On the eighth day of Christmas Ultiworld gave to me...a magic 8 ball's take on wild predictions!
December 19, 2025 by Patrick Stegemoeller in Preview
Ultiworld’s coverage of the 2026 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 eighth day of the 12 Days of College Ultimate, Patrick Stegemoeller consults his Magic 8 Ball to see if some of your hot takes are certain, or whether you should ask again next year.
It’s that time of year again my friends. Time to un-fog the future and see what 2026 has in store. At least, what is has in store when it comes to eight specific predictions about the upcoming college ultimate season. Who knows what else is going to happen out there?
I’m writing this year’s missive from the bleeding edge of space and time on a red-eye flight back to New York from a work trip in LA. Sadly, I was not allowed to bring the Magic Eight Ball through security (they made me crack it open and drink it like it was a bottle of Aquafina I forgot in my carry on. The flavor? Inky eternity.)
Without a physical eight ball this year I am forced to get creative, so this year our fates will be laid out by a virtual eight ball. After vibe checking a few different options, I settled on one that exuded the most credible energy. And don’t worry, before smashing open the real eight ball and being forced at taser point to drink it by TSA, I asked if this was the correct course of action.
The answer? A resounding yes.
Reminder on how this all works: readers have sent their bold predictions for the 2026 College season into the Ultiworld Discord, we pick out eight of them and ask the Eight Ball to bestow its vision upon us, and then sort out the implications of our oracle’s wisdom.
Now, I have not gone back over the past couple years to run the numbers on the success rate of the Magic 8 Ball’s answers, but I’m going to assume it is 100%. So feel confident that everything you read here WILL come to pass. Maybe confident enough to put some money on it. And then maybe give your boy a little piece of the action after you win. What seems fair? Like 5%? Yeah, that seems fair. It’s a guaranteed thing.1
Alright, let’s see what will be.
1. None of the D-I 2025 Finalists Appear in the Final
Okay, no messing around here from the Eight Ball, we’re getting right into it!
I suppose this prediction is not THAT bold. There hasn’t been a repeat finalist in the D-I men’s division since 2023, and with the Pleiades dynasty at least pressing pause in the women’s division, the field seems more open than it has been in a bit. All that said, Carleton Syzygy might be the biggest title favorite in any of the college divisions, so it’s gonna be crazy when they lose to Stanford in quarters. (The hell winds of Rockford carry the wailing prayers of a thousand souls crying out against yet another zone point.)
2. 6th Year Players:College Frisbee:: Boomers:Home Ownership
Okay, frankly I’m not entirely sure what it would mean for a graduate student only team to form and legally compete in the college division.
Someone with a year of eligibility left and nothing else to live for finds a college that doesn’t already have a team and brings a bunch of other aimless recently graduated frisbee starts to enroll in grad programs? A school with a pre-existing team gets usurped by a cadre of grad students, banning undergrads from the team as a display of tribal dominance? (Which would be weird, but kinda sick?) UNC decides they have had enough of going a FULL YEAR without bringing a title to campus so they recruit every good grad student with eligibility, hold tryouts like normal, and only the 5th/6th years make it?
I guess it doesn’t matter, because one way or another, it looks like it’s happening. Potential twist on the “rethink eligibility” piece could be incoming though, because if anything, USAU is going to use this as a reason to expand eligibility further. If there is a 28 year old out there who wants to pay membership dues so as to handblock a child into the void, then by god USAU is going to find a way to make it happen.
3. William & Mary ‘s B Team is Better at Being a B Team than the A Team is at Being an A Team
Dude, hell yeah. Fuck yeah. Not as spicy as the holy grail college frisbee occurrence – B team knocking out A team at Regionals – but we’re going in that direction here, and I like it.
4. Short the Mamabird Market
Okay so on the one hand this seems like an indication to sell all your Mamabird stock. But, there’s a problem here.
Now that the Eight Ball has told us where Colorado is going to finish (two “rungs” below my initial estimation – the final, for what it’s worth), I now think they are going to finish in quarters. But… since I think they are going to go out in quarters, does that now mean I should be revising two rungs below that? Is it rungs all the way down? Where does it stop? WILL COLORADO MAMBIRD EVEN EXIST?!
5. D-III Women’s: Wesleyan and Bryn Mawr/Haverford Back to the Final, But Sneetches Win; Liv Davis Leads Stats at Nattys
Definitive!
This is definitely bad news for Bryn Mawr/Haverford. A shame.
Potentially good news for Wesleyan, who are either winning another chip or missing the final entirely. At the very least high stakes news for Wesleyan.
And honestly kind of rude news for Liv Davis. Never seems unnecessary!
6. Pitt M Wins Region but Misses Bracket at Nats, Penn State Makes Semis
Eight Ball you have one job! Don’t put this back on me!
Hmmm okay my intuition says that there is no way Penn State is making semis. There are at least six teams – Carleton, UMass, Oregon, UNC, Colorado, Cal Poly, and Michigan – that are better. Probably Western Washington, too. And then a whole bunch of teams in the same general strata as Penn State that they will need to chop through just to get a shot at one of those top teams.
My intuition also says that Pitt will be kinda decent this year? At least not outright bad the way they were for the first time in about two decades last season. For the sake of the friz scene in Pittsburgh, the reps their young players got last year better have been the watering of a garden that will grow this season. So I could see them winning the region, but also DEFINITELY see them missing the bracket if they make Nationals.
You know what, none of that was intuition. That was too much brain. My intuition says the OV is not going to get enough bids for both of these teams to make Nationals, as the state of Pennsylvania spends another year sliding back into the Metro East, where it belongs.
7. Sideline Tacticians
Lol. No notes.
8. One State Gets a Team in Finals for All Four Divisions
An almost-repeat question from last year! Last season the Eight Ball told us the four winners would come from that same state, so working backwards from that being a correct and true response, let’s figure out the extent of what another “yes” can mean here.
Last year’s winners: Carleton, UBC, Wesleyan, Lewis & Clark. So, for sure not from the same state. Not even all the same country.
But let’s expand our minds a bit. Could we characterize them as all being in a similar state of being? UBC seemed pretty calm and composed during their run. Wesleyan were unshakeable. Carleton… (remembers that Nate DeMorgan exists) okay never mind.
What else connects them? What paints this picture for us?
What if we connect them all on a map? Does this tell us anything?
I’ll be straight with you. I was really hoping this would at least vaguely take the shape of Florida or Rhode Island or something.
Wait a minute…
- ViciouS Circles
- Thunderbirds
- BAcchus
- CUT
- Everything makes sense now
We might have to be open minded about what the state all of the winners come from, I guess is my point.
Attorney’s note: DO NOT do this. ↩
