2025 D-I College Preseason Power Rankings: The Top 5

We reveal our preseason Top 25 for the 2025 D-I college season, finishing with the top five contenders.

 

Ultiworld’s College Power Rankings, presented by the National Ultimate Training Camp!

We are excited to present the 2025 preseason College Power Rankings! As we head into a new season, we’ve looked at past performance, roster changes, preseason results, and more to figure out how we think the team could stack up this season. Take a look at our first rankings set of the spring college season and read up about each Top 25 team.

We will be counting down our rankings in three parts:

#25 to #16
#15 to #6
The Top 5


D-I Women’s

Contributions from Edward Stephens, Aidan Thomas, and Graham Gordon

1. Vermont Ruckus

2024 Finish: #3 in Power Rankings, 3T at Nationals, 31-2 record

Is this the year Ruckus break through for a ‘chip? For two years in a row, they’ve been frustratingly close. With a talented blend of veterans (Caroline Stone, Emily Pozzy, Mae Browning) and youth (Ella Monaghan, Tatum Cubrilovic, Willa Morales), Vermont have the pieces to get to the top.

2. Colorado Quandary

2024 Finish: #4 in Power Rankings, 3T at Nationals, 25-8 record

For three consecutive years, Colorado have reached at least semis before getting bounced by North Carolina. With so much near-championship experience and plenty of starpower (Clil Phillips, Faye Burdick, and grad transfer Fiona Cashin) they have to like their odds of finally getting the title.

3. UNC Pleiades

2024 Finish: #1 in Power Rankings, 1 at Nationals, 42-3 record

Pleiades lose patented stars Dawn Culton and Theresa Yu, but they’ve got talent waiting in the wings. Erica Birdsong, UNC’s lone returning All-Region selection, likely needs to make a leap to All-American status for Pleiades to push for a fifth straight title.

4. UBC Thunderbirds

2024 Finish: #7 in Power Rankings, 5T at Nationals, 28-4 record

With a potentially healthy Madison Ong, an additional superstar in Mika Kurahashi, and a litany of players with Team Canada and Vancouver Red Flag experience, UBC should contend again this year. Is 2025 the season it all comes together?

5. Oregon Fugue

2024 Finish: #8 in Power Rankings, 5T at Nationals, 30-7 record

Last year’s primer lauded Oregon’s young stars, all of whom return in 2025. They went to quarterfinals at Nationals last year, could they break into semis or beyond in May? The hype on Trout Weybright, Syris Linkfield, Miko Magnant, and Acacia Hahn is real.

 

 

 

D-I Men’s

Contributions from Alex Rubin, Emmet Holton, Edward Stephens, and Aidan Thomas

1. Oregon Ego

2024 Finish: #6 in Power Rankings, 5T at Nationals, 39-6 record

Ego boast the best junior class in the country, highlighted by 2024 club breakout player of the year Mica Glass, who figures to be one of the best players in the division. Add to that a collection of recently crowned club champions and a fleet of players coming off of summers on Nationals bracket-level club teams and you have what is the most impressive team on paper coming into 2025.

2. UNC Darkside

2024 Finish: #3 in Power Rankings, 3T at Nationals, 40-3 record

Ben Dameron and Kevin Pignone are back as 6th years, Josh Singleton and Eli Fried are fully-fledged upperclassmen, and the depth is still in place to recapture the championship magic that (finally) eluded them last season. It’ll take some work to get back to the top, but Darkside have every reason to believe in themselves.

3. Cal Poly SLO SLOCORE

2024 Finish: #2 in Power Rankings, 2 at Nationals, 40-5 record

Though SLOCORE suffer some major departures, the pieces they keep figure to place them right back atop the division in 2025. Historically a team with a balanced approach, U24 selections Anton Orme, Kyle Lew, and Alex Nelson, will need to take over more than in years past, time will tell what that looks like on the field.

4. Colorado Mamabird

2024 Finish: #6 in Power Rankings, 3T at Nationals, 30-7 record

2024 Rookie of the Year Tobias Brooks returns to lead the way for Colorado, who seek to return to the summit of college ultimate for the first time since 2014. Count on third-years Tucker Kalmus, Carter Halstrom, Zeke Thoreson, and Ryan Shigley to step up in a big way.

5. UMass Zoodisc

2024 Finish: #8 in Power Rankings, 9T at Nationals, 30-6

The stunning youngsters who led Zoodisc’s charge to the 2023 title game are now grizzled veterans – can they live up to the promise they showed as part of their post-COVID glow? The promise of Wyatt Kellman, Gavin Abrahamson, and Ethan Lieman together again almost takes the sting out of Jonah Stang-Osborne’s injury last November.

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