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Posted 1/22/2009
UPA COLLEGE RESTRUCTURING TASK FORCE - ANNOUNCEMENT OF ADJUSTMENTS TO FORMAT, BIDS, RULES, AND MORE FOR 2009 COLLEGE SERIES
Over the January 16th weekend, the UPA Board of Directors voted on several proposals that put forth adjustments to the UPA College Series. Each of the proposed adjustments would take effect for the upcoming 2009 College Series. The purpose of this press release is to communicate the outcome of the Board’s votes, and provide some detail on the adjustments that were agreed upon.
This press release is rather long given the detail provided on the Board’s decisions, and that is because we understand the high level of interest in such details among our college members. Thank you in advance for your time in reviewing this release.
Background
During 2007 and 2008, the UPA collected information from over 7,000 members on future directions for the sport, including the College Series, resulting in the UPA Strategic Plan for 2009-2012. For college Ultimate, the Strategic Plan specified a number of high-level changes that would take place between 2009 and 2011 (click here for an overview of the Strategic Plan, including several ‘strategies’ that will impact College Ultimate).
In early December 2008, the UPA convened the College Restructure Task Force (composed of 18 individuals representing a wide variety of constituencies in College Ultimate – women/men, small/large schools, elite/non-elite teams, geographies, coaches/players, etc., click here to see a list of task force members) to identify detailed plans for implementing several of the ‘big’ changes in the Strategic Plan. These changes included divisional play, a UPA-sponsored regular season, new approach for qualification for the post-season, etc.
The Task Force recognized that many of the changes were too complicated to be implemented for the 2009 College Series (especially since the UPA seeks to give considerable advance notice to teams about significant changes in Series structure). However, they did recognize that some changes could be made for 2009 that:
An online survey made available to 2008 College players in October had helped identify possible changes that might be implemented in 2009. Based on the work of the Task Force in December, a larger survey was fielded in January to determine community support for the proposed changes. Over 2000 members responded, providing sufficient guidance for the UPA Board of Directors in making their decisions this past weekend (summaries of relevant survey data is presented in each section below).
Adjustments to the 2009 UPA College Series will include:
In 2008, ~5% of College teams who entered the UPA Series qualified for the Championship tournaments. Feedback from our October survey suggested that a slightly-expanded format for the tournament would give more teams a chance to experience the highest-quality tournament in College Ultimate, and (assuming a thoughtful approach to bid allocation) increase the chances that all of the best College teams in the country attended the tournament. The College Restructure Task Force reviewed many options for final tournament size, all the way up to 64 teams per division, and decided that given players’ time and money constraints, 20 teams per division was the optimal size if expansion was to occur. In the January survey, >75% of respondents supported expansion of the tournament from 16 to 20 teams in each division.
As a result, the UPA Board voted last weekend to expand the 2009 Collegiate Championship tournament (to be held in Columbus, OH) to 20 teams per division. Since the traditional format for the Championships stretched available resources with full game schedules and full field sites, it will be necessary to adjust the tournament format to accommodate the expansion to 20 teams per division. To accomplish this, the event will be extended from 3 to 4 days and will run from Friday May 22nd to Monday May 25th (Memorial Day). Extending the event was the most popular option among January survey respondents who had previously played at the Championships, with >60% of those players supporting it (other suggested options included more games per day, and a more spread out event with satellite fields). Given the existing field site, this was also deemed the most feasible option by event organizers.
It is anticipated that when the UPA moves to divisional post-season play, most likely in 2010, the top-tier championship tournament will have 20 teams. Therefore, this change is consistent with future changes.
Given an expanded number of bids to the Championships, the next logical question is how the extra bids will be allocated – please see the section below.
From 1999-2008, bids to the College Championships in each division have been awarded in the following way:
With the move from 16 to 20 bids for each division, some adjustment to the bid-allocation approach had to be made. Both the October and January surveys suggested that in the future, the UPA should place particular importance on two factors in allocating Championships bids – geographic placement (e.g., some fixed number of bids per region) and current-season results. Clearly, the traditional UPA approach included the former but not the latter. As the UPA considers implementing both a regular season and divisional post-season play (most likely in 2010), it is our clear goal to include both of these criteria in the ‘final’ bid allocation approach.
For 2009, the Board felt (and the survey results supported) that it was unfair to take away any bids that had already been awarded, which includes the 4 strength bids awarded at the end of the 2008 season. Therefore the question remaining was how to allocate the remaining 8 bids (4 bids that have traditionally been designated as size bids, and 4 extra bids that bring the total from 16 to 20 teams per division). The Task Force and the Board tried to determine if there was a clear and fair way to include current-season performance in the determination of these remaining 8 bids to the 2009 Championships. We felt that determining strength-based bids purely on play at Sectionals and Regionals did not provide enough games to determine any team’s true strength relative to others ‘at their level’ across the country. So, we tried to determine an approach that would include the results of pre-Sectionals games in the determination of strength bids.
Unfortunately, the issue of guaranteeing that such games would be played with only college-eligible players arose. We understand that to our college members, it is very important that qualification for the Championships for all teams be predicated on competing with eligible players. Thus, asking all teams to provide registrar-approved rosters immediately would be a requisite step to ensuring that pre-Sectionals results used to determine current-season strength bids for 2009 were achieved fairly. Since pre-Sectionals college tournaments are already underway, asking all teams to take this step immediately is certainly out-of-line with the UPA’s desire to provide sufficient advance warning to teams on big changes in how they run their teams. Additionally, the UPA’s eligibility rules would have to be rewritten to accommodate the earlier eligibility verification date (specifically, we’d have to determine whether Spring enrollment is necessary for eligibility). Finally, whatever framework by which current-season strength would be compared would have to be developed and implemented without sufficient time to communicate that framework to teams before they set their schedules and play their pre-Series games.
Given the above issues – most importantly, the desire to ensure that bids to the Championships are determined by competition between eligible players – the UPA Board decided not to include a current-season strength approach as part of 2009 bid allocations. Again, note that we do plan to include such considerations in the ‘final’ bid allocation approach, likely to be implemented in 2010. Instead, the Board decided to allocate the remaining 8 bids equally to each region. The result of this allocation method will be that regions that have traditionally NOT received the size bid will still earn an extra bid to Nationals this year (while also not removing any bids from regions that do traditionally earn size bids).
The Board felt that this approach – admittedly a stop-gap measure for 2009, was the clearest and fairest way to expand each division to 20 teams while both maintaining geographic representation and attempting to increase the chance that most, if not all, of the top teams are able to attend.
For each division in 2009, 20 bids will be awarded according to the following algorithm:
Based on this algorithm, regional allocation of bids for 2009 will be as follows:
Open
|
Region |
Automatic Bids |
Strength Bids (previous season) |
Total bids |
|
Atlantic Coast |
2 |
1 |
3 |
|
Central |
2 |
2 |
4 |
|
Great Lakes |
2 |
0 |
2 |
|
Metro East |
2 |
0 |
2 |
|
New England |
2 |
0 |
2 |
|
Northwest |
2 |
0 |
2 |
|
South |
2 |
0 |
2 |
|
Southwest |
2 |
1 |
3 |
Women
|
Region |
Automatic Bids |
Strength Bids (previous season) |
Total bids |
|
Atlantic Coast |
2 |
0 |
2 |
|
Central |
2 |
1 |
3 |
|
Great Lakes |
2 |
0 |
2 |
|
Metro East |
2 |
0 |
2 |
|
New England |
2 |
0 |
2 |
|
Northwest |
2 |
1 |
3 |
|
South |
2 |
0 |
2 |
|
Southwest |
2 |
2 |
4 |
In the UPA Strategic Plan published in 2008, the UPA committed to experimenting with the rules of Ultimate and with an expanded role for Observers during 2009-2012. As part of these initiatives, the UPA had committed in late 2008 to work with tournament directors at select pre-Sectionals 2009 College tournaments to experiment with active and immediate-referral up/down and travel calls. (The UPA will experiment with these rules during the spring of 2009 in cooperation with event organizers at the Stanford Invitational (Open and Women’s), Open Centex, and Women’s Centex.)
The Strategic Planning surveys conducted in 2007 first identified these two calls as specifically warranting further experimentation. The October survey (with responses from >400 college players representative of the full range of divisions, school sizes, and performance level) suggested that a majority of players support experimentation with active or immediate-referral up/down and travel calls in UPA Series Events. These data were reinforced with similar data from the January survey of 2000+ respondents.
Given member support for the expansion of Observer duties for these calls in the Series and specifically the Championships, the UPA Board wanted to identify a way for teams to ‘opt in’ to using these experimental rules during the 2009 Championships. The Board felt that having different games at the Championships be conducted under different rules might lead to concerns about the fairness of the outcome of the tournament. This was supported by the survey data, which indicated that most players preferred a uniform approach.
Therefore, for 2009, teams attending the Championship tournament in each division will vote on whether or not to use active or immediate-referral up/down and active or immediate-referral travel calls. For each division, greater than or equal to a 60% super-majority of teams in favor of expanding the role of the Observer for either of these two calls will lead to that change being implemented for all games at the College Championships, in that division.
The Board and UPA staff discussed whether or not it would be possible to provide expanded Observer roles for up/down and travel calls at Sectionals and Regionals tournaments. Unfortunately, because these changes represent a significant addition to the Observers’ responsibilities, the UPA does not feel that in the next 3 months it can provide enough trained Observers to fully staff all Sectionals or Regionals events. We understand from our college members that poor Observer implementation of experimental rules would be worse than not using the experimental rules at all. As a result the UPA Board decided not to support providing the option to use expanded Observer roles for up/down and travel calls at Sectionals and Regionals for 2009.
As mentioned above, the UPA’s Strategic Plan mandates that the UPA will establish divisional post-season play, a step that is planned for 2010. As part of this change, the UPA Board is committed to continue to provide an option for every US collegiate team to compete in a UPA division with the opportunity to qualify for a Championship event at some level.
Since 2006, local organizers in Ohio have staged an event known as “DIII Nationals.” The event provides national-level competition for small colleges. The organizers of this event have been in good-faith communication with the UPA since the inception of the event, to ensure that their event did not conflict with UPA Series schedules. Furthermore, the organizers of the event have indicated that they might benefit in 2009 from some level of support and guidance from the UPA (in areas such as qualification guidelines, promotion, expertise on event management, etc).
Since feedback from UPA members who have participated in DIII Nationals has been largely positive, and because the ongoing viability and quality of such an event is quite consistent with the UPA’s plan to establish divisional post-season play for all college members, the Board voted to offer its assistance to the DIII Nationals organizers for 2009. If they accept, we very much look forward to working with them to maintain and increase the quality of the event for our members, with the goal of incorporating DIII competition into the UPA series structure starting in 2010.
Surveys conducted during the UPA’s Strategic Planning process in 2007 clearly recognized members’ desire to have the quality of certain aspects of the UPA’s Sectional and Regional tournaments improved. The UPA staff and Board are committed to a gradual increase in the quality of our pre-Championship events over the next several years, even as we move to a new regular-season and post-season structure (most likely in 2010).
However, we are planning on making select moves to improve tournament quality in 2009. The areas on which we will be focusing the most efforts are:
Of course, please don’t forget that this is just the beginning. We are planning even bigger changes for 2010 and beyond. You will receive further press releases regarding these bigger changes in the upcoming weeks and months – including a chance to have input into exactly how the changes are carried out.
If you have questions about this article or the College Restructuring effort, please reach out to your Board representative or UPA Headquarters.
Best regards,
Peri Kurshan, President of the Board
Mike Payne, At-large Board member, Co-Chair of the College Restructure Task Force
Sandie Hammerly, Executive Director
Will Deaver, Championships Director, Co-Chair of the College Restructure Task Force
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