Eight elite old school jams for eight elite college teams.
March 29, 2026 by Edward Stephens in Opinion, Recap
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You know what they say: for every moment, there’s a song.1 That holds true even in our little corner of the alternative athletic landscape. Hardly does a 175-gram disc rotate anywhere in my vicinity before I recall those brighter, more compact discs of my youth. The Score, Cracked Rear View, Dookie, Reasonable Doubt, City of Angels: Music from the Motion Picture. As you may well imagine, day one at Easterns, with 20 teams hooting and stomping in close proximity to one another in a howling wind, was for me like being in Tower Records, in Media Play, in Sam Goody.
I usually keep these thoughts to myself, I know they’re ridiculous. Today, though, indulge me for a few minutes. Let’s take a listening tour — via hits from the 90’s — of the eight teams who qualified for Sunday’s championship bracket.
A note before we get started. I had to cut out a lot of the juicy storylines from today. If you want to read about the latest Book of Job-esque trial to beset #11 UMass Zoodisc, or ponder the present and future of #13 Georgia Tech Tribe, or have an honest conversation about #8 Western Washington Dirt’s ceiling, you’ll have to wait for the full tournament recap next week. The brief for tonight is limited to the eight teams in quarters. Got it?
And do take a gander at the scores, standings, and video library before moving on to the chunes.
UNC Wilmington – “My Hero” by Foo Fighters
We have to start with the scorcher of a day from hosts #21 UNC Wilmington Seamen. The long-dormant legacy team had gone a full 10 years without making the championship bracket at their home tournament until a universe point win over #9 Pittsburgh En Sabah Nur tipped the scales in their favor. Whatever happens on Sunday, they deserve a triumphant soundtrack. What better than Dave Grohl’s awestruck earworm, “My Hero”?
Author’s note: Nobody says this, as far as I know. I just made it up. ↩
Easterns 2026: The 90’s Throwback Quarters Playlist (Day One Recap) is only available to Ultiworld Subscribers
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