March 7, 2024 by Zack Davis in Recap with 0 comments
Ultiworld’s coverage of the 2024 college ultimate season are presented by Spin Ultimate; all opinions are those of the author(s). Find out how Spin can get you, and your team, looking your best this season.
Let’s face it: D-III has its own unique community. The teams, players, and even the vibes pridefully have their own floor. So it makes sense the premier event of the men’s division followed a non-traditional format that left us without a winner, but gave us memorable performances, telling matchups, and that sweet sweet algorithmic connectivity.
Not your traditional tournament with a bracket to work though to determine the best team, but FCS D-III Tune Up certainly had some winners. Franciscan Fatal and #12 Whitman Sweets both went undefeated over the course of the weekend and it wasn’t because of a strength of schedule error. Franciscan went toe-to-toe with the best at the tournament and some of the best in the nation and still put seven notches in the win column without taking an L, including 12-11 over Richmond and 13-10 over Michigan Tech.
The little team that could beat the #3 Richmond Spidermonkeys, the #9 Berry Bucks and #18 Navy Poseidon. Union also looked very strong on the eye test despite a 2-5 weekend result. Michigan Tech and Christopher Newport were both giving other teams more than they asked for and at times more than they could handle.
Whitman found a lot of success in a stacked field and looked impressive on the field as well. Coming into the weekend they had arguably the toughest strength of schedule and managed to not only win out, but put up the largest point differential at +46. Sure a large part of that is a 13-0 win over Butler, but the list of teams they competed well against includes Richmond, Berry, and a dominating showing against Davidson.
#23 Davidson DUFF, #9 Berry, #18 Navy, #19 Kenyon S.E.R.F., and #3 Richmond. They were also one of the two teams with a positive score differential to not have any double game point situations, the other was Michigan Tech.
Typically in a post tournament recap we like to breakdown and relive the final game, but seeing as there wasn’t a final game, here’s a peek as some of the best moments from the games we caught on film.
FCS D-III Tune Up 2024: Tournament Recap is only available to Ultiworld Subscribers
Already have a subscription? Log in
Whether you visit Ultiworld for our reporting, our podcasts, or our video coverage, you can help us continue to provide high quality content with a subscription. By becoming a subscriber, not only do you receive benefits like exclusive articles and full article RSS feeds, you also help fund all of Ultiworld's coverage in general. We appreciate your support!
