Quick Natties Thoughts

I might write more later when I recover...but here are some quick thoughts:

(1)Congrats to Jam and Ironside...the finals was really clean, both in terms of not so many turnovers and in the sense that it was noticeably lacking in cheating, and as a result the game finished in something like 100 minutes.
(2)If Dylan Tunnell isn't on the world games team it's pretty much a huge joke. Chain was 5-0 with Dylan and 0-2 without him this weekend....not an accident...completely changes the game when he's on the field.
(3)Josh McCarthy is a very deserving winner of the Farricker award, but I just wanted to give some props to Chain's nominee, Jason Simpson. Jason has a foot injury that makes even walking incredibly painful. He decided to put off surgery until next week so he could be there for his teammates. Despite the pain, Simpson still managed to be able to play a lot of meaningful points at Natties...and as always, Jason exhibited the class and sportsmanship that makes him such a respected competitor. So yeah, KD's right, Boston bias is effing this game.
(4)Buy a Chain Jersey or Disc
(5)Ugh. Really felt like we had a chance this year...gonna take a while to get over this one.

aj

Georgia Declines Conference1 Offer

After much discussion, both internally and with our friends on other teams, Georgia has decided to decline Cultimate's offer to join Conference 1.

Here are our main concerns

(1) Logistically, Cultimate is in no-way set up to handle the complexities of the series. They simply don't have the proper infrastructure necessary to handle eligibility.
(2) As best as we can tell, the top 25, especially the teams outside the top 15, is more or less completely arbitrary. We're especially concerned about the lack of details provided about teams that are not in the initial top 25's ability to move into the series.
(3) The timing of this is very irritating. With less than 3 months until the start of the spring season, we feel like we are being forced into making a decision without full knowledge of the details. Why could this have not been presented to us earlier? What's wrong with waiting until next year to do this? Right now, Cultimate is all but guaranteeing that the 2009 Season is going to be in a state of chaos.
(4) People remember who wins the NBA Championship...no one cares who won the most ABA Titles.
(5) If Cultimate were just interested in expanding their series from last year, Georgia would be very interested in participating. Why is it so necessary for Cultimate to be in charge of the championship event?
(6) We have serious concerns about the price structuring of this event in future years. Currently, the teams are getting a pretty sweet deal to attend these events, what's to guarantee us that Cultimate won't substantially raise costs in the future?


This in no way is meant as bashing Cultimate, I think they are bringing up some very important ideas and are suggesting many needed changes. It's also quite possible that we would be willing to compete in a Conference1 series next year, if some of these difficulties can be worked out. Unfortunately, as currently proposed, we feel that the Conference1 series will not work out, and the timing of Cultimate's announcement leaves them no time to work through the logistical details.

In any event, for all of these reasons, Georgia will be attending sectionals this year, with the hope of advancing to regionals and beyond. We hope that other teams will join us, but respect that each program has to make the decision that is best for their program.

National Seedings

Here's my thoughts on nationals seedings:

I think the top 3 seeds are pretty uncontroversial:
1 Sockeye
2 Johnny Bravo (1-0 against Ironside)
3 Ironside

The 4-10 section becomes difficult due to Chain’s loss to Doublewide. Here is how I would handle it:

4 Ring of Fire (1-0 against Revolver, 0-2 against GOAT)
5 Revolver (1-0 against SZ, 1-0 against GOAT, must be higher than Jam)
6 Jam (1-0 against SZ, 1-0 against DW, have losses to Condors and TS, but I think it’s a mistake to push them lower)
7 Sub Zero (1-0 against GOAT, 1-0 against DW)
8 GOAT (1-0 against DW)
9 Doublewide (has to be higher than Chain, 1-0 against Condors)
10 Chain (has to be lower than DW)


11 Condors (2-0 against Truck Stop)
12 Truck Stop (has wins over Jam, Revolver, and DW, so could possibly push them higher them DW, but that just pushes Chain even lower, which seems like an error, 1-0 against Machine).

13 Machine (1-0 against Bodhi, 1-0 against PoNY)

14 Bodhi
15 PoNY
16 El Diablo

aj

UPA Coaching Corp Requirements

So, I just got an email forwarded to me from the UPA.
Here is what I consider the most objectionable part of the email:

During games at UPA Championship events where field access is restricted, teams with coaching staff are required to have at least one Level I Certified coach in order for coaching staff to have player-level field access.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favor of the UPA Coaching Corp. I think it's a nice program that is genuinely trying to help develop the sport. But, I think this new requirement seems a bit over the top.

My basic problem is this: It's not enough that I (and many other coaches like me) VOLUNTEER hours and hours of my (our) time trying to teach people how to play ultimate...now I'm required to pay the UPA if I have hopes that by VOLUNTEERING my time, I might help my team advance to the highest levels? This doesn't seem to be the ideal way to encourage people to coach.

aj

Looks like it's gonna be Al over Jim...who knew?

So, I make a brief return to posting just to express my surprise at the state of the blogosphere. In the early days (pre-ultimate talk) it seemed like most of the blogs were going to follow the Parinella model, polite and respectful. George's blog, Zaz's blog, and Marshall's blog all seemed to follow that model. Even Idris' blog and this blog, which preceded Parinella's blog (and aren't quite as milk-toast as Jim's blog) utilized a similar tone.

But the recent addition of this blog has got me thinking. The new popular ultimate blogs (Match Diesel's and Karlinsky's) have followed the Count's Blog model--they're irreverent and usually pretty funny. Match Diesel's Blog is even sporting the Count's trademark flames.

I thought I was just imagining this trend until I saw Parinella post some of the old T-Man stuff in an obvious attempt claim these new wild blogs as his own.

I'm not fooled though...looks like it's Al over Jim in the battle for the future of ultimatetalk.

aj

...Luke's blog continues to resist categorization.