Despite an undefeated top tier, no pool went to seed as teams made early season statements
February 14, 2026 by Matt Fazzalaro in Recap
Ultiworld’s 2026 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.
I really like Presidents’ Day Invite. Every year it is one of my favorite tournaments, for several reasons. First, it’s a three day tournament – more time with friends, more time in a cool city, and more time playing ultimate. Secondly, most every team has their uniforms by Prez Day1 and that means the season is fully underway. We have come a long way from the spray painted cut off jerseys of Florida Warm-Up and are better for it. And finally, with four of the top ten teams in the country in the mix, this year’s Presidents’ Day Invite is sure to be an exciting one. Let’s take a look at how pool play shook out in San Diego.
Out-of-Staters Own the Pools
Presidents’ Day Invite is an important tournament if you go to school in California. Seven out of sixteen teams in attendance are California Universities, and you would think with representation like that, a home town team might actually be able to win this thing. Unfortunately, teams from out of town decided to say otherwise today.
Pool play was dominated by the top four seeds, three of whom are not from California.2 There is not a ton to say about these teams as of yet– none of games from UC squads were particularly close, save for #11 UC Santa Cruz’s matchup against #6 Oregon State Beavers, and that still ended 13-11 in favor of the Slugs.
While a rather boring outcome, with the rosters that #2 Colorado, #3 Oregon, #10 Victoria, and UC Santa Cruz have, it should come as no surprise that they delivered the mail today. This does however set up for some very exciting bracket matchups, and rest assured that every region in the country will be tuning in for these potential semis matchups–assuming the aforementioned teams make it past their crossover matchups and quarterfinals.
Biggest Winners and Biggest Losers
I am looking at you Colorado State. Do better. ↩
Except you UC Santa Cruz, way to represent! ↩
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