A high-powered field makes Smoky Mountain Invite a key point of evaluation of the division's best teams.
February 24, 2026 by Edward Stephens in Preview, Video
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.
As February yields to March, the 2026 college season’s first act comes to a close. We don’t get anything like an intermission, though. It’s straight action from now until the postseason, beginning in Knoxville with Smoky Mountain Invite, that annual convention for many of the men’s division’s top contenders. Will the themes of the early season deepen, or will the playwrights of college frisbee toss in a few delectable wrinkles? The ground could become ever firmer under the cleats of the top teams, or it could shift entirely.
Read on for a rundown of what’s at stake in this midseason gala.
But first, let’s take a look at the streaming schedule.
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 Smoky Mountain Invite 2026. Or get access for your entire team and coaching staff with a 2026 College Team Pack!
The event begins February 28, LIVE on Ultiworld.com. All broadcasted games will be available on-demand for viewing immediately following the live broadcasts.
Full Broadcast Schedule
Tournament Preview
Beasts of the East Meet the Best of the West
The four title contenders we identified before the start of the season – or, better yet, who as much as identified themselves with their 2025 season finishes and 2026 roster commitments – have looked every bit the part through the first two months of the season. #1 Carleton CUT sailed through a Florida Warm Up slate before putting away #3 UMass Zoodisc (who comfortably beat everybody until CUT) to win the weekend. #2 Oregon Ego, after winning their annual local warm-up Pac Con, put the division on notice by thumping #4 Colorado Mamabird in the final of Presidents’ Day Invite. (Colorado, for their part, went undefeated until running into the sawmill erected by Ego and the brutal holiday wind.)
The four of them now gather in one place for a four-way battle royale. What’s on the line? Not everything, not yet. But the confidence of knowing you can make adjustments from your opening sally to either fend off your chasing rivals or overcome those ahead of you can be a crucial edge in a championship fight that is sure to be at least half made up of the mental game. Resilience, motivation, and concentration are the rewards on the table.
For those of us privileged to get to watch, SMI is our first chance to see if one of the previously separated pairs (the western and the eastern) holds an advantage over the other. Oh, and it gives the added benefit of bringing together stars like CUT’s Declan Miller and Ryan duSaire, Ego’s Mica Glass and Raekwon Adkins, Mamabird’s Tobias Brooks and Zeke Thoreson, and Zoodisc’s Ethan Lieman and Wyatt Kellman to the same small patch of real estate. Let the fun begin.
Bracket Busting Sneak Peek
Plenty could go wrong with the idea that the above Fab Four clash in Smoky semis, particularly since another smattering of excellent teams are poised to crash the party. The conversation starts with #5 UNC Darkside. The collective “wisdom” – quotes because we don’t actually know anything, we’re just guessing, and I’m just as guilty as1 most when it comes to guessing wrong – says that the dominant program of the decade’s first half is now a step behind the competition. Are they? That isn’t clear. The way Josh Singleton and Matt Barcellos played at this tournament last year, they could end up being two of the weekend’s top five performers. Besides which, they’re plenty deep beyond that: Hayden Naylor, Grayson Trowbridge, Keller Fraley, Noah Bush, and Eli Fried are only a sample of the players who could find themselves on an overcapable UP line. A Saturday afternoon meeting with Oregon will tell us a lot about UNC’s potential.
They’re not the only ones capable of throwing a wooden shoe into the cogs of industry. #6 UC Santa Cruz Slugs, making their elite East Coast debut, have carried themselves brilliantly in the season’s opening frame, posting a handsome 10-3 record and looking the part of a top-level team. Toby Warren has been without a doubt one of the stars of the division, and plenty of support from the likes of Milan Moslehi and Selim Jones has kept them well-rounded. Finally, don’t sleep on either of the Warm Up semifinalists to cause a commotion. #9 Vermont Chill (Casey Thornton, Dominic Chiodi) and #14 Michigan MagnUM (Aaron Bartlett, Nick Alfonso) have given themselves a foundation from which to take a big leap forward.
Looking for a Surprise
There are simply too many very good teams at SMI to spend time on all of them, so I’ll offer up a couple of teams who could surprise in a big way. #15 Brown Brownian Motion went to universe in the gale force loss against Michigan in quarters at Warm Up. They won every other game by at least four goals, and the offensive grouping of Jason Tapper, Owen Erdman, Nolan McCloskey, and Teo Huson look formidable indeed. And #19 UNC Wilmington Seamen – like UC Santa Cruz, they make their Smoky Mountain debut this weekend – were excellent at Queen City, only losing a close game against Darkside. If they’re really back to the Seamen of old, it will show this weekend. Standing in the way of both Brown and Wilmington, however, is brutal Saturday test.
Second Chances
Could SMI offer redemption to a program in need? #20 Penn State Spank, Georgia Tech Tribe, and Georgia Jojah all stumbled out of the gate. What can they do to get back on the right track? Wins will be difficult to come by in such a crowded field, so it may be necessary to look beneath the weekend records and to the actual quality of their play to discern whether a rebound is possible or if they’ll remain mired in a funk for the spring.
Read: definitely guiltier than ↩
