November 12, 2024
By Evan Lepler
The Ultimate Frisbee Association changed in 2021.
It was a unique season for several reasons, but most remembered for the fact that it was the league’s return to competition. When we emerged from the extended pandemic pause that basically created a 21-month gap between games, there was simply a different vibe, a greater joy, and a renewed buy-in amongst the players and fans alike as the action resumed.
Furthermore, along with the 2024 season’s unprecedented unpredictability that made this past summer the most wild and thrilling UFA season ever, 2021 was a close second when it came to riveting storylines. For the first time, yardage stats were tracked for every game, and so many games felt like brand new creations. The innovative “Atlantic Division”—which consisted of Atlanta, Boston, Carolina, DC, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Tampa Bay—offered many matchups we’d never previously seen in the league. This realignment also shuffled the two Texas teams into the West Division, which offered a new frontier of challenging matchups for Austin and Dallas.
These adjustments were all reinvigorating, refreshing, and inspiring to the schedule makers for future seasons. In the ensuing years, we’ve seen more ambitious interdivisional contests than ever before, helping the UFA continue to evolve and usher in an era of more frequent marquee matchups than we’d previously experienced during the regular season.
There’s also no doubt that the ultimate we’ve seen since the pandemic has been played at a higher level than before the stoppage. Turnovers are down as offensive efficiency has improved, but defenses have simultaneously become more complex and tactically challenging than they have ever been. Collectively, it feels like the last four years have been the start of a new generation in the UFA.
So, how do all the teams stack up in this burgeoning era?
Glad you asked.
There are countless dynamics that could factor into this ranking conversation, but I am choosing to primarily focus on what’s transpired on the field. Obviously, playoff appearances and postseason victories will matter a lot, and I also consider something like strength of schedule, as not every 7-5 or 5-7 record is worthy of the same praise or scorn. For example, with all due respect, certain Philadelphia losses against New York are still more impressive than some sleepy Central wins over Detroit. Additionally, while it’s hard to avoid some slight bias towards more recent action, I did try to consider every team’s four-year block, from the start of the 2021 season all the way through the end of 2024, in its entirety.
Meanwhile, I am not contemplating off-field factors, things like attendance, stadium quality, gameday atmosphere, and other organizational intangibles. Utilizing these criteria would definitely change the list a bunch, but having not personally experienced every team’s environment over the past four years, along with not having access to all the accurate attendance information, I decided to solely hone in on the teams’ relative success in between the lines.
The bottom 12 are here in Part I, while the top 12 will take the stage in Part II.
Without further adieu, here we go!
24. Detroit Mechanix
Regular Season Record (2021-2024): 1-47
Playoff Appearances: 0
Playoff Record: n/a
Championship Weekend Appearances: 0
Championships: 0
Breakdown: What’s there really to say here? Sure, the lone victory snapped an astonishing 81-game losing streak, and it was exhilarating for everyone involved. But in the other 47 games since coming out of the pandemic, they’ve been outscored by a whopping 460 goals. Way too often, the team has been completely non-competitive, having been defeated by double digits on 22 different occasions over the past four years. And in a cruel twist of fate, the quasi-optimistic mantra—“it can’t get any worse”— that has often been Detroit’s source of hope after past winless campaigns, is no longer accurate. After going 1-11 in 2024, it certainly wouldn’t stun anyone if the Mechanix endured another winless slate in 2025.
23. Oregon Steel (formerly the Portland Nitro)
Regular Season Record (2022-2024): 4-32
Playoff Appearances: 0
Playoff Record: n/a
Championship Weekend Appearances: 0
Championships: 0
Breakdown: In the Steel's first three games as a franchise in 2022, the team celebrated two wins and endured a hard-fought, monsoon-riddled, doubled overtime loss to Colorado, a Summit squad that was en route to a division title. But in the last 33 games since, Portland has obviously nosedived into the dungeon alongside Detroit and Dallas. Alas, the Steel remain intriguing, with their obvious collection of local talent and the influx of new ownership that could potentially help the collective buy-in. If you were considering the odds, Portland might actually have the best 2025 Championship Weekend potential amongst the bottom seven teams in these rankings. But for the moment, the Steel have also lost the benefit of the doubt and have a ways to go before earning it back.
22. Dallas Legion
Regular Season Record (2021-2024): 11-37
Playoff Appearances: 1
Playoff Record: 0-1
Championship Weekend Appearances: 0
Championships: 0
Breakdown: The dynamic in Dallas has gone downhill quickly, particularly relative to the extraordinary standards the franchise set in its first five seasons. From 2016 to 2021, Dallas averaged 12 victories per year, including the postseason. It’s a drastic juxtaposition against the past three seasons, where the Legion have miserably gone 3-33. They will enter 2025 riding the league’s longest losing streak, having dropped 13 straight since their last triumph on July 22, 2023, against Houston. Looking back, the Havoc’s entry into the UFA in 2023 further divided the Texas talent, and the Legion’s 2-7 record against Houston, a team that literally hasn’t beaten anybody else besides Dallas, dramatically overshadows the team’s last playoff berth back in 2021.
21. Houston Havoc
Regular Season Record (2023-2024): 7-17
Playoff Appearances: 0
Playoff Record: n/a
Championship Weekend Appearances: 0
Championships: 0
Breakdown: A quick glance would suggest the Havoc made some productive progress in their first two years in the league. After all, they went from two wins in their inaugural season (2023) to five victories this past summer. But digging in a little deeper, you realize that all seven of the franchise’s victories have been over Dallas. Houston’s never beaten Austin in seven meetings, and the Havoc have not been competitive vs. the non-Texas teams, getting outscored by 81 goals in their eight matchups—all losses—against out-of-state opponents over the past two years. Houston’s generally got good commitment, a dedicated coaching staff, and a beautiful stadium, but the Havoc need to find a way to beat somebody other than Dallas in 2025.
20. Pittsburgh Thunderbirds
Regular Season Record (2021-2024): 14-34
Playoff Appearances: 0
Playoff Record: n/a
Championship Weekend Appearances: 0
Championships: 0
Breakdown: Newer fans of the UFA may not even remember Pittsburgh as a bona fide Championship Weekend contender, but the Thunderbirds were within a single win of the semifinals in four of their first five seasons in the league. Unfortunately, the Pitt pipeline has not been quite as rich in recent years, and the T-Birds have not appeared in the playoffs since 2019. Like Portland, Pittsburgh feels like a city that’s not that far away from regaining relevance amongst the cadre of contenders, though the team’s performance at Detroit this past June 22 was absolutely brutal. That result, along with their eight-goal loss in Toronto one month prior, keep the Thunderbirds buried in the bottom five.
19. Toronto Rush
Regular Season Record (2021-2024): 13-32
Playoff Appearances: 0
Playoff Record: n/a
Championship Weekend Appearances: 0
Championships: 0
Breakdown: A friendly reminder that these are not all-time franchise rankings, and we are not factoring in Toronto’s first seven years in the league when the Rush averaged less than two losses per regular season. Indeed, those were the glory days for Toronto, and the post-pandemic era has been far less kind to the Ontario faithful. The Rush have not enjoyed a winning season since 2019, and 2024 was the team’s worst yet, managing just one win—though that win did help keep them above Pittsburgh in these rankings. Overall, however, the team lost many of the legends who built the East Division’s first dynasty, and the quest to replace these key high-leverage contributors has been a struggle. For an organization that was once one of the league’s shining stars, it has surely been a disappointing last four years.
18. Montreal Royal
Regular Season Record (2021-2024): 15-30
Playoff Appearances: 0*
Playoff Record: n/a
Championship Weekend Appearances: 0
Championships: 0
* Canada Cup champions in 2021
Breakdown: After spending all of the 2010s surviving in Toronto’s shadow, the Royal have emerged as Canada’s top team over the past four years. Back in 2021, Montreal went 5-0 against the Rush, and they are 4-4 against them in the three seasons since. But over the past two years, the Royal have just one win against American opponents, and that was this July’s regular season finale against Boston in a game that the Glory knew was unlikely to matter for their playoff positioning. Tobe DeCraene’s arrival certainly generated plenty of excitement in 2024, but Montreal still managed to only win four games. Looking ahead, the Royal recently announced that Jean-Levy Champagne would take over as the team’s new head coach. Champagne, a Royal Co-Owner and a former player, will be the third different coach for Montreal this decade.
17. Oakland Spiders
Regular Season Record (2021-2024): 23-25
Playoff Appearances: 1
Playoff Record: 0-1
Championship Weekend Appearances: 0
Championships: 0
Breakdown: The next two teams—Oakland and Philadelphia—are the agonizing kings of close games. The Spiders may lead the universe in slim victories, and hence, possess a slightly superior overall record than the Phoenix, but the algorithm slots Oakland just behind Philly due to the Phoenix’s annual strength of schedule, forced to face New York and DC with such frequency. The Spiders do appear to be on the upswing, though, buoyed by young talent and growing toward contender status, illustrated by their a return to the playoffs in 2024. While Oakland has not enjoyed a playoff victory since the 2015 championship, that drought could potentially come to an end in 2025.
16. Philadelphia Phoenix
Regular Season Record (2021-2024): 20-28
Playoff Appearances: 1
Playoff Record: 0-1
Championship Weekend Appearances: 0
Championships: 0
Breakdown: This team certainly feels like they have been better than their 20-28 record would suggest over the past four years, though it’s not totally clear if this is good news or bad news for Philly. The Phoenix have consistently been competitive enough to seriously scare the other top teams in the East, but literally every single one of those games against New York and DC eventually became just another devastating defeat. For the record, there have also been some ugly clunkers mixed into Philly’s resume. That’s unfortunate, since the team has clearly improved from the bottom-feeder that averaged double digit losses in the seven seasons between 2014 and 2021. But the headline for Philly remains the nine times that the Phoenix have suffered losses by one or two goals against the Empire and Breeze over the course of the past four years. They have been closer, but not quite good enough.
15. Los Angeles Aviators
Regular Season Record (2021-2024): 19-29
Playoff Appearances: 1
Playoff Record: 1-1
Championship Weekend Appearances: 0
Championships: 0
Breakdown: The Aviators have tabulated a winning record five times in their nine season history, but only one of these campaigns has occurred in the past four years. The magical 2023 journey from 1-3 to the West Division title game was immediately followed by a forgettable 3-9 season, the team’s lowest win total ever. But their 6-4 record against Oakland over the past four seasons, along with their lone playoff triumph on Colorado’s home field, ekes LA into the top 15. That postseason victory—as improbable as it was in numerous ways—is definitely the most important factor lifting the Aviators above the Spiders and Phoenix in the post-pandemic hierarchy.
14. Indianapolis AlleyCats
Regular Season Record (2021-2024): 24-24
Playoff Appearances: 2
Playoff Record: 1-2
Championship Weekend Appearances: 0
Championships: 0
Breakdown: Almost half of their regular season wins—11 of the 24—over the past four seasons have come against Detroit, but Indy also has a pair of playoff appearances and the AlleyCats have generally been pretty frisky. As one of the league’s original franchises, the team has always featured some of the UFA’s all-time stat leaders, though they are bracing for a new era with veterans like Travis Carpenter, Rick Gross, Nick Hutton, and Levi Jacobs all likely retiring after long careers. They probably would have been ranked ahead of Madison in these rankings if they didn’t get rocked in the 2024 regular season finale, which cost them what would have been their third playoff berth in the past four years. The poor performance at Breese Stevens Field also meant they have now lost six of their last 10 against the Radicals since 2021, so that’s an easy tiebreaker too.
13. Madison Radicals
Regular Season Record (2021-2024): 25-23
Playoff Appearances: 1
Playoff Record: 1-1
Championship Weekend Appearances: 0
Championships: 0
Breakdown: Instinctively, there was a pang to bury the Radicals a little lower in these rankings, considering it’s been such a drop-off from their string of six straight Championship Weekend appearances from 2013 to 2018. But despite the clear shift from one era to the next, Madison still has finished .500 or better in all but one season of the team’s existence. Another playoff victory this past July, the team’s 11th postseason win all-time but just the first since 2018, also served as a critically important notch on this team’s 2020s resume. The Radicals remain one of the premier ‘total package’ franchises in the league, and if we were to factor in things like fan following and stadium, the Radicals would undoubtedly be in the top 10. But from a purely on-the-field perspective since the pandemic, Madison narrowly misses out on ranking in the top half of the league.
Part II of the rankings coming later today...
