Ultimate Frisbee is a sport that has seen a lot of growth over recent years, such as being featured on major media outlets like ESPN and having it national board (USAUltimate) recognized by the Internal Olympic Committee. However, it hasn’t made any ground on becoming a NCAA sanctioned sport. A lot to do with this is that Ultimate has not made it clear that there is marketability in within the sport. It doesn’t nessarly have to show that it has the ability to turn massive profits.As we see with a lot of current sanctioned sports such as Tennis and Golf who run at a bit of a lost. A lot to of this comes from the stigma that is held for ultimate to be something you do on the beach on vacation or something you see hippies do in the park. Things that don’t make you want to support a program finically when you are approached for fundraising.
This leaves the club sports programs to need to push even harder to earn a good name with sports viewer just as USAU has with their push to get into the olympics. This includes doing things such as ditching club names, for instance the Ultimate Frisbee team at Penn State is called Spank separating them from other teams on campus that go by Nittany Lions. A very small transitions that could go a long way into cementing the sport into campus culture. Unlike the Ultiworld below I don’t believe the only way to get the NCAA attention is to showcase the women’s division only and await for the mens division to follow, because it seems like their are ways for before divisions to build enough respectable programs.
One of the ways to do that is to keep up with the conference play between schools such as ACC Tournament that as stated had all ACC schools with exception go Florida and Pittsburgh who were added in for logistical reason. This gives conferences away in which they can host championship events in Ultimate. Which is a key part of the proposal that a will have to come from a athletic conference to the NCAA before sanction play is approved.
http://ultiworld.com/2012/12/12/how-ultimate-could-become-an-ncaa-sanctioned-sport/
Robert the Liunatic says
I’ve played ultimate a few times and I have to say it is pretty damn fun and since I understand the rules, I would not be adverse to watching professionals play it. I hope it gains traction in the Professional world.
Jack Gergel says
It would definitely be really cool to see Ultimate Frisbee become an NCAA sanctioned sport. It is really interesting to watch, and if It was advertised more then more people might see the excitement it creates and want to watch and play it.
Montana D Morris says
It is cool to see different types of sports such as Ultimate Frisbee gain popularity. As with any sport, it had to be small to start before it could grow into the giants of today such as baseball, football, or soccer. It also gives more opportunity to students. If it becomes NCAA sanctioned, it could have scholarship opportunities in the future.
Kenneth C Grozier says
I had no idea that ultimate Frisbee was such a popular sport in the NCAA. One of my friends from back home plays on the club team at his college but I had never thought that it was actually a popular sport.