2009 College Nationals Bid Allocation

The UPA released their decisions regarding the 2009 College Championship Series. I was able to view these decisions this morning. As they have previously indicated, Nationals will be expanded this year from 16 to 20 teams. Under the new system, each of the 8 Regions will receive 2 automatic bids (up from 1 automatic bid in past years) and 4 strength bids will be allocated based on last year's results. For 2009, the Central Region will have 4 bids to Nationals, the Southwest and Atlantic Coast Regions will each have 3 bids, and everybody else will have 2. While I personally do not think that it is fair for one Region to have 4 bids (the Central Region will likely send Wisconsin, Carleton, Minnisotta, and Iowa - while Wisonsin and Carleton are deserving teams, Minnisotta is usually fairly average and Iowa... well, I would be suicidal if I were to lose to Iowa, based on what I know of their team) I do think that the UPA is moving in the right direction with these decisions. There is too much year-to-year change on a college team to assume that the number two team in a Region is not better than the number one team from another Region. In past years, it was possible for a strong number two team from one Region to be sitting at home while a weak number one team from another Region blew it at Nationals. That hardly seems fair. While deserving teams will always be left out of the Championship Tournament, giving two automatic bids to every Region will help reduce the number of deserving teams that are not given the opportunity to compete.

This brings me to the reason why the UPA has made these rapid changes: the C1 controversy of this past fall. I don't believe that I have written anything about C1 in any previous posts; I'll have to make sure to write something up about that soon. For better or for worse, C1 seems to be serving as a catalyst of change within the Ultimate community, and it deserves due recognition.

Furthermore, while the presence of size bids has helped our Region in the past, I am glad that the UPA is finally doing away with that particular system of bid allocation. Though we never made use of this opportunity, I always felt funny about the prospect of taking a number two bid to Nationals that is based solely on the fact that our Region has more piece of shit liberal arts college non-competitive Ultimate teams than any other Region in the country. The UPA should be trying to let the best possible teams into the Championship Tournament. It doesn't make any sense to say that a Region deserves an extra bid just because it contains more teams than any other Region. Being the second best of fifty uncompetitive teams is less impressive than being the fourth best of ten contenders. I admit that the strength of the Region in the previous year isn't a perfect way to determine whether a Region deserves an extra bid in the current year. However, this method is certainly superior to the method of allocating bids according to the size of a Region. At least now the UPA can say that they are trying to reward teams for beating quality competition instead of rolling over a rabble of unqualified hippies.

The long and the short of all this is that nothing changes for my team. Our Region has two bids to Nationals, and that's nothing new. The Northeast Region has had two bids to Nationals for my entire college career. However, learning about our bid situation at this point in the season makes it feel very different. In the past, we've had to wait until all of the teams from all of the Regions submitted their rosters before we knew for sure whether we would receive a size bid. Though we were always pretty sure that we would get this coveted second bid, we could never be certain until the UPA officially notified us. One year (two years ago, I believe), the Northeast came within three or four shitty teams of losing our size bid to the South Region. Our potential second bid was always a matter of stress, a distraction as we geared up for the College Series. Personally, I am relieved that the UPA has simplified matters by letting us know early on how many bids each Region would be recieving. We know for sure where we need to place in order to make it to Nationals. We know for sure what we need to fight for.

Nothing has changed since I looked at the UPA website this morning. Nothing is different between this year and last year and the year before and the year before, at least in terms of the number of bids allocated to the Northeast Region. But these new developments do change the way that I think of the upcoming season. They make it easier for me to set goals (personal and for my team) without the chance of having my goals disrupted by a silent uncertainty. Somehow, I feel as though it will be easier for me to visualize the season and think about what I have to do.

Man, oh man, I am fucking excited about this Spring.