Game results at sanctioned tournaments will be used to seed teams in the postseason but will not affect bid allocations to Regionals or Nationals. The registrar roster deadline is March 4th.
Conferences will take place on April 9-10, April 16-17, or April 23-24. Regionals will be held on April 30-May 1 or May 7-8. Both the D-III College Championships (May 21-23) and D-I College Championships (May 27-30) will take place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Division I Nationals Bids
As announced weeks ago, the bids from Regionals to Nationals will not be allocated based on the 2022 college rankings. Instead, USAU will be allocating the bids as follows:
- [10] Automatic bids (1 for each region)
- [5] Size bids (The five biggest regions, based on the number of teams at Conferences)1
- [3] Strength bids (a 75/25 weighted average of bids from 2019/2018)
- [2] 2021 Nationals bids2
The size bids won’t be calculated until the start of the 2022 College Series. But the other 15 bids are already determined. Here is the current bid allocation (excluding the five size bids):
| Region | Men's Bids | Women's Bids |
|---|---|---|
| Atlantic Coast | 2 | 2 |
| Great Lakes | 1 | 1 |
| Metro East | 1 | 1 |
| New England | 2 | 2 |
| North Central | 2 | 1 |
| Northwest | 2 | 2 |
| Ohio Valley | 1 | 1 |
| South Central | 2 | 1 |
| Southeast | 1 | 1 |
| Southwest | 1 | 3 |
Division III Nationals Bids
Here is how bids will be allocated for Division III:
- [10] Automatic bids (1 for each region)
- [3] Size bids (The five biggest regions, based on the number of teams at Conferences)3
- [2] Strength bids (a 75/25 weighted average of bids from 2019/2018)
- [1] 2021 Nationals bid4
The size bids won’t be calculated until the start of the 2022 College Series. But the other 13 bids are already determined. Here is the current bid allocation (excluding the three size bids):
| Region | Men's Bids | Women's Bids |
|---|---|---|
| Atlantic Coast | 1 | 1 |
| Great Lakes | 1 | 1 |
| Metro East | 1 | 1 |
| New England | 2 | 2 |
| North Central | 2 | 2 |
| Northwest | 1 | 2 |
| Ohio Valley | 1 | 1 |
| South Central | 2 | 1 |
| Southeast | 1 | 1 |
| Southwest | 1 | 1 |
Regional Finish Will Bind Seeding
This year, “Seeding for the USA Ultimate Division I and Division III College Championships will be held to the following guideline: No team that finishes ahead of another team at Regionals may be seeded behind that team at Nationals.” This rule was dropped years ago to allow for more flexibility in seeding, but with the lack of college rankings this year returns (as it did in 2021).
Seeding at all postseason tournaments will be based on the following criteria: “sanctioned results during the college regular season, input solicited from all the captains of participating teams, results of last year’s College Series, and other applicable information (e.g. team composition, conditions, team history). The coordinator has the authority to adjust seeding according to the best information available with approval from the Regional and National Directors.”
If there is a tie for the final size bid, the number of players on the tied conferences’ teams will be used to determine the final bid. ↩
Per USAU: The regions earning these bids will be determined as follows. Starting with the complete placement list from 2021 Nationals, remove the top team from each region (as automatic qualifiers); next, remove the second highest team from the three regions that already earned strength bids based on the weighted average from 2018-2019; the two bids will be allocated to the regions that have the next two highest finishing teams of those that remain. ↩
If there is a tie for the final size bid, the number of players on the tied conferences’ teams will be used to determine the final bid. ↩
Per USAU: The region earning this bid will be determined as follows: Starting with the complete placement list from 2021 Nationals, remove the top team from each region (as automatic qualifiers); next, remove the second highest team from the two regions that already earned strength bids based on the weighted average from 2018-2019; the one bid will be allocated to the region that has the next highest finishing team of those that remain. ↩
