Which regions earned strength bids for the D-I and D-III College Championships?
April 6, 2026 by Keith Raynor in News
Following the conclusion of the regular season, USA Ultimate released the final bid allocation, locking in the strength bid allocation for the College Series across all divisions.
For Subscribers: Deep Look reacts to the final bid allocation (scroll to the bottom!)
The final bid picture for each division:
| Region | D-I Women's Div. Bids | D-I Men's Div. Bids | D-III Women's Div. Bids | D-III Men's Div. Bids |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atlantic Coast | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Great Lakes | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Metro East | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| New England | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 |
| North Central | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Northwest | 5 | 5 | 2 | 2 |
| Ohio Valley | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| South Central | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Southeast | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Southwest | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
For D-I Women’s, the final weekend somewhat expectedly burst the bubble for the nation’s most surprising strength bid-holders, James Madison and Tennessee. Each fell from the top 20 to lower than 45th on the rankings after their respective showings at Needle in a Ho Stack. That relegated each of their regions to just a single bid.
With those absences, Vermont was able to move into the vacated space to take a third bid for the New England region. While they weren’t in action in the final weekend, some teams connected to Vermont, including regional mate Northeastern, were at East Coast Invite, helping solidify their case.
Easterns was the site of a dramatic run from outside of the circle to in it in D-I Men’s. UNC Wilmington pounded Western Washington and contended for semifinals at their home tournament, closing the weekend with enough of a push to capture an unlikely bid. It comes at the cost of Wisconsin, who just couldn’t do enough in the winds at Easterns. Western Washington’s poor showing out east actually pulled them outside of the bid line, but fortunately for the region, fellow Northwest team Washington was there to pick up the dropped strength bid.
It was a tense final wait in D-III Men’s, where Kenyon, Whitman, Santa Clara and Colorado School of Mines all projected to be separated by a handful of points. Even a thrown-out game or two could shift the bid with the margins that thin. Whitman’s 6-7 resume was enough to narrowly – 11 points – maintain the edge over Mines.
There was not a super solid foundation in D-III Women’s, but the potentially volatile division mostly stayed pat at the cutoff. While ECI did produce some movement at the top of the rankings, many changes were expected as strong teams reached their 10-game threshold. Like in the men’s division, Kenyon was on the chopping block, projected to lead Winona State by only 8 rankings points. The final tally was merely 10, but all they needed was 1. A 6-5 win over Penn State in buffeting winds at ECI was exactly the close Kenyon needed after an underwhelming weekend that could have seen them drop the bid.
