2022 College Season Updates

Colorado Springs, Colo. (February 1, 2022)—After issuing an update last month regarding the 2022 college regular season, USA Ultimate today released additional details about the upcoming season ahead of its full competition guidelines.

The previous changes were considered and implemented by USA Ultimate in consultation with its medical advisory working group following a recent surge in nationwide COVID-19 cases and the continued onset of the Omicron variant last month. Since then, USA Ultimate and its college working group has continued to evaluate all aspects of the 2022 college season with a focus on the health and safety of the ultimate community and competitive fairness.

As a reminder, a variety of factors were taken into account when making these changes. Some of those reasons include: to minimize any pressure felt by teams and athletes to travel to, compete or participate in a tournament, tryout or practice in which they may not feel comfortable; to create a more flexible environment for event organizers and teams to make decisions about hosting or attending an event while still allowing for tournaments to take place when school policy or health and safety regulations allow; and to maintain competitive fairness given different circumstances across schools, teams and organizers.  

Given the potential for school policies that limit travel, the likelihood of fewer games due to a shortened season, and less connectivity between different parts of the country, there is again concern about the ability of rankings to fairly allocate bids based on regular season performance.

In consideration of these reasons and others, the following is a list of notable updates for the 2022 college season:

• The 2022 college regular season will begin no earlier than February 25.
• Regular season games will not count towards rankings nor impact bid allocation for the postseason championship series.
• Participation in USA Ultimate-sanctioned regular season events is encouraged. Considering the wide range of local health and safety protocols across the county, the following types of sanctioned events are encouraged in addition to traditional multi-day tournaments: single-game match play, one-day formats, tournaments that require less travel and overnight stays.
• Registrar-verified rosters for the 2022 postseason championship series may arrive via email and are due on Friday, March 4.
• A team’s conference “event roster” is that team’s complete and final roster for the entirety of the 2022 postseason championship series (i.e. conferences, regionals, nationals). It should include every player the team wants to include for any part of the series, regardless of whether they are attending the conference championship tournament. The deadline to add players to a team’s conference championship event roster (i.e. college series roster) is Sunday, April 3. This roster locks for the entire college series. Teams will not be allowed to add any players to their event roster after conferences.
• The window for conference championship tournaments has been expanded to include a third weekend (April 9-10, 16-17, 23-24).
• Regional event scaling has been updated to allow a greater percentage of teams to qualify for regionals.
• Bids will allocated to regionals based on the number of teams in each conference.
• Details regarding the 2022 D-I and D-III College Championships – including bid allocation – are being finalized and will be released in the forthcoming college guidelines.

1. Timeline – The official USA Ultimate College Regular Season will run from February 25, 2022* through April 3, 2022. *Subject to change.
2. Regular Season Games – The results of games between rostered college teams at USA Ultimate-sanctioned College Regular Season events will be utilized to seed teams at Conferences, Regionals, and Nationals. There are no USAU rankings for the 2022 season.
3. Eligibility and Roster Verification – College teams at USA Ultimate-sanctioned Regular Season events will be required to submit their roster of participating players to the event organizer through the USA Ultimate online rostering system by 5:00pm MT Wednesday before the event. College teams participating in regular season games will be expected to do so only with players who meet, or who will meet, the USA Ultimate College Eligibility Rules for the USA Ultimate College Series. 
4. College Series Requirements – Participation in the USA Ultimate College Regular Season is not a prerequisite for USA Ultimate College Series participation.

1. Timeline – The USA Ultimate College Series will run from April 9, 2022 through May 30, 2022. 
   • Conference Championships – April 9-10, April 16-17, or April 23-24 
   • Regional Championships – April 30-May 1 or May 7-8 
   • National Championships – Division III: May 21-23; Division I: May 27-30 
2. Registrar Roster Deadline – Teams that wish to participate in the USA Ultimate College Series will need to use the online rostering system to create their Series Roster which they will need to give to their school registrar. This registrar-certified 2022 USA Ultimate College Series roster and registrar instruction form must arrive at USA Ultimate Headquarters by the 5pm MT Friday March 4, 2022 Roster Deadline in order for that team to participate in the 2022 USA Ultimate College Series. 
3. Conferences Team Registration Deadline – The deadline to register your team for Conference Championships is Monday, March 28, 2022.
4. College Series “Event Roster” Deadline – The deadline to add players to your Conferences “event roster” is Sunday, April 3. The conference championship roster is the final roster for the entire College Series. If an athlete is potentially participating in regionals or the College Championships, but is unavailable during the conference championships, they MUST still appear on the conference championship roster.