Most of this weekend’s College Open action will be at two tournaments: the ACC Ultimate Championships in Chapel Hill, NC and T-Town Throwdown in Tuscaloosa, AL.
ACC Championships
- The top four at ACCs are seeded Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Clemson, and North Carolina. I’m not sure why Virginia Tech got the seeding nod over Georgia Tech given that they had pretty comparable fall seasons and Tribe finished far ahead of Burn at Regionals last year. In a head to head match-up, I’d give the nod to Georgia Tech because they have a coach and their top talent is better, but I’ve not seen either play recently so I could be wrong; it would probably come down to how well Georgia Tech has replaced its departed handlers.
- This tournament should answer some questions about North Carolina. Noah Saul and Thomas Sayre-McCord both spent time with Ring of Fire this summer, sitting out fall tournaments along the way, and they’ve got last year’s Freshman of the Year in Tristan Green as well as some experience at the handler position. Their depth is what I’m wondering about after a pretty bad showing at the UOA ACC Championships back in October.
- I’m also curious about Clemson, a young team that was led by Ben Slade for the past few years and is now moving forward on its own. Clemson players certainly experienced moments of brilliance last year (especially at Tally Classic), but they lost in the Quarters of Joint Summit to William & Mary.
- Finally, Boston College is a team that I know nothing about, but for some reason feel like they’re seeded low at the bottom of a pool. We’ll see.
- Georgia Tech (Southeast) and Boston College (New England) are the only non-Atlantic Coast teams at the tournament. I’m still hoping to get a glimpse of the bid algorithm, but if Georgia Tech runs the table it’s an obvious win for the Southeast.
T-Town Throwdown
- Top teams: Florida, Middlebury, and Georgia.
- The Ohio State-Tennessee game for Pool D should be good, and in Pool C you’ve got last weekend’s Joint Summit winner Florida State. It’s too early for DUF to be all that fatigued by back-to-back weekends,and by all accounts, Georgia is down this year, so the best chance for a real upset is probably in that game.
- I think Florida wins this weekend, but if anyone is going to upset them, my guess is Tennessee on Sunday morning. Phil Brock leads a group of pretty strong vets, and Agent Orange can be streaky. Unlikely, but I thought I’d throw it out there.
- 19 of the 24 teams are from the Southeast. The other five has got Middlebury and Williams repping New England and Kansas State, Harding, and Missouri S&T from the South Central.
New Years Fest
- Colorado will be there, but the rest are mostly club teams.
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