D-I College Championships 2026: Pool Previews (Men’s)

Get to know the 20 teams competing for a D-I college title!

May 20, 2026 by Alex Rubin, Graham Gordon and Aidan Thomas in Preview

Ultiworld’s coverage of the 2026 College Championships 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.

The D-I College Championships start on Friday! After a long regular season, three teams have started to separate themselves in Colorado, Oregon, and Carleton. But lurking below them are a bevvy of challengers, including a North Carolina team hoping to make it back to semis after a universe loss last year, a UC Santa Cruz squad looking to build on a strong regular season, the return of 2024 champions Brown, a UMass side wanting to finally capitalize on their talent, and a host of relative newcomers like Georgia Tech, McGill, Yale, and Maryland gearing up to make a push in the bracket.

We’ve got you covered for all the exciting action this weekend, but before the first pull goes up, let’s get to know the teams who will be competing in Rockford. You can follow along on the D-I College Championships event page for updates and livestreams throughout the weekend!

Ultiworld Event Page — USAU Competition Schedule — Streaming Schedule

Pool A | Pool B | Pool C | Pool D

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Pool A

Teams: #3 Oregon Ego, #6 UC Santa Cruz Slugs, #12 Texas TUFF, #13 Georgia Tech Tribe, #17 Utah Zion Curtain
Overall Strength: 💪💪💪
Star Power: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Upset Alert: 🚨🚨🚨🚨

Oregon Ego

Assuming good health heading into Nationals, Oregon Ego are an incredibly scary team and definitely deserving of the one seed based on potential alone. As a reminder of their potential, they brought a mostly full-strength Carleton to universe point at both Smoky Mountain Invite and Easterns without Mica Glass, and they were missing Raekwon Adkins the first time. For those who forgot, the last time we saw Ego at full health against out-of-region competition resulted in an absolute drubbing of Colorado in the Presidents’ Day Invite final. Glass has actually been playing on the D-Line since his return, which could be a very interesting wrinkle that will allow him to stay fresh for crossovers and provide instant counter-attack punch.

How have they been so effective in his absence? Well, this Oregon team is ridiculously stacked with elite throwers, consistent role players, and athletes abound. Owen Sprague has filled in for Glass’s central handler role as a rookie and handled the pressure extremely well. His composure will be vital for this line’s consistency, but I don’t see him getting shaken. Senior Adam Wulkan and first-year Reggie Masket have also stepped up onto sizable roles in the Ego offense, which benefits so much from the gravity of Adkins. He’s long been someone who can control the handler space and make all the big throws, but he’s leveled up downfield, and the threat of him dominating the lane draws a lot of help and makes space for the whole cutting corps, which also includes Marcus Biedler and Julian Saunt.

That’s not even to touch on a potential Glass-led defense — which also includes Aaron Kaplan and Max Massey? That’s just gross. Ego will have to play a pretty bad game to drop one in pool play, but nothing is impossible. See Smoky Mountain Invite vs. Pitt for an example.

UC Santa Cruz Slugs

After a disappointing run at Nationals in 2025 where they missed the bracket on a tiebreaker, this seems like it could be the year for the Slugs to make a run. They returned pretty much everyone notable from last year, and the regular season results are pretty damn solid. They made semifinals at both Prez Day and Smoky Mountain, losing to Colorado both times. While they don’t have any marquee victories over the truly elite teams, they’ve cleaned up most of their competition, split with a very strong Cal Poly-SLO team, and only have two losses to teams ranked below them.

It’s easy to start by talking about Toby Warren — he has ascended from solid lead dog on a Nationals team to a top-10 caliber player across the division. Maybe it’s due to his run as a D-line starter for club champions Revolver last fall, but he’s gotten more consistent as a thrower, more dynamic as a playmaker, and steadier as a leader for this Slugs side. He still takes a high volume of shots and they still sometimes come out looking risky, but the effectiveness is wayyyy up, and I see it both as improved selection and sharper execution on all of those backhand hucks and crossfield hammers in the redzone set.

Alongside him is the further development of Milan Moslehi into one of the slipperiest players in the division as a hybrid initiator who can also streak deep with aplomb. Cole Mires and Selim Jones are fantastic complimentary pieces, and Mario Ambrose holds down the D-line. I’m not sure the Slugs can upset Oregon, but they are a clear pool second seed and could set themselves up well to make a run by sweeping the other teams in the pool.

Texas TUFF

For the last four years, Texas has been an extremely talented team that hasn’t been able to put it all together, making quarters just once in 2023. This year, they have had a very milquetoast set of results in the regular season and postseason. Splitting games with Georgia Tech, a couple of wins against Pittsburgh in consolation play, and a victory against a depleted UMass squad are probably TUFF’s best results. Their regionals was very interesting — they were up against Colorado at half in the title game before letting up a comeback, and they were pushed to universe in the game-to-go by a Colorado State Hibida team who they’d crushed the previous day.

Now, it’s obvious that Texas has the pure roster talent to hang with most anyone in the division. Xavier Fuzat is a bonafide do-everything star. His first step is legendary, and he has all the requisite throws to be a threat from anywhere on the field. However, he’s been a little miscast as a handler the last two years for TUFF, which isn’t exactly where his talents are best utilized. This year, the addition of Cullen Baker as a grad student and center handler has allowed him to push more downfield with good success. Baker is completing an online degree at Texas and not practicing with the team consistently, so it’s taken a while for their chemistry to really round into form — I’m betting on a more refined Texas offense come Nationals with more reps under their belts all together.

Aaron Barcio and rookie sensation Owen Johnson are also players to watch. Johnson in particular is an athletic freak who looks like a consummate veteran on the field and could be the X-factor to a big upset.

Georgia Tech Tribe

Finally, finally, finally do we get to witness the mythical legend of Georgia Tech and the Grossbergs play on the biggest stage at the College Championships. For these past two years that Sam has been at Tech, and even before, Tribe have shown an impossibly high ceiling in the fall and early regular season, with huge wins like their signature upset of UNC at Carolina Kickoff in 2025. This year, it finally came together, even if they took some surprising losses along the way. And there was no match for Tribe at Southeast Regionals, not even close.

What can I say that hasn’t already been said about Sam and Adam Grossberg? We’ve all seen them be two of the three or four most important players on a team that made the quarterfinals at Club Nationals, and it sometimes feels unfair to watch this duo play against most college competition. Sam is the archetypal center handler, with devastating break throws, towering hucks, and a stutter step that is going to pretty much always find the small upline space. Adam is an athletic playmaker who lays out for everything and is still a threat to make all the throws. Both can easily be on either end of any play.

The Tribe roster has been bolstered this year by the addition of Michael Poe, formerly of the Alabama-Huntsville Nightmares and the U-24 National Team, as well as rookies Stefan McCall and Ethan Austin-Cruse. Poe is a dogged defender and scorer, McCall when healthy has looked like one of the smoothest hybrid operators in the game, and Austin-Cruse has really stepped up as a highlight player for the Tribe D-Line. This team could definitely upset pretty much anyone on the right day when their stars are firing, but the variability is extremely high, as evidenced by their 22-9 season.

Utah Zion Curtain

Maybe to the surprise of many, but not particularly for this writer, Utah Zion Curtain managed to sneak their way into Nationals after a mediocre regular season where they didn’t come that close to earning a bid. One might argue that, since it was almost a given the Northwest was going to reach the five-bid cap, it never really mattered anyway, and teams should have been focused on peaking at the right time regardless. Their victory in the fifth place game-to-go against UBC was thrilling — I highly recommend watching the stream if you haven’t gotten the chance to see it.

Will Selfridge is obviously all over the field for Utah in everything they do. One of the most powerful athletes in the game for the past couple of years, his throwing talent has also been boosted by his experience in the club division for Salt Lake Shrimp and for the UFA with the Shred, with heavily featured offensive roles on both of those teams. He’s practically unguardable in the lane, as a front-of-stack initiator in the red zone, or in the air. He has the potential to will this team to wins, but he’s not alone by any means.

Oscar Brown has been an incredibly dynamic, squirrely handler for ZCU this year, and the addition of Max Dehlin as a grad transfer from Minnesota provides a level of consistency that balances out the big-play dynamism of much of the roster, always making the right play to settle the offense. Grayson Rettberg will also be someone who plays both ways a lot for Utah and has a penchant for the huge play. All being said, this team is probably the most dangerous pool five-seed, and regardless of the result, they’ll be pure cinema to watch.

Pool B

Teams: #1 Colorado Mamabird, #8 Oregon State Beavers, #11 Brown Brownian Motion, #14 Michigan MagnUM, #23 Maryland Space Bastards
Overall Strength: 💪💪💪
Star Power: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Upset Alert: 🚨

Colorado Mamabird

Apart from their only loss on the season (to Oregon in an extremely poor weather final at Presidents’ Day Invite that was played on a field so thin that one spectator described it as a “bowling alley”), Mamabird have been untouchable all regular season. Their offense is a pretty classic horizontal stack that relies on all of their players having an acute understanding of space, and it’s further made more efficient by having adept handlers in Tobias Brooks and Ryan Shigley that are exceptionally willing to swing the disc over and over again until a lane opens up.

Elliot Hawkins and Zeke Thoreson have come to play on the O-Line full time after being primarily defensive players last year (albeit frequent crossovers), and both have taken huge steps forward from 2025, in no small part due to playing sizable roles for Johnny Bravo’s offense last club season. Thoreson is still the best athlete on any field, but his throwing has become so much sharper, and Hawkins has transformed from a counterattack quarterback with great hucks to an initiator who can both take over a possession or play an important role in the cycling of open space from the downfield. Finn McKenzie has also been a rookie goal-scoring sensation, finishing off so many possessions for ‘Bird.

Last year, their D-line really struggled to convert breaks without crossovers, but in 2026, Nanda Min-Fink and Tucker Kalmus have been moved to that unit, and they are much stronger for it. With the support of ace defender Sam Kilgore and players like Axel Hartzog and Ezra Thoreson, this is the most balanced Colorado team in many years. Don’t expect them to be challenged until quarters at the very earliest.

Oregon State Beavers

Live by the deep ball, die by it. The Beavers definitely seem to have taken a cue from their Oregon compatriots and 2024 Club Champions Rhino Slam! in terms of stylistic leanings on offense, because this team plays with a lot of size, a lot of hucking talent, and a penchant to take risks that pay off more than they should. This spirit might be most exemplified by last year’s D-I BPOTY runner-up, Callahan Bosworth. The senior has an incredible ability to make jaw-dropping plays, whether they be ridiculous cross-field scoobers or thundering skies in the end zone.

The Beavers’ real rock, and seemingly their emotional leader, though, is fifth-year Felix Moren. He has been one of the sneakily elite players in the division for years, which should be no surprise to anyone who’s watched him play a sizable role for Rhino since before he even started college. Back on the Beavers’ O-line after some time leading the defense, Moren just does all the little things right, and he is no longer sneaky – he’s just elite.

This roster is much deeper, though, than it has been in past years. Henry Wayte is an elite deep threat, Sam Anderson is an important connector for the O-Line, and Ben and Andrew Thoennes really run the show for a D-Line that also likes to shoot deep. The Beavers undoubtedly have a high floor and have consistently beaten inferior teams all year, but the question stands whether or not they can punch up and make a run into the bracket.

Brown Brownian Motion

Another year, another masterful coaching performance by Jake Smart. It’s so impressive that after graduating Jacques Nissen and Leo Gordon following their title performance in 2024, this BMo team only took one year of rebuilding to find themselves as a clear Nationals team again, and that’s without any players stepping up in a superstar, or even star role. This team is obviously chock full of extremely strong players, but much credit has got to go to the programmatic knowledge and system that their coaching staff, led by Smart, has built.

In terms of leadership, it’s been senior Jason Tapper who has filled the void on and off the field. Tapper was able to play roles for DiG and Glory last club and pro seasons, and is ready to be among the top dogs on a Nationals team in college. He was a cog on the BMo offense in 2024, and learned how to do all of the important things right, but now can take a slightly larger role in a more egalitarian, less star-driven system. Eli Chang is a junior who has also stepped up into a big time two-way role. He has really upgraded his throws and general offensive ability after being a primarily defensive ace for most of his career.

However, it’s really the youth movement that has bolstered BMo this year. Nolan McCloskey was a strong rookie last year and has shown that he’s capable of running a really tight handler weave like the best of them. He’s joined in that set by rookie Owen Erdman, a Philly youth product who is tall and athletic enough to play downfield on both sides of the disc in addition to his throwing ability — he’s got to be on the ROTY shortlist.

Michigan MagnUM

Just like in years past, MagnUM played elite competition in the regular season, came away with solid results while dropping some weird games, and won Great Lakes Regionals. It definitely wasn’t as easy as in the past couple years, with the Davenport Panthers pushing them to a universe point matchup in which they had a chance to break for the win, but MagnUM came away with a sweet poach block right away and scored quickly to put away the title.

2026 is the final year of college eligibility for Aaron Bartlett, and what a career it’s been! Bartlett was a freshman in fall 2021 when Michigan made it to the semifinals with a grad student-heavy roster and played a role as an offensive cog even back then. Now, with elite club experience under his belt and three consecutive national championships with Truck Stop and Hybrid, he’ll have one final swan song at Nationals in 2026, hoping to lead MagnUM to a deep run into the bracket. Bartlett has, and will, do everything it takes to score points for Michigan. He’ll play every point in important games, throw lots of hucks, and demand the disc at all times.

He’s supported on Michigan’s offense by Gabe Dowd and first-year Colin Jarvis, among others. Dowd is a really fantastic initiator when he needs to be, and Jarvis is the center handler whenever Bartlett starts downfield, which is when the Michigan offense is at its best. Filip Icev plays a big role for their D-Line, both taking top matchups and running the show on the turn when there are no crossovers. Who knows what Michigan’s strategy will be in terms of which games they prioritize, but whatever it is, it’ll be exciting to see.

Maryland Space Bastards

What is Nationals without a team coming out of nowhere to surprise everyone and qualify for the big dance with a huge upset victory? Maryland had one of the most epic comebacks in recent memory in the game-to-go at Atlantic Coast Regionals, where bid-earners UNC-Wilmington were up 9-5 and then 12-9, only for the Space Bastards to rattle off five straight points to go up 14-12 and hold on when UNCW got one break back to force universe.

U24 teammates Miles Grovic and Isaac Lee will be the obvious stars of the show. Both have played roles for D.C. Truck Stop that have grown over the past few years, with Grovic finding his way onto that vaunted D.C. O-line in 2025. He is one of the best athletes in the division, with great acceleration and unbelievable hops — you do not want to be trying to jump in the same space as him. Lee is a prototypical center handler who is also an elite backfield defender; it was in no small part due to his ability to continuously make perfect throws in the high wind that willed UMD to that regionals run. Lev Blumenfeld is also a guy who will be really exciting to watch for Maryland, especially for his lockdown defense.

The question remains: now that they’re on the big stage, can Maryland make something happen and earn an upset or two?

Pool C

Teams: #2 Carleton CUT, #5 Cal Poly SLO SLOCORE, #10 Penn State Spank, #15 Washington Sundodgers, McGill MUT
Overall Strength: 💪💪
Star Power: ⭐⭐⭐
Upset Alert: 🚨

Carleton CUT

The defending champions return to Nationals as one of the favorites to win another title. CUT won Florida Warm Up and made the finals at Smoky Mountain Invite and Easterns, but lost to Colorado both times in rematches of last season’s title game. Once again looking like the two best teams in the country, they could be fated to meet again.

Carleton is led by senior Declan Miller, a Player of the Year frontrunner. Miller is the team’s heart and soul, controlling the offense with his speed, agility, and throwing craft. Second year playmakers Nate De Morgan, Thomas Shope, Ellis Newhouse, Axel Olson, Charlie Bitler, and Ryan duSaire have all carved out key roles for themselves, somehow looking sharper than they did during last season’s title run.

With Team USA U20 players in Aage Bonnell and Sarek Mallareddy also earning lots of playing time, this Carleton team is stocked for years to come. But, the pressure remains to clinch another title while Miller and fellow seniors Fin Fuhrmann and Jasper Priest are eligible to fulfill their important roles.

CUT already have wins this season over pool play opponents Cal Poly SLO and Penn State. While those games will certainly be a challenge, CUT have ambitions that extend beyond the first two days of the tournament. With title aspirations and a talented roster to match, CUT have the potential to supplant UNC as the division’s next dynasty.

Cal Poly SLO SLOCORE

This season followed a different contour for Cal Poly SLO. Over the last half decade, SLOCORE were the juggernauts of the Southwest. They often finished seasons with just a handful of losses against other top teams. This year, the team struggled in the early part of the season. They lost three games each at their first two tournaments, including one to pool play opponent Washington.

But sometime in the early spring, something flipped for SLO. The team swept Northwest Challenge for their first tournament win of the year and won the region for the seventh year in a row, despite coming in as an underdog to highly-ranked California-Santa Cruz.

Behind star players Anton Orme, Alex Nelson, and Max Gade, SLO brings a set of athleticism, experience, and defensive acumen that allows SLO to matchup with even the best teams in the field. Orme in particular is the team’s star player, finishing fourth in the Ultiworld Top 25 player rankings. His particular blend of pace and power makes even his most difficult moves look smooth and simple. Another player to keep an eye on is rookie Henry Garcia. The lefty has quickly gained comfort competing at the elite college level. Impressing both with his powerful throws and penchant for making contested catches, Garcia will be crucial to SLO’s gameplans this weekend.

‘CORE have already played many teams in the pool. Losses to CUT at Easterns and Washington at Santa Barbara Invite could be avenged, and SLO surely wants to replicate their win over Penn State from Easterns. With a top-heavy roster, SLO is helped by the forgiving Nationals schedule with fewer games per day. Their ambitious goals are achievable, but they’re reliant on the usually stellar play of Orme, Nelson, Gade, and now Garcia.

Penn State Spank

Over the last few seasons, Penn State has been on a clear upward trajectory. Under the veteran leadership of Doug Hoyer, Ethan Pigeon, and Logan Piercy, the team has steadily improved from a Regionals threat, to a Nationals debutant, and finally last year to a quarterfinalist. Some of the stars from those past teams have moved on, and at this point, Spank are relying on rookies in key roles to help move them forward.

Becker Joseph and Nolan McClintic have each taken on major throwing roles, offering impressive contributions for players experiencing their first college season. Joseph especially has been a steady force on the O-line, and is likely to receive Rookie of the Year votes by the end of the season.

To describe Penn State in a single word, “steady” comes to mind. Joseph, Hoyer, and Piercy all exude calm and help to facilitate smooth disc movement around them. When Penn State needs an athletic spark, it often comes from Drew Loughnane, the lockdown defender who has also emerged as an offensive contributor, or Connor Matheson, the speedy cutter who seems to always be available for a bailout when needed.

Spank will be challenged by the teams ranked ahead of them, but with wins over three other Nationals teams already this season and a very close game against CUT on the books, they’ll be able to compete with everyone in this pool. As a returning quarterfinalist, this is the first year in quite some time that Spank also need to deal with the pressure of expectation, and how they manage that part of their game might be just as important as what happens on the field.

Washington Sundodgers

This season has been about return for the Washington Sundodgers. After two years away, Washington is returning to Nationals. And, after lots of injury absences over the years, Assaf Golan returned to play this season. Golan is a difference maker on the field, with crafty throws and a veteran’s know-how enhancing his teammates’ play. Benjamin Bolan has been a rock in the backfield, stepping up to fill a void that has proven difficult for the Sundodgers to find answers for in recent years. An athletic demon downfield, Delano Muongchan is one of the most underrated players at the tournament; he is good for a highlight block or two each game.

And of course, the first thing many people see when Washington takes the field is the towering presence of Carter Bayer, the Team Canada star who has developed a well-rounded game, but is still a top tier deep threat. All of this to say that Washington has a lot of very talented players who should help them win games at Nationals.

That being said, the team had a bit of an up-and-down season, finishing with a record just above .500 (19-15). Early season wins over Cal Poly SLO, UCLA, and Utah Valley looked impressive. But uncompetitive losses to Victoria and Oregon hinted that this team might have a ceiling that either could not challenge the very top teams, or would not play consistently enough to find out.

At Nationals, Washington has a chance to redefine their story for the season. If this team plays its best, they could make a real bracket run.

McGill MUT

Despite posting no ranked wins during the season, McGill closed out Regionals with fairly dominant wins (15-8 over Northeastern and 13-9 over Tufts) to clinch their first-ever spot at USAU Nationals. The 2025 gold medalists at the Canadian University Ultimate Championship, McGill brings a prestige and know-how that most first time participants at the D-I College Championships do not have.

Additionally, McGill has some great players: Kai O’Donnell (a U24 Team Canada product) and Aidan Mckibben (former U20 Team Canada player) lead the team. Both are excellent athletes proficient on the defensive side of the disc while also providing intelligent cutting and movement on offense.

The player on the team with the most US Nationals experience is Maia List. The fourth year player spent the last two club seasons competing with Toronto 6ixers, reaching the bracket of the top club competition in the world both times. List is one of the very few women-matching players competing in the college men’s division, and she more than holds her own. List is a polished thrower who slots in perfectly on the team.

As the bottom seed in the pool, McGill may be hard pressed to find wins against the very good teams they’ll see over the course of Friday and Saturday. However, they certainly have the top-end talent to spring an upset, and they can go home regardless knowing that they made history.

Pool D

Teams: #4 North Carolina Darkside, #7 Massachusetts Zoodisc, #9 Pittsburgh En Sabah Nur, #16 Western Washington DiRT, Yale Süperfly
Overall Strength: 💪💪💪💪
Star Power: ⭐⭐⭐
Upset Alert: 🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨

North Carolina Darkside

UNC has been very good down the stretch, dominating just about everyone outside the top three. That included blowout wins over #6 Cal Poly SLO (13-6), #10 Penn State (15-9), #12 Texas (15-10) and #15 Michigan (15-7). Since March 1st, UNC has lost twice to Colorado in bracket play and a third-place game to Oregon. By results, UNC should be considered the favorite to reach the semifinals.

Darkside will be led by Josh Singleton, who has emerged as an absolute star after four strong years with the UNC program. The lefty hybrid can do it all, and UNC will lean heavily on his production. While he may line up in the cutting space, he can also go every-other and quarterback the offense. He’ll almost certainly play the majority of key D-Line points as well, providing stability if Darkside earn a break chance.

Beyond Singleton, UNC has some familiar faces, including brothers Seth and Eli Fried, who have been key players on this stage before. Matthew Barcellos is in his second year with the program after coming over from UCLA, and Grayson Trowbridge has made plays for years on big stages for Darkside.

But potentially more pivotal than the above-mentioned names are the ones we’re not talking about. UNC always seems to produce new stars each year, as well as a plethora of key role players that protect the legs of their stars and fuel deep tournament runs. Who could that be this year for UNC? Does D-Line handler Arjun Deshmukh rise to the occasion and deliver the pivotal throws that led to key breaks? Noah Bush has emerged as a capable offensive threat – can he make the leap to Nationals stardom?

This year, with no top-10 players per Ultiworld’s top 25 player rankings, and a familiar cast of supporting role players, facing their longest odds to win a title in years, does anyone rise to the occasion for the vaunted Darkside program?

Massachusetts Zoodisc

If UNC isn’t the favorite to claim that fourth semifinalist spot, that’s because of the sudden rise of a healthy Zoodisc squad, a semifinalist in 2025 and a preseason favorite alongside the current top three. With Wyatt Kellman, Ethan Lieman and Mason Stone back in the fold, Zoodisc looked the part of a top-five team in the country at New England Regionals, after going 7-7 combined at Smokey Mountain Invite and Easterns.

This team had preseason title expectations that were all but forgotten up until a few weeks ago when they dismantled #10 Brown 15-7 in the regional final, while also not allowing more than 10 points to anyone over the course of Conferences or Regionals. In that regional final, UMass looked as deep and healthy as they had all season. Against Brown in the final, they punched in two upwind holds and an upwind break in the first seven points, with one total turn in those three efforts, giving themselves all the momentum. They totaled three upwind breaks in the game.

That bodes well for a national tournament in Rockford, Illinois, where the wind is sure to be a factor at some point, if not the entire time. UMass can roll out a deep stable of throwers, but in particular, look for Jonah Stang-Osborne’s booming flick to be a huge asset in the wind and upwind situations for the UMass D-Line. He and Caelan McSweeney ran the D-line offense in windier situations at Regionals.

Beyond Kellman, Lieman, Stone, Stang-Osborne, and McSweeney, UMass should receive contributions from plenty of other contributors, but expect Roan Dunkerley and Callahan nominee Gavin Abrahamsson to be frequently involved. UMass went 7-1 with a mostly healthy roster at Florida Warm Up, pushing Carleton hard in a 13-10 loss. Add that to their 11-0 postseason record and it’s worth wondering if this team should be a title favorite, despite their no.5 seed.

Pittsburgh En Sabah Nur

Pitt is back at Nationals, and they are rewarded with a brutally difficult pool featuring two quarterfinalists and a semifinalist from last season – with one of those quarterfinalists just so happening to be UNC Darkside.

However, Pitt beat UNC and played UMass tight early in the season, so they certainly will be a threat in every game. This is thanks in no small part to Micah Davis, the En Sabah Nur do-it-all star that has lifted Pitt back to relevance in his return from injury.

The questions around Pitt may be poise in big situations and who steps up around Davis. Pittsburgh went 0-2 in championship bracket games in the regular season, getting upset twice, 13-5 to Vermont at Florida Warm Up and 15-14 to Michigan at Smoky Mountain Invite prequarters.

Additionally, since beating Oregon and UNC at SMI, Pitt is 1-5 against Nationals qualifiers not named Penn State, with the lone win a DGP victory over a Western Washington team without Eli Diamond. They lost to lower-ranked Brown, Michigan, Texas, and Georgia Tech in that span. At regionals, playing without Micah Davis on Saturday, Pitt was forced to universe point against fifth-seeded Temple.

Pitt has elite talent outside Davis, it’s just about getting everything to come together, much like it has in three major wins over Penn State and in other moments this season. In those games, Davis was complemented by great cutting from rookie Ezra Beidler-Shenk and Reid Duncan. The terrifyingly athletic Julius Clyburn is a D-Line force, and Callahan nominee Peter Kotz is a four-year O-line starter who can do a bit of everything. When everything clicks, En Sabah Nur feel like they could be a semifinal type of team. Can they get things to click in big moments this weekend?

Western Washington DiRT

Western Washington vs. UMass will be a fantastic opening clash in this tournament between two teams who were plagued by injuries that prevented them from playing at full strength. For DiRT, they are very reliant on the health and contributions of Eli Diamond. While they have other contributors that will make an impact, the Seattle Sockeye star put DiRT on his back last year en route to stealing a bid out of the Northwest and making a run from the no.18 seed all the way to quarterfinals.

Entering Nationals as the no.16 seed, Diamond and Western Washington have a similar Cinderella run on the mind. Zoli Ishikawa-Szabo and Cedar Hines can each put the offense on their back for spurts. They showcased their ability to stay with a very strong squad in Cal Poly SLO during the Northwest Challenge final, but ultimately, DiRT are a much different team with Diamond on the field, and Hines and Ishikawa-Szabo are much more effective when they can distribute to and work through Diamond.

For DiRT, beyond the health of Eli Diamond, the question will remain about depth. Outside their big three, a formidable trio that can compete with anyone, who does Western Washington lean on? DiRT draw UMass and Pitt in their first two games of Nationals and would do well to secure an upset with fresh legs in one of those games, as depth question marks may plague the Northwest squad as the tournament wears on.

Yale Süperfly

Yale is back at Nationals for the first time since 1999, and they are led by former Pitt star William McGlynn, who gets an opportunity to face his former team in pool play. Yale has not beaten a top-50 team per the USAU algorithm, but they’ve stayed close with the likes of #25 Davenport (12-10 loss) and Illinois (11-10 loss). They made an early-season statement by dismantling Georgia before it became clear that Jojah were nowhere near the quality of team they’d been in previous seasons.

However, Yale ended the season on a strong note, reaching semifinals at East Coast Invite before sweeping Conferences and Regionals with only one win by less than four points (a 14-13 semifinal victory over SUNY-Buffalo). They handled Syracuse 15-11 to qualify for Nationals.

Yale faces four teams with quarterfinal potential, and all have the case to be considered contenders to make semifinals, so it’s a pretty tough draw for the Metro East champs. But with McGlynn at the helm, Yale will aim to stay competitive enough to maybe pull a shocker. Outside McGlynn, Yale will get contributions from handler Nic Spangler, hybrid Thomas Venarde, and speedy cutter Ben Chaimberg, among others.