January 9, 2025
By Evan Lepler

Since the beginning, the structure of the Ultimate Frisbee Association has been built around its divisions.

Back in 2012, the UFA launched its first season with just eight teams. Philadelphia, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Buffalo were in the Eastern Division, while Indianapolis, Bluegrass, Columbus, and Detroit—despite all still being in the eastern time zone—were members of the Western Division.

Since then, expansion, contraction, and a once-in-a-century pandemic all shifted the structure on virtually an annual basis, spinning us from the short-lived Constitution/Rampage/Hunter/Crane/Revolution era to the four quadrant framework of today. 

The biggest metamorphosis occurred in those early years, as the league grew from eight teams in 2012 to a dozen in 2013, evolving further with 17 franchises in 2014 and then 25 in 2015, tripling in size over that four-season span. Concurrently, the divisional orientation grew from two divisions to four, with the West debuting in 2014 and the South arriving in 2015. 

Since 2015, the first year with four distinct divisions, the UFA has maintained this format each year, with the caveat that the three-team “Canada Cup” was its own division in 2021. That was necessitated by border restrictions in the midst of Covid, which also had fascinating trickle down ramifications across the league’s competitive landscape.

During that notable 2021 campaign, with the three Canadian teams unfortunately isolated, the two Texas teams shifted into the West and Pittsburgh joined the remaining members of the East and South, creating the one-year-only Atlantic Division, which consisted of Atlanta, Boston, Carolina, DC, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Tampa Bay. Four of those eight teams qualified for the playoffs, and the predetermined format also gave the Atlantic two spots at Championship Weekend, where the Flyers indeed edged the Empire in that year’s thrilling final. 

The league reverted back to normal in 2022, though, with Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto rejoining Boston, DC, New York and Philly in the East. Concurrently, the Texas teams were brought back eastward and reinserted into the South, reconnecting with Atlanta, Carolina, and Tampa Bay.

From 2022 through 2024, we witnessed some significant expansion—Colorado, Portland, and Salt Lake in 2022, Houston in 2023—and contraction—Ottawa and Tampa Bay after 2022, Dallas after 2024—but nothing threw off the divisional balance too much to induce further realignment. 

Until now. 

Along with Dallas’s departure, the exciting arrival of the Vegas Bighorns has led to the latest chapter in the UFA’s restructured divisional look, with a dramatic twist for most of the warm weather teams that have always been cool hosting games in April. 

As the UFA announced earlier today, the new South Division will consist of Atlanta, Austin, Carolina, Houston, Los Angeles, and San Diego, creating the league’s first bi-coastal division. It’s certainly an abrupt change for the four teams that will now have the occasional cross-country flight for a divisional matchup, but it also adds a new layer of intrigue.

One benefit to the new reality is that there are now four equal divisions of six teams apiece, a symmetry that we haven’t seen since there were just two divisions of six teams each all the way back in 2013. Each division will have three playoff spots and send one team to Championship Weekend, offering every franchise the same theoretical chance each year. 

Another nugget that might surprise you: the six teams now in the South are actually the six southernmost franchises in the league. Indeed, the North Carolina Triangle narrowly edges Las Vegas latitudinally in terms of which is closer to the equator. So there’s at least some geographical sense to brand these half-dozen teams as the South, right? 

Yes, the cross-country travel will be tough, especially if a team has to venture nearly 3,000 miles for a single playoff game, but how much extra travel will be involved now that teams in SoCal and the southeast are in the same division? Not as much as you might initially think. 

Currently, the plan is for Atlanta, Carolina, LA, and San Diego to each travel for one cross-country doubleheader weekend every other year. The Hustle and Growlers will do it this year, with the Flyers and Aviators taking those longer trips next year. Similarly, the four aforementioned teams will also alternate traveling to Texas doubleheaders every other year, with Carolina and LA set for Lone Star State trips in 2025. 

When it comes to fleshing out the full 12-game schedules for all 24 teams, that challenging task has always been a pretty inexact science, particularly since interdivisional play was introduced as a more common feature of regular season action back in 2017. One of the annual highlights of the schedule creation process is churning out certain marquee must-see interdivisional showdowns each year. Consequently, schedules will continue to remain a bit imbalanced, as they always have been. But there are also some new interdivisional matchups that make a ton of sense in the new landscape.

For example, LA and San Diego could relatively easily travel to face other West Division clubs, maintaining many of the rivalries they’ve enjoyed since 2015 in what would now be interdivisional battles. A few thousand miles away, Carolina and Atlanta will inevitably have more tussles with teams like DC, Philly, Indy, etc. 

There’s also plans to have some Central and West teams engage in interdivisional matchups with the Texas squads, something we witnessed last year when Chicago visited Houston and Austin. This year, the Havoc and Sol, in addition to each hosting games games Carolina and LA, will also each host matchups vs. one team from the Central and another from the West. The full schedule will likely be unveiled in early February, but there’s no doubt that strategically placed interdivisional action adds new and exciting wrinkles every single year, fostering a national competitive dynamic for nearly every team. 

As for the new alignment, it’s tough to assess the big winners and losers of the new structure, beyond taking a cheap shot at poor Philly remaining as a feisty but overmatched underdog against the more historically powerful organizations like DC, New York, and even Boston. But hierarchies are constantly shifting, and optimism springs eternal in the early months every year.

As for the new South, it’s impossible to know now exactly what the Aviators and Growlers will look like this spring, with both franchises missing the playoffs last year. But the Flyers, Hustle, and Sol are all experiencing varying transitions of their own, with certain leaders and veterans stepping aside to reshape those typically formidable franchises. And perhaps year three for Houston, maybe picking up some talent from departed Dallas, will enable the Havoc to reach their own new ceiling of success. 

Regular realignment has been a pretty consistent reality in the UFA since the outset, and while the new setup may not be perfect, it’s definitely sensible, functional, and interesting. Don’t think too hard when Atlanta’s visiting LA or San Diego’s in North Carolina for a divisional game, cause then you’ll be overlooking the fact that these are both matchups we have never seen before, and that’s really fun too.

The full 144-game regular season calendar is nearly finalized, and the 2025 journey officially launches in 15 weeks with an interdivisional matchup you have never seen before. 

How’s that for a tease?