April 22, 2025
By Evan Lepler

Can you believe we are just two days away? 

The 2025 UFA season officially launches with Thursday night’s New York at Oakland matchup—I’ll be on the call alongside Ultiworld’s Charlie Eisenhood on WatchUFA.tv—and then we’re off with six more contests on tap Friday and Saturday, the tantalizing first steps on the exhilarating road to Championship Weekend.

Looking back on the last seven months, it has truly been a dizzying offseason, with way more noteworthy and occasionally stunning news than we’ve grown accustomed to. Now, as the dust has settled and training camps have ramped up, there’s a noticeable uptick in terms of widespread preseason optimism. 

There are a dozen different teams—maybe even more—that genuinely believe they can be the last team standing. Or at least one of the final four competing in the semifinals at Breese Stevens Field, which, by the way, are exactly four months away. There are at least two and as many as four legitimate contenders in every division, meaning that several squads with reasonable title aspirations won’t even make the playoffs.

In other words, the upcoming 2025 campaign is shaping up to be ferociously competitive.

If you’re a newer fan of the Ultimate Frisbee Association and searching for an explanation of the foundational structure, storylines, and subplots, you’re in luck. 

If you weren’t locked in on all the offseason drama, no worries. 

Today’s season preview Tuesday Toss is meant as a snapshot catch-all, delivering the big picture and basic details that will help you appreciate the UFA, along with some additional context and perspective that will prepare you for all the frisbee fun that’s ahead. 

Without further adieu, and out of respect to the league’s new title sponsor, Pabst Light, here’s a 12-pack of general info, notable news, and all the other relevant FAQs as we embark upon the 2025 season.

1. The Basics

Quite simply, the Ultimate Frisbee Association consists of 24 teams playing 12 games apiece during the regular season. There are four divisions of six teams each, with the top three in every quadrant making the playoffs. There are 13 different weekends of regular season competition, all leading toward the postseason, which arrives at the end of July. 

Exactly half the league will qualify for the playoffs, and while there’s a perception that many of the same teams are in the mix every year, that belief is a bit misleading. Last season, three teams that had not qualified for the playoffs in at least five years—Madison, Oakland, and Seattle— all punched their tickets to the postseason. Over the past four seasons, there have been 18 different franchises that have participated in the playoffs, with 10 different teams making appearances in the league’s semifinals in that same span.

Last time qualifying for the UFA Playoffs

• Atlanta Hustle - 2024
• Austin Sol - 2024
• Boston Glory - 2024
• Carolina Flyers - 2024
• Chicago Union - 2024
• DC Breeze - 2024
• Madison Radicals - 2024
• Minnesota Wind Chill - 2024
• New York Empire - 2024
• Oakland Spiders - 2024
• Salt Lake Shred - 2024
• Seattle Cascades - 2024
• Colorado Summit - 2023
• Indianapolis AlleyCats - 2023
• Philadelphia Phoenix - 2022
• San Diego Growlers - 2022
• Pittsburgh Thunderbirds - 2019
• Toronto Rush - 2019
• Montreal Royal - 2017
• Detroit Mechanix - Never
• Houston Havoc - Never
• Oregon Steel - Never
• Vegas Bighorns - Never

Last time qualifying for Championship Weekend

• Carolina Flyers - 2024
• DC Breeze - 2024
• Minnesota Wind Chill - 2024
• Seattle Cascades - 2024
• Austin Sol - 2023
• New York Empire - 2023
• Salt Lake Shred - 2023
• Chicago Union - 2022
• Colorado Summit - 2022
• San Diego Growlers - 2021
• Indianapolis AlleyCats - 2019
• Los Angeles Aviators - 2019
• Madison Radicals - 2018
• Toronto Rush - 2018
• Oakland Spiders - 2015
• Philadelphia Phoenix - 2012
• Atlanta Hustle - Never
• Boston Glory - Never
• Detroit Mechanix - Never
• Houston Havoc - Never
• Montreal Royal - Never
• Pittsburgh Thunderbirds - Never
• Oregon Steel - Never
• Vegas Bighorns - Never

As for the UFA’s postseason format, the third-place finisher in each division travels to that same division’s second-place squad, with the winner of that elimination game visiting the first-place team to battle for the coveted berth to Championship Weekend. 

2. What’s Championship Weekend?

It’s the UFA’s marquee event. 

This year, we return to iconic Breese Stevens Field in Madison, site of three previous Championship Weekends. It will be the first locale to host the semis and finals for a fourth time, a deserved distinction for the city colloquially known as “The Capital City of Ultimate”.

The semis are scheduled for Friday, August 22, with the 2025 Championship Game coming one night later, on Saturday, August 23.

2012: Pontiac Silverdome — Detroit, Michigan
2013: Lane Tech Stadium — Chicago, Illinois
2014: Varsity Stadium — Toronto, Ontario
2015: Avaya Stadium — San Jose, California
2016: Breese Stevens Field — Madison, Wisconsin
2017: Claude Robillard Stadium — Montreal, Quebec
2018: Breese Stevens Field — Madison, Wisconsin
2019: Foothill College Stadium — Los Altos Hills, California
2021: Audi Field — Washington, D.C.
2022: Breese Stevens Field — Madison, Wisconsin
2023: TCO Stadium — Eagan, Minnesota
2024: Zions Bank Stadium — Herriman, Utah

3. Friday Night Frisbee Presented by Pabst Light

Free Friday Frisbee returns, with a 13-week slate of great games that will air both on WatchUFA.tv and live on the UFA’s YouTube page for all viewers to watch for free all around the world. The last time there was a free Friday showcase every single week during the season was back in 2021.

I will be on the call for most of these games, alongside several of the brightest analysts in our sport. Back in February, I published my initial thoughts on all 13 Friday Night Frisbee matchups. 

4. Every single game airs on WatchUFA.tv

While I am certainly biased in my role as the league’s primary broadcaster, I genuinely believe that WatchUFA.tv carries spectacular value. Our streaming platform showcases every game live and on-demand, and purchasing a subscription for just $11.99 a month is a great way to support the league and digest the thrilling journey on your own schedule. The DVR functionality of the site has also improved, so you can easily watch a first quarter live, pause it for 30 minutes to put your kids to bed, and then return to the game at your leisure. Furthermore, if the game you’re watching is no longer close, there’s probably another intriguing matchup you can click to. 

I understand that we live in a world where we’re often subscribed to too many different services, but WatchUFA.tv is truly an excellent product, and anyone with even a tiny interest in frisbee should give it a chance—free trials are still available!—and enjoy the excitement and drama of the 2025 season. 

By the way, here are my February thoughts on the 2025 “Game of the Week” schedule, a slate that includes so many of the spicy rivalry matchups that will ultimately determine home-field advantage across every division.

5. The defending champs

“In one of the most stunning Championship Weekends of all-time, the Minnesota Wind Chill are the wind CHAMPIONS in Salt Lake City.”

Those were my words as time expired last August. The Wind Chill euphorically stormed the field after their one-goal win over the Carolina Flyers, becoming the most unexpected title winner in the history of the Ultimate Frisbee Association. You can relive their shocking story in a tremendous new documentary that went live on Monday: “Second Wind: The Return to Championship Weekend.” It’s brilliantly edited and just really well done.

6. Can the Chill go back-to-back?

There’s no doubt that Minnesota proved all the doubters wrong, and surely this means that everyone now is buying stock in the Wind Chill as legitimate title contenders, right? 

Well, not exactly. 

Like Ben Feldman’s relationship with clipboards, it’s complicated. 

No doubt the Wind Chill earned a ton of respect with their achievement. How could they not? And they definitely improved in the offseason, bringing aboard more defensive firepower in James Pollard and Justin Burnett, who join Minnesota from Philly and Atlanta, respectively. They are certainly capable of winning the whole thing again. 

But I also would not rank the Wind Chill among my top five preseason title favorites across the league. They probably check in somewhere around seven or eight in my personal late-April power rankings, a fun team with fascinating potential but far from a lock to even make it back to Championship Weekend. 

It’s definitely an interesting dynamic, and maybe even an advantageous one for the Wind Chill, as they aim to become just the third team in UFA history to win back-to-back titles.

Past UFA Champions

2012: Philadelphia Phoenix
2013: Toronto Rush
2014: Oakland Spiders
2015: Oakland Spiders
2016: Dallas Legion
2017: San Francisco FlameThrowers
2018: Madison Radicals
2019: New York Empire
2020: No Champion (COVID postponement)
2021: Carolina Flyers
2022: New York Empire
2023: New York Empire
2024: Minnesota Wind Chill

7. Who are the other top contenders?

A month before the Wind Chill won the championship, a playoff preview article on WatchUFA.com last July labeled them a “Pretender” rather than a “Contender.” 

And we know how that worked out. 

So that’s the caveat to any bold preseason proclamation. 

But with that disclaimer out of the way, I think there are legitimately 12 championship contenders. I’ll list them alphabetically by division.

In the Central, Chicago and Minnesota. In the East, Boston, DC, New York, and Toronto. In the South, Atlanta and Carolina. And in the West, Colorado, Oakland, Salt Lake, and Seattle. 

That’s half the league that I could see winning the championship this year. Beyond that, there’s another group of teams that I could fathom winning a playoff game under the right circumstances. Teams like Austin, Madison, Pittsburgh, and San Diego. 

The championship chase is truly more wide open than ever, one of the reasons that this upcoming season is so captivating.

8. The Foreign Phenoms

Another super compelling storyline is the proliferation of international talent across the league, with several teams making news by bringing aboard some of the premier players from Europe. 

The Toronto Rush are leading the way with their “Rush Reboot,” importing five huge international additions: Toms Abeltins and Arvids Karklins from Latvia, Tom Blasman from The Netherlands, Connor McHale from England, and Simone Gasperini from Italy. Add in the return of Mark Lloyd, who was arguably the team’s top player during the first half-decade of the franchise’s run in the league, and that’s six huge pieces for a Rush team that needed a major jolt. 

The Boston Glory and Chicago Union also signed a pair of foreign phenoms. Boston snagged 2024 UFA Rookie of the Year Tobe Decraene away from Montreal, while also adding the young Italian, Sebastian Rossi. Chicago picked up two excellent prospects from Belgium, Daan de Marree and Sofiene Bontemps. 

Furthermore, you have the Frenchman, Quentin Bonnaud, back for his sixth season with Montreal and the German, Aaron Wolf, returning for his second season with Seattle. Colombian Andres Rodriguez is also starting his third season with Philly.

The rise of international superstars matriculating into the UFA is absolutely one of the most fun subplots of this season and the enticing future of our league. Could we create a USA vs. the World type All-Star Game in a few years? Not too long ago, that question would’ve felt farfetched, but now it’s entirely possible.

9. Can Babbitt become the first ever to win three straight UFA MVPs?

Less than a month before the start of the 2024 season, reigning MVP Jeff Babbitt signed with the Glory after the shocking revelation that contract negotiations between him and the Empire, whom he played for from 2016 to 2023, had fallen apart. Even without a full preseason, he still found his form quite quickly, becoming the fourth player in UFA history to win his second consecutive MVP award. 

UFA MVP Winners

2012: Goose Helton, Indianapolis AlleyCats
2013: Goose Helton, Chicago Union
2014: Beau Kittredge, Oakland Spiders
2015: Beau Kittredge, Oakland Spiders
2016: Dylan Tunnell, Atlanta Hustle
2017: Jonathan Nethercutt, Carolina Flyers
2018: Rowan McDonnell, DC Breeze
2019: Ben Jagt, New York Empire
2021: Ben Jagt, New York Empire
2022: Ryan Osgar, New York Empire
2023: Jeff Babbitt, New York Empire
2024: Jeff Babbitt, Boston Glory

Surrounded by even more talent in 2025, Babbitt enters the season as one of the leading MVP candidates again. His combination of size, speed, instincts, and competitive fire is certainly special, and there’s definitely a version of the summer that features Babbitt once again taking Boston further than the franchise has ever gone before. 

10. Who are the other top MVP contenders?

Adam Ruffner and I discussed this topic extensively on a recent Swing Pass podcast. I’d encourage you to listen to the entire conversation, but for the sake of the cliff notes: my top five list of contenders included Babbitt, Atlanta’s Brett Hulsmeyer, New York’s Jack Williams, Toronto’s Karklins, and Colorado’s Quinn Finer. Adam’s quintet featured Babbitt, Hulsmeyer, and Williams, along with Seattle’s Lukas Ambrose and San Diego’s Travis Dunn. 

So there’s seven names where the MVP race might start, but there’s probably a better than 50 percent chance that the 2025 MVP emerges from the rest of the field, as there are so many other tantalizing talents that are poised to have huge years for their teams.

11. Interdivisional action

The 2025 schedule also features more cross-division play than any other season in UFA history.     Opening weekend is highlighted by three straight days of unprecedented interdivisional matchups, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. 

Overall, there are 21 interdivisional contests scheduled for the 2025 regular season, as 15 different teams play at least two games outside of their division. Only four teams, in fact—Boston, Detroit, Indy, and Montreal—have zero interdivisional action during their 12-game regular season slate. 

If you want to add in Championship Weekend, that makes it a clean two dozen interdivisional games coming up over the next four months. 

Mark your calendars now:

• April 24 — New York @ Oakland — 1st ever meeting

• April 25 — New York @ Vegas — 1st ever meeting

• April 26 — Salt Lake @ Atlanta — 1st ever meeting

• May 2 — Madison @ Houston — 1st ever meeting

• May 3 — Madison @ Austin — 2nd meeting (Austin leads 1-0)

• May 10 — DC @ Carolina — 9th meeting (DC leads 5-3)

• May 16 — Colorado @ Houston — 1st ever meeting

• May 17 — Colorado @ Austin — 1st ever meeting

• May 30 — Atlanta @ Minnesota — 1st ever meeting

• May 31 — Atlanta @ Chicago — 1st ever meeting

• May 31 — Carolina @ Philadelphia — 4th meeting (Carolina leads 2-1)

• June 1 — Carolina @ Pittsburgh — 5th meeting (Carolina leads 4-0)

• June 14 — San Diego @ Vegas — 1st ever meeting

• June 14 — Philadelphia @ Pittsburgh — 6th meeting (Philadelphia leads 4-1)

• June 20 — Los Angeles @ Oregon — 7th meeting (LA leads 5-1)

• June 21 — Los Angeles @ Seattle — 24th meeting (LA leads 15-8)

• June 28 — Oakland @ San Diego — 25th meeting (SD leads 13-11)

• June 28 — Pittsburgh @ Toronto — 3rd meeting (Toronto leads 2-0)

• July 18 — Minnesota @ Salt Lake — 2nd meeting (Salt Lake leads 1-0)

• July 19 — San Diego @ Oakland — 26th meeting (SD leads 13-11)

• July 20 — Vegas @ Los Angeles — 2nd meeting

• August 22 — Championship Weekend, First Semifinal 

• August 22 — Championship Weekend, Second Semifinal

• August 23 — 2025 UFA Championship Game

12. The free agent snow globe

Cam Brock, the UFA’s all-time goal-scoring king, is now on Atlanta. Max Sheppard, the 2019 All-Star Game MVP, signed with New York. Pawel Janas, the league’s all-time assist leader, is back in Chicago.

Unquestionably, as I wrote about in March when rosters were officially released, there were more big names switching teams this past offseason than any other winter in UFA history. It’s tough to diagnose exactly why that’s the case, but I think there are a few different reasons. 

While there’s some element of coincidence and randomness, I also believe the league has been trending in this direction. In 2022 and 2023, the New York Empire led the way in terms of loading up on marquee free agents. While some viewed their record 31-game winning streak, which spanned two undefeated seasons in 2022 and 2023, as an anti-competitive problem that had to be fixed, I saw it more as a harsh reality where other teams had to raise their standards. And over the past couple years, that’s exactly what we’ve seen. 

Toronto wanted to reinvigorate the franchise; they invested in international talent, infusing loads of energy into the local community in the process. We’ll see how it works out, but it’s definitely boosted everyone’s preseason optimism in a monumental way. 

New York, after losing a couple MVPs from their dynasty days, recognized they were in the midst of a transition and aggressively recruited new blood, signing players from Austin (Oliver Fay), Los Angeles (Everest Shapiro), Philadelphia (Dmitry Suvorov), Pittsburgh (Max Sheppard), and Oakland (Gavin May).

In addition to their two aforementioned international signees, the Chicago Union added players who competed for Indy (Xavier Payne and William Wettengel), Los Angeles (Pawel Janas and Brandon Van Deusen), Madison (Victor Luo), Oakland (Jace Bruner), and Salt Lake (Simon Dastrup) last season, while also returning a half-dozen former Union talents who had taken a year or two off. 

Atlanta knew they wanted to add some pop to its cutting core, so the Hustle pursued the league’s all-time leading scorer (Brock) and last season’s leading scorer (Alec Wilson Holliday). It didn’t hurt that Sean Connole and Elijah Jaime also landed with the Hustle too. 

It’s crazy that we could go this far without mentioning Khalif El-Salaam transitioning from Seattle to San Diego or the reigning Callahan winner Aidan Downey shipping up to DC from Atlanta. And what about Colorado adding Tobias Brooks from Carolina!

Also super under the radar, Houston acquiring Dalton Smith, who’s participated in five different Championship Weekends, along with Chase Cunningham and Tyler Reinhardt to add some important experience to the Havoc. And out in the Pacific Northwest, I expect former Indy AlleyCat Lucas Coniaris to have a big season for the Oregon Steel. 

Sometimes teams get lucky with a really good player moving into their neighborhood, but more frequently in this new era, teams are understanding that they need to be active and involved in the pursuit of key free agent signings. It’s a significant step for the league as the competitive juices continue to evolve and the standard of excellence keeps rising. 

The snow-globe shake up is definitely fun to follow, and it’ll be even more interesting to see how everything settles starting this Thursday night.