On the fourth day of Christmas Ultiworld gave to me...D-I staff picks!
December 15, 2024 by Ultiworld in Preview with 0 comments
Ultiworld’s coverage of the 2025 college season is 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.
It’s time to unwrap some presents as we introduce the 12 Days of College Ultimate. For the next 12 days, we will be releasing one gift per day, though don’t count on getting any holiday fowl: it’s all college ultimate. From highlight videos to player chatter to a season predictions, we’ve got a little something for everyone. On the fourth day of the 12 Days of College Ultimate, we bring you our staff picks for the D-I championship!
Women’s Division
Picks submitted by Laura Osterlund, Theresa Diffendal, Charlie Eisenhood, Theo Wan, Keith Raynor, Josh Katz, Alex Rubin, Felicia Zheng, Calvin Ciorba, Edward Stephens, Graham Gordon, Grace Conerly
One of these years Quandary have to win… right? They return most of their main contributors from last year and add veteran cutter Fiona Cashin from UGA. That combined with their big-game experience leads me to believe this is their year. The promising young Fugue team will fall just short of the championship but will gain the bracket experience to win it all in 2026. Rounding out my semifinal picks are two established programs, UNC and UVM. Even with a depleted roster, UNC’s coaching, player development, and Nationals experience will earn them a spot in semis again (or even maybe another championship). UVM could easily make finals with the talent on their roster, but I left them out simply due to there being only two spaces and I see more compelling reasons (right now!) for Oregon and Colorado.
Teams who will just miss semis:
- Carleton: Not enough firepower. Their top-end is very talented, but I am not sure the depth is there for a deep bracket run given how strong the rest of the division is. Nevertheless, Carleton’s pipeline of young talent is as strong as ever.
- Stanford: Their O-line cutting core is intact but three of their best handlers from last season (Macy Vollbrecht, Kiana Hu, Esther Filipek) are all not playing this season. But still, it would be foolish to bet against their inevitable zone carrying them far into the bracket.
- Tufts: Well-coached and disciplined team, but I am doubtful if they have the depth for a semis run. But is there a defender in the division that can stop Emily Kemp? Probably not.
- UBC: To be clear, they could easily make semis. But from my view, the division is just too good and they lost three out of four of their stellar O-line cutters from last year, where they fell just short of semis.
– Grace Conerly
Several teams just missed my cut – Oregon, Stanford, UNC, Carleton – and they might prove me wrong for three of these slots. I feel pretty good about the multi-year plans of Colorado and UBC, though, and UC San Diego are in for a huge season with the addition of Tori Gray. (I mean, can you imagine opponents trying to guard both Gray and Abbi Shilts?!) But those aren’t the locks. The lock is Vermont Ruckus: the most talented team in the country will win the 2025 championship.
– Edward Stephens
Like Grace above, I’m betting on this being the year Quandary put it all together. They return perhaps the best top three in the division in Clil Phillips, Emma Williamson, and reigning BPOTY Faye Burdick, who were all recently selected to the U24 women’s team. They also have great young depth ready to step up into bigger roles, including Junior Worlds center handler Simone Pierotti. Vermont lose Kennedy McCarthy, but a core led by Emily Pozzy, Caroline Stone, and Ella Monaghan alongside a very strong and deep rookie class should keep them at the level where they’ve been, if not higher. UNC will obviously still be a formidable opponent, but they lose Dawn Culton, Theresa Yu, Sarah Combs, and more from last year’s fourth-consecutive title team, so expect a glimpse of mortality. Carleton are the most unpredictable team of this set, but another year of development and growth in chemistry from stars Chagall Gelfand, Naomi Fina, and Mia Beeman-Weber certainly give Syzygy a high ceiling.
– Graham Gordon
With talent pouring in, surely this is Vermont’s year to finally win it all. They have the stars, they have the depth, they have all of the pieces they need. All that’s left to do is execute. 2025 is the year Fugue grow into the powerhouse they’ve been hinting at for the past couple of seasons. With the incredible club season Trout Weybright just had, this team is destined for a deep run. Similarly, this is going to be a big season for Tufts. They returned 19 of their 21-person 2024 Nationals roster, including Lia Schwartz and Emily Kemp. Let’s recall that this Tufts team were two points short of a semifinal slot last season; the head start you get from returning this many players is worth that deficit and more. With some major contributors’ times on the team coming to a close, EWO know this needs to be their year. Unfortunately, even with that push, they’ll fall short of finals. For UNC, the depth of experience on the team and excellent coaching will be what carries Pleiades through. However, against the rising tide of the division, semis is where the road will end for North Carolina.
– Felicia Zheng
Go Ducks! This is the year Fugue finally put it all together and string together a run that will seem like a surprise to casual fans, but really it has been building right in front of us this whole time. Trout Weybright, Syris Linkfield, Miko Magnant, and Acacia Hahn are all leveling up their games at the right time, and there is a UNC-sized hole to fill atop the power rankings. That being said, UNC have the programmatic know-how and overall talent to make semis again despite losing a handful of stars. I feel the same way about UBC. Vermont have to be gutted after disappointing performances now in back-to-back semifinals, and this has to be the year that they get over the hump.
– Alex Rubin
My personal mantra last year was, “Don’t pick against Pleiades until the streak is broken.” Well, they lost a game for the first time since the pandemic last year, dropping a game to Carleton and two to Vermont. But it didn’t matter, as they still won another title, their fourth in a row. At this point, I’ve accepted it’s an immutable law of the post-lockdown world that Pleiades will win a title, and won’t pick against them until they prove otherwise. Oregon will put up a great fight though: Trout Weybright is my way-too-early pick for POTY, and there’s a great supporting cast being put together in Eugene.
– Josh Katz
What a cast of teams this year! Have we ever had more semis-worthy teams before? This could be an all-time season. I made a change from my Deep Look podcast picks just weeks ago while writing this! UBC are perhaps the field’s most ideal blend of veteran leadership, depth, and talent. Colorado aren’t far behind them, though I question their depth a little bit more. Surely the lessons of their bracket foibles will sink this year, right? UNC might not be able to overwhelm teams the way they have in championship campaigns past, but they possess more than enough talent to make the most of their tremendous process. And that final spot? Hard to look away from Vermont, whose talent is unquestionable, but is still young and has struggled to win big games. So why not Oregon? They could have the best player in the division in Trout Weybright, have some exciting young players, and could finally break through in 2025.
– Keith Raynor
Men’s Division
Picks submitted by Patrick Stegemoeller, Charlie Eisenhood, Matt Fazzalaro, Grace Conerly, Calvin Ciorba, Keith Raynor, Theresa Diffendal, Josh Katz, Alex Rubin, Theo Wan, Graham Gordon, Edward Stephens
Would it impart some sense of balance and justice to the world if Oregon toppled UNC in the final this year given the way their quarterfinal matchup played out last season? Absolutely. But think about the world we live in.
UNC’s bid at a four-peat stalled out (sorry Oregon, too soon?) in semis last year, but don’t get it twisted: the dynasty didn’t disappear over night. Ben Dameron is back for a 6th year and is an immediate POTY frontrunner. Kevin Pignone, Josh Singleton, Eli Fried… all back. And most importantly, the Triangle talent factory hasn’t disappeared either, so UNC will also likely be the deepest team in the country. Four-in-a-row was a bridge too far in 2024, but Darkside could very well be starting a new streak this season.
– Patrick Stegemoeller
I’m very excited for this coming college season. I think we have a really good opportunity to see some new faces make deep runs into the national final. Oregon, Pitt, Carleton and Colorado are by no means new faces, but it has been a while since they made it to the big dance on Monday, especially for Oregon and Carleton.
For many of these teams, the old guard has been replaced by some fresh-faced youngsters who are hungry for their turn to stand in the spotlight. Micah Davis of Pitt, Nate De Morgan of Carleton, and Elliot Hawkins of Colorado will all be newish names to keep an eye out for. There are some stubborn 6th years though who are hanging around and I’m sure will be as much trouble as they have been the last half decade.1
Carleton seem like the team to beat for me. I was at CCC myself2 and they were by far the deepest and most complete team with only a month or so of practice under their belt. It is worth mentioning Oregon were not in attendance, and I could be convinced outcomes would’ve been different if Mica Glass and co. had made the trip to Athens. All that’s to say, the parity between teams already feels very high and we haven’t even got going yet.
– Matt Fazzalaro
Word on the street is Oregon are on their way to the top, so I picked them to win. Cal Poly are the people’s team. I picked UNC Darkside because of talent, coaching, history etc.3 UMass should’ve made semis last year and collapsed in an epic way, but I doubt that will happen twice.
– Grace Conerly
Look, I hate chalk. If Oregon, Colorado, UMass, and Cal Poly are the four semifinalists, or if it’s any three of them and UNC, I’ll be disappointed. I am rooting for two (or more) of those five teams (doesn’t matter which) to underperform at some point, or for another team (doesn’t matter who) to vastly overperform. But my brain says this is a five-horse race, and that’s it, even with strong programs at Pittsburgh, Vermont, Penn State, Oregon State, and Carleton. Out of the five contenders, give me Mamabird. Tobias Brooks figures to be a POTY candidate, Zeke Thoreson won’t be far behind, and they have the depth to back it all up for a deep run. Honestly, though, it’s just throwing darts. Change out some names and you can say the same things about SLOCORE, Darkside, Zoodisc, and Ego.
– Edward Stephens
I can’t agree with Edward enough — making these picks is a sad exercise for me, but I also am hedging my bets; these teams were all very good in 2024 and shouldn’t take too much of a step back. All four are in similar situations: they lose a couple big names from last year but overall have the remaining star power to back it up. Colorado see Calvin Stoughton and Nate Buchholz leave the nest but retain Tobias “the future” Brooks and a million athletes with disc skills; Oregon lose some height in Ke’ali McCarter and Adam McNichols but probably have the best junior class in the nation (Glass, Kaplan, Massey, Horrisberger, Beidler, Wulkan… WOW!) and WUBC & U24 selection Raekwon Adkins. SLO will miss Calvin Brown, but Anton Orme, Alex Nelson, and Kyle Lew are still among the best in the business; UMass will surely continue to play their entire roster with an extremely high level of chemistry and disc skill, as they return pretty much everyone from last year minus O-line fixtures Noel Sierra and Will Christian. All in all, I’m praying for someone else to make a run, and no, that most certainly does not include Darkside.
– Graham Gordon
That’s right, I’m picking a Eugene sweep. Oregon have the best junior class in the division and really should have been a semifinalist last season. I’m not worried at all about them making the jump, especially with so many of their players getting high-level club reps with semifinalists there (Glass, Kaplan, Massey on Rhino Slam!, and Adkins on Revolver). Cal Poly bring back enough talent to remain a top-4 team, but if we’re talking about talent, have you seen the Carleton rookie class? The last time they had prospects with this much hype, they won a title. I’m not sure they’ll repeat that experience, but it’s not hard to look at CUT’s roster and see a semifinalist despite last season’s disappointment.4 Like Oregon, Colorado have a stellar crop of rising sophomores and juniors. They’ll be right in the mix for a title, but I think they’re not quite there yet. Teams just missing out on semifinal consideration for me include UMass, UNC, Georgia, and yes, Oregon State.
– Alex Rubin
Did I intentionally pick the same schools to semis in both divisions? Maybe. Do I fully believe these picks anyways? Absolutely. And just as in the women’s division, Oregon have my way-too-early pick for POTY (Mica Glass) but will find themselves falling one step short of glory. Tobias Brooks and Zeke Thoreson are that good, and frankly Colorado feels due for a title after being knocked out by the eventual champions in three of the last four D-I College Championships5.
– Josh Katz
Ego should have been in semifinals last year, and Mica Glass, Raekwon Adkins, Aaron Kaplan, Ben Horrisberger, Chander Boyd-Fliegel…oh man, it is like the whole team! They are stacked and hungry. UNC look a lot like last year’s iteration, only better, as do Colorado, who have at least four players I can picture as All-Americans. And as the resident Declan Miller superfan, I’m ready to proclaim his supremacy, surrounded by a cast of vets and talented young players who will make this Carleton team just good enough to squeak into semis. But CUT will be the shakiest of this group all year.
– Keith Raynor
