A mini-Nationals fields the top teams in both D-I and D-III for an exciting all-out clash to end the regular season - and finalize the bid picture
March 27, 2025 by Patrick Stegemoeller and Josh Katz in Preview, Video
Ultiworld’s 2025 college coverage 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.
Remember the Hydra? Not the UVA women’s team. Or the maniacal secret organization bent on world domination from all those Marvel movies. I’m talking about the Lernaean Hydra, our many-headed homie of Greek myth. Scales. Fangs. Poisonous blood. An absolute unit. And famously, regarding that “many heads” feature, every time you cut off one of those thangs two more would pop right back up.
I often feel the same way about the college season. Every time we think we learn something, every piece of data we get from the regular season just seems to beg further, potentially fang-ier questions. In this way the season doesn’t so much progress to a conclusion as it unfurls, expanding to something bigger as we go.
With the regular season almost in the books, there are still so many big questions about the landscape of the contenders, pretenders, heroes, villains, and everything in between. Luckily, this weekend brings Easterns, the crown jewel of the regular season calendar. From all four corners of the country many of the best teams are coming together for one big seismic clash before retreating back to their regional enclaves for the early stages of the postseason.
Full Easterns Competition Schedule & Results
How To Watch
We’ve got you covered for all the exciting action this weekend. You will need an Ultiworld Standard or All-Access subscription to be able to watch games from the Easterns 2025 Event Page. Or get access for your entire team and coaching staff with a 2025 College Team Pack!
The event begins March 29, LIVE on Ultiworld.com. All broadcasted games will be available on-demand for viewing immediately following the live broadcasts.
Full Broadcast Schedule
Division I Tournament Preview – Five Big Questions
We’ve got five questions going into this weekend that the action in Wilmington may answer for us. Or at the very least, give us some new toothpicks to chew on as we ponder the many questions of the college season.
Is the New North Carolina Even Better than Last Year?
Through the first third of the season, when #1 UNC Darkside failed to win Carolina Kickoff for the first time in a decade then faced mostly Mickey Mouse competition at QCTU, there was a sense that this Darkside team may be a slightly lighter proposition than recent iterations. Ben Dameron, perhaps the only remaining bona fide Club-level superstar on the roster, was going to have some heavy lifting to do against the best teams in the division. It made sense that UNC would lose a game without him at Kickoff, as the team was seemingly more reliant on one player than they had been at any point during this period of extended-eligibility excess.
So all they did was go out to Smoky Mountain Invite and win the whole thing, beating three top-five teams, all without Dameron.
Darkside, as if they ever left, are soooooooooo back. Which once again puts us rounding the turn of a college season with UNC as the clear #1 team in the country. While their are fewer big names around than in 2024, it feels like Carolina’s machine has all the parts it needs.
Particularly on the defensive side of the ball it seems like UNC can go multiple lines deep with players who all know how to fit their role perfectly, balancing textbook person defense with aggressive switching and lane shading. At SMI, North Carolina were able to execute on some high-level defensive schemes at a time in the season when many teams are still getting up to speed on simple coverages.
It’s not all doom and gloom for the rest of the division, as it’s important to remember that UNC needed back-to-back universe point wins and a mini-implosion from the #2 UMass Zoodisc O-line to get them through SMI undefeated. This wasn’t the kind of dominant wire-to-wire showing that we’ve seen from some of the best college teams of recent years. The offense clearly still has some issues to work through, finding the right balance between a deep vert stack that gives their handlers room to play and finding spacing for a cutting core that seemed lost at times.
But again, they did it all that without their best player, who will be back in action at Easterns. Scary stuff.
Where is the Title Contender Cutoff?
Right now, pre-Easterns, I think the list goes six teams deep (not counting BYU). UNC, UMass, #3 Colorado Mamabird, #4 Carleton CUT, #5 Oregon Ego, and #6 Cal Poly SLO SLOCORE. Until we see otherwise, it looks like everyone else is just hoping to make semis.
Can anyone play their way into that tier this weekend? It’s going to be tough.
#8 Vermont Chill are a fun talented bunch, and use their roster depth well, but I don’t think they have the chops to win three straight bracket games at Nationals. #15 Cal Ursa Major are outkicking their coverage as the seven seed and it would be a surprise to see them make the final here, let alone at Nationals. Someone else like #18 Georgia Jojah or #13 Pittsburgh En Sabah Nur would need to take a seismic leap from their early season results to get back into the rarefied air they’ve previously occupied.
If anything, it is more likely that a couple top teams play their way out of contender status with a disappointing showing. UNC, CUT, and UMass could still be in line for top seeds at Nationals with an underwhelming Easterns, but some real doubts would start to emerge if Oregon fell flat again or if Cal Poly failed to stand tall during their first true major tournament test.
Which is the Strongest Region in the Country?
It’s a time of regional haves and have-nots in the college division, as just four regions (New England, Northwest, Southwest, South Central) are currently in possession of all the strength bids to Nationals, leaving the rest of the country stranded in single bid status.
All of the powerhouse regions are sending representatives to tangle at Easterns, and we may see one emerge as the clear leader by the end of the weekend.
New England and their four bids (as it currently stands) to Nationals lead the way on high-end depth, with three teams in the top 10 and five in top 25, but may not have any true title contenders beyond UMass. (Who, it should be noted, have had some trouble sealing the deal this season, having lost in finals of the two biggest tournaments so far this year, Florida Warm Up and SMI).
While the non-East Coast regions aren’t rolling deep into Easterns, each one is at least sending a top delegate. The Northwest, possessing five bids, at least momentarily, will be underrepresented with only Oregon making the cross-country trek. Ego could use a strong tournament to reassert themselves at the top of the Northwest pack after a strong effort by #9 Oregon State Beavers last week at NWC. An Oregon victory would prove that the Northwest can travel, as the region has had little to crow about outside of West Coast play.
The Southwest and South Central are both represented as well, with Cal Poly SLO and Colorado leading the charge. While Colorado came out and put in an impressive performance at SMI, this will be SLO’s first time playing against any team that isn’t from a state touching either the Pacific Ocean or Rocky Mountains.
Who is the Best First-Year?
Put on the spot, I’d be hard pressed to say which of this first-year class truly standout above the rest. Sam Grossberg (#17 Georgia Tech Wreck) has the biggest hype train behind him, Nate De Morgan has that “new CUT smell” on him as Carleton’s anointed next great one, and Nolan McCloskey’s (#12 Brown Brownian Motion) coaches are uploading the consciousnesses of Mac Hecht, John Randolph, and Jacques Nissen into his prefrontal cortex so he can carryout his functions as an avatar of the Brown way.
But, as is increasingly the case, the talent pool is deep and wide this year. So many teams are reliant on their freshman hoopers, that the outcome at Easterns may come down to the play of a few key freshmen. If #23 Michigan MagnUM are going to make some noise you can bet that The Big Spellcheck Filip Icev will have something to do with it.
Elliot Hawkins and Ezra Thoreson are driving the bus at Colorado. Hell, De Morgan may not even be the best freshmen on CUT, with Ellis Newhouse running around out there like he’s got horse blood in his veins.
The RotY race is wide open right now, and awards chatter aside, it will be interesting to see which players take the reins as the leaders of the next generation.
Which Non-Bid Earners are Going to Pose a Threat at Regionals?
The bid situation is largely settled at this point. Other than a couple teams in New England and South Central capable of shifting a bid around in the final weekend (and of course the whims of BYU), there isn’t likely to be much movement on that front. But every year there are surprises on Regionals Weekend, throwing brackets into chaos and upending projections. One of this year’s culprits could be lurking at Easterns, just below the bidline, with the hungry eyes of a scaly swamp beast.
Do Georgia Tech have it like that? Do #14 Penn State Spank have the juice? If the North Central is going to be one bid deep can Minnesota show any green shoots of promise that they can usher in another Carleton bid fumble? Keep a close watch this weekend and you may learn something.
And Now, 25 Words on Each of the Scheduled Stream Games
Saturday 9:00 am
Georgia Tech v. Pittsburgh: Pitt started SMI by getting drubbed 13-6 against UNC. They will start this weekend against the one team to hand UNC an L this year.
Brown v. Georgia: Fun rematch from Natties last year. Whoever loses this has basically no shot at making quarters here, with Oregon and Colorado also in Pool D.
Saturday 10:45 am
Vermont v. Michigan: With only a handful of games on the ledger it’s hard to get a read on Michigan. They did come back to beat Vermont in consolation at FWU.
Saturday 12:30 pm
Penn State v. NC State: Which of these second-team-in-the-state-schools is going to be more pissed off about being defined in opposition to their in-state and in-region rival? Probably Penn State.
Saturday 2:15 pm
Colorado v. Oregon: Would you rather have Mica Glass or Tobias Brooks? Would you rather be a duck or a mamabird? Which state is more deeply Patagonia beanie-coded?
UMass v. Cal: UMass’s resume looks solid heading into Easterns. Cal’s resume looks weird, down to some of the final scores. 4-7. 9-8. 12-4. 10-9. Unsettling and untrustworthy.
Saturday 4:00pm
Carleton v. Cal Poly SLO: Saturday’s most exciting game. Two offenses with a sense of style. Of identity. Of dunking. Two defenses with a sense of “out here trying stuff.”
UNC v. Vermont: Vermont lack a signature win this season, with a series of close losses buoying their ranking. Beating UNC would change that, to say the least.
Division III Tournament Preview
Atlantic Coast Bidwatch
Heading into the season’s final weekend, the Atlantic Coast is currently projected to send three teams to Nationals, though two of them are in precarious positions. #5 Elon BFB’s place atop the region (and among the top of the division) is secure, but #9 UNC-Asheville Mudpuppy and #14 Richmond Spidermonkeys are both less than 150 rankings points away from current cutoff, with numerous challengers below them also in action this weekend at Easterns and elsewhere. Between the two, locking in at least one strength bid is a must for either to have a chance of making the trip to Burlington. And with potential spoilers such as #24 Davidson DUFF looming ahead at ConfRegionals, bringing two strength bids home from Wilmington will let everyone sleep easier at night.
What’s Wrong in New England?
Three teams are making the journey down the East Coast from New England this weekend, all of whom hoping to prove that their early season blips are not harbingers of what’s to come in the Series. For #6 Middlebury Pranksters, their place in the Nationals picture is secure, but some shocking results (a 15-14 loss to Dartmouth Pain Train at Centex chief among them) have shown more cracks in the armor than we’re used to seeing from the Pranksters. #12 Williams WUFO were expected to take a step back after losing a large senior class, though they’ve fallen a bit further than many predicted. Like their peers in the AC, the reigning Nationals runners-up are perilously close to losing their strength bid.
Rounding out the New England contingent is now-unranked Bates Orange Whip. Our preseason #11 has taken a nosedive out of our Power Rankings and out of the Nationals bid picture after some lackluster results throughout the season. For Bates, Easterns is more about generating some positive momentum ahead of the Series rather than playing for a more tangible goal.
