The schedule for the 2023 Premier Ultimate League season has been announced.
February 14, 2023 by Jenna Weiner and Ryan Kindell in News, Preview with 0 comments
The Premier Ultimate League released their schedule for the 2023 season last week. For the PUL’s third full season the league maintains a six-game schedule, as in 2022, with each team playing every other team in their division along with two to three out of division games.
League composition-wise, the only change heading into the season is the addition of Philadelphia Surge in place of the departing 2022 champions Medellin Revolution. The PUL’s divisions remain the same, however, and for the postseason the top team from each division will advance to Championship Weekend, along with the best overall second-place team as determined by an algorithm.
The Midwest Division:
The South Division:
The East Division:
- DC Shadow
- New York Gridlock
- Philadelphia Surge
- Portland Rising
Notable Schedule Highlights:
- The opening two weeks of the season start with three inter-divisional games and one intra-divisional game, with league newcomers Philadelphia Surge hosting New York Gridlock to kick off what will likely be a raucous East division.
- Minnesota Strike don’t open their season until Week 4 when they have the league’s first two-game road-trip of the year, traveling to face the South division’s Atlanta Soul and Nashville Nightshade.
- Week 4 also includes the first game in the season’s only home-home series between Philadelphia and Portland Rising, with Rising welcoming Surge to Maine before the reverse fixture is held in Week 8.
- Weeks 7 and 8 have a full slate of intra-divisional games with three games for each division across those two weekends in May, which could be pivotal in the fight for all three divisional crowns.
- The East division has its final intra-divisional games in Week 8, with Portland taking on Philly and New York hosting DC.
- Week 10 hosts the most games of the season with six, including the final intra-divisional games in both the Midwest and South divisions.
- The PUL regular season wraps up with a showcase game at Poultry Days, as the Columbus Pride take on the Atlanta Soul.
– Jenna Weiner
Strength of Schedule Analysis
The Eastern Division has a tough path again this year, and if the algorithm is in play for the wild card berth, I would imagine the second place team out of the East takes that wild card again, considering how the algorithm tends to reward a hard strength of schedule.
The widespread range of strength of schedule rankings for the Midwest division especially, resulting from differing inter-divisional matchups,1 could play a huge role in determining who wins the Midwest.
Surge are getting a rough welcome to the league, with a brutal East Division schedule (including a home and home against Rising) and a crossover on the road against Radiance.
– Ryan Kindell
Ex: Strike playing Soul/Nightshade while Monarchs plays Rising/Shadowboth, though both play Gridlock so that nets out ↩
