The Deadline Dilemma

Every year multiple teams' seasons are over before they truly begin. That's because every year, multiple teams miss the UPA roster deadline.

Being unable to play in the tournament(s) a team has been preparing for all winter and spring is heartbreaking for those players, to say the least. Should those teams be given a second chance? Should there be additional safeguards in place so no team misses the deadline unwittingly? What if those additional steps significantly add to the heavy administrative load the UPA already has during the start of the Series? Lately, I've been giving a lot of thought to the college roster deadline and wanted to share with you all some of my perspectives on the all-important date.

Let me start by saying how fully I support the strides the UPA has made towards increased professionalism in administering the Series. In fact, I wish the current roster deadline had been in place when I first started playing college ultimate. My freshman year in college, the size bids to the College Championships were not officially awarded until AFTER Regionals had been played. Based on an unofficial team count my team thought we had qualifed for the College Championships, but it became apparent the week after Regionals that the UPA had not received a check from a team that played that weekend, making that team ineligible towards the official team count. As a result, our region didn't earn the size bid, and my team's initial excitement about qualifying for Nationals was replaced by anger and confusion the following week when that size bid was awarded to another region. The unfortunate situation my team was put in would be impossible today, and the UPA has definitely been headed in the right direction by making sure its deadlines allow enough lead time to accurately determine wildcard bids and arrange formats accordingly.

Enforcement of college eligibility requirements has also improved dramatically in the past decade. I believe keeping the College Series strictly for college-eligibile players is an important priority, and the roster deadline has definitely aided that goal. Involving school registrars in the rostering process is something that makes registering for the College Series much more onerous for players and captains than it is for the Club Series. It also increases the workload for UPA administrative staff considerably, so having a deadline early enough to allow for eligibility issues to be resolved before Sectionals is crucial.

As a former College Regional Coordinator, I can also attest to how necessary roster deadlines are for organizing quality Series events. Considering that the college division grows every year, the necessity of deadlines to coordinate teams is obvious. UPA headquarters had to deal with paperwork and rosters from around 700 college teams this year--no small feat. In order for UPA staff to effectively do its job, there has to be a structure in place to allow staff enough time to verify rosters and communicate with Sectional Coordinators about eligible teams and formats. The Championships Manager and Director (Matthew Bourland and Will Deaver, respectively) routinely work 12-15 hour days around the time of the college roster deadline, getting ready for the start of the Series. Any changes to the rostering process should not add to their already significant workload.

As an RC, I've also had experience working with Sectional Coordinators to help teams get their rosters in on-time, so I know how much work that can entail for the captains who are in charge. Different teams have a varying level of support from their school administration and team members, but it is invariably a time-consuming and complicated process to go through the online rostering system and get the school registrar to verify each player's eligibility. The vast majority of teams manage to navigate this process correctly and on-time, but there is a small percentage that doesn't.

In fact, I actually coached such a team a few years ago. A few motivated players at a local community college decided to start a team, and right before Sectionals they asked me to come on board as a coach. Unfortunately, being completely new to the process, the player responsible for rostering failed to have all the appropriate paperwork in to the UPA by the deadline. That was going to be the first and only shot at playing college ultimate for the team's captain, and the team was devastated. The team accepted its fate, but I was left wondering what would have happened if there had been something in place to help first-time teams better navigate the rostering process.

Every year, rec.sport.disc seems to tell the tragic story of at least one team that could not compete in the Series because of a missed deadline. This year on the Board, I have also been exposed to the plights of teams that don't post their situation online publicly. It has become apparent to me that usually the roster deadline is missed when the person in charge of rostering for a team drops the ball in some way at the last minute, often without the knowledge of his or her teammates.

I think it should be a priority for the UPA to help teams avoid falling through the cracks, and the UPA administration already has multiple ways to help teams meet the deadline. The UPA communicates with teams about the roster deadline through personal messages from Sectional Coordinators, posted dates and details in the online Series Guidelines, step-by-step instructions in a Rostering 101, reminder e-mail blasts to college contacts and players, and even an updated log listing rosters received at HQs. Is this enough? If not, what else can the UPA do to help all college teams make the deadline while not spreading its resources so thinly that the quality of the services it offers would suffer?

The UPA Board plans to examine this issue at our summer Board meeting this year, so if any member has ideas about this topic, please comment on this blog for the entire Board to read (even though it won't appear on the blog for the public to see) or e-mail me directly at gwen.ambler@upa.org.

Thanks,
Gwen