Midseason Takeaways
1) A new best region?
For as long as any of us can remember, the Michigan Region has owned the NCDA. With 12 of the 15 college dodgeball national titles going to a Michigan school, not to mention most of the Final Four each year consisting of Michigan teams, the region’s success could be categorized as nothing short of ‘dominance’. But, that all might be changing. Sure, it took 1.5 years off from NCDA Dodgeball thanks to a worldwide pandemic, but it certainly feels like the gap has closed.
Continue reading “Midseason Takeaways”Cincinnati Super Smackdown Tournament Review
This year, the league is witnessing arguably some of the most balanced skill sets within the top 8 teams that it has ever seen. In a neck and neck dogfight for the top spot in the rankings, there has been quite some uncertainty on where to predict the final standings for each team. With 4 of these top 8 teams competing in this tournament, we were hoping to clear some of that uncertainty, but all we got was more of it.
Each Ohio team, coming off of their own respective dominant performances, was surely excited to play a hot MSU, who just celebrated a huge technical upset over GVSU. Mixed into these matchups are both UK and WMU, both competing in their season inducting tournament. As the league eagerly looked for the results of this tournament to shine some clarity on the true hierarchy of the league, the results this day struck an existential blow to the concept of clarity: Akron defeated MSU, MSU defeated OSU, OSU defeated UC, and UC defeated Akron and MSU. What do we take away from this? Are any of these teams the technical winner? The transitive property rests in an infinite loop, so we asked each team to give us their thoughts on each matchup to help us debug these results.
Continue reading “Cincinnati Super Smackdown Tournament Review”Cardinal Invitational Recap
Way back on November 20th, the Cardinal Invitational took place. With everyone very busy with the holiday weekend and preparing for finals, it took a little while to compile each team’s lasting thoughts for the tournament. We take a look at what leaders from (almost) every team had to say.
Saginaw Valley State Perspective:
Viking Clash Recap
On December 4, 2021 at the Viking Clash, four teams went head to head at the Cleveland State Recreational Center, three from Ohio and one from the Midway region. The teams that went head to head were: Cleveland State University (CSU), Bowling Green State University (BGSU), Kent State University (Kent) and the University of Wisconsin Platteville (UWP). Let’s take a look at the results on the day.
November BOTM: Robyn MacDonald
Robyn MacDonald, President of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is your November Baller of the Month! Click on the video link below to hear her thoughts on winning the award.
Viking Clash Preview
This Saturday, December 4, 2021 we have four teams in action at the Viking Clash. The teams in attendance are: the host school, Cleveland State University (CSU), Bowling Green State University (BGSU), Kent State University (Kent), and the University of Wisconsin Platteville (UWP).
Below is the schedule for tomorrow’s event.
Pioneer Classic & Cornhusker Clash Recap
In the Pioneer Classic and the Cornhusker Clash, the University of Wisconsin Platteville (UWP) and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) took to the courts to play back-to-back double headers to start their seasons. Below are the results:
Pioneer Classic:
Game 1: UNL def UWP 4-1
Game 2: UNL def UWP 3-2
Cornhusker Clash:
Game 1: UNL def UWP 4-1
Game 2: UNL def UWP 4-3 (OT)
Cornhusker Clash Preview
Cornhusker Clash
It is another exciting week for dodgeball in the Midway Conference as this Saturday November 20, 2021 the Cornhusker Clash is back! The University of Wisconsin Platteville (UWP) will be going up against University of Nebraska- Lincoln (UNL) in another doubleheader. UWP will also take on a UNL B team in a scrimmage.
Below is the schedule for tomorrow’s event.
Continue reading “Cornhusker Clash Preview”NCDA Alumni Podcast East Coast Edition: Colin Sporer and Shadeed Drakeford
Towson Head Coach Colin Sporer and Director of Internal Affairs Shadeed Drakeford discuss the recent tournaments that has occurred thus year and the rest of the tournament in Fall 2021. To watch the podcast, click on the link below:
October BOTM: Christian Iannuzzelli
Christian Iannuzzelli, President and Head Captain of Penn State University is your October Baller of Month! To watch his interview, click on the link below:
2nd Annual John Betters’ Bobcat Bonanza Tournament Review
The second annual John Betters’ Bobcat Bonanza showed us where a lot of teams stand at this point in the season. With most teams having played a match throughout the league as of the conclusion of this weekend, I think we are finally starting to get a good picture for how each team compares to one another. While there are still a lot of lingering questions (IE – how does the majority of the East Coast stand up to the rest of the league? What does Michigan State look like? Is Towson still truly a top team in the NCDA? Are Grand Valley and Cincinnati actually that good?), we did get some real answers this weekend. Yes, Grand Valley is still a force to be reckoned with. Yes, Cincinnati is a legitimate title contender despite the loss to the aforementioned Lakers. Yes, the league is in overall good health with impressively large rookie classes for a lot of teams who hadn’t played prior to this weekend such as Ohio and Saginaw Valley.
What hasn’t been answered, however, is what each team thought about their own individual performances on the weekend. The participating Captains and Presidents minced no words when it comes to how they felt about their teams’ performances this past weekend. Here’s what they had to say:
Continue reading “2nd Annual John Betters’ Bobcat Bonanza Tournament Review”Standings as of 2021-11-16
In the 2022 Season, we have 12 technical upsets in 41 ranked matches (70.73% success rate) across 7 events.
The Gonzalez System is a computer ranking model similar to Elo and is a rating exchange system based on research performed by World Rugby. It has been adapted by the NCDA to the demands of College Dodgeball, but can be tuned and customized endlessly to incorporate accurate data. It has been used to help determine seeds for the Nationals bracket since Nationals 2014, and was used exclusively for each Nationals bracket since 2017.
Continue reading “Standings as of 2021-11-16”Pioneer Classic Preview
This Saturday, November 13, 2021, The Midway Conference is finally back in action with the Pioneer Classic! The teams that will be in attendance are the University of Wisconsin Platteville (UWP) and the University of Nebraska Lincoln (UNL). It is a double header with a mix and match game thrown in between. The schedule for tomorrow’s event can be seen below.
Continue reading “Pioneer Classic Preview”2nd Annual John Betters’ Bobcat Bonanza Preview
With the return of dodgeball comes the return of what I can only assume will become a time honored tradition for Ohio University, and that is hosting the annual John Betters’ Bobcat Bonanza in the fall semester. Not only will this year’s iteration feature eight talented dodgeball teams, but we will also witness the retirement of the great John Betters’ jersey as well as the ceremonial first throw – a welcomed new addition to the tournament.
Silliness aside, Ohio University will be host to some of the hardest hitting, most impactful matchups the NCDA has to offer since before the pandemic started in March of 2020. The teams in attendance will be Bowling Green State University, the University of Cincinnati, Grand Valley State University, James Madison University, Miami University, hosts Ohio University, [the] Ohio State University, and Saginaw Valley State University.
There are a lot of intriguing storylines to consider and questions that need answers as we head into Saturday’s tournament. To shine some light on some of those, we’ve asked the leaders of each team to provide some insight into who some players to look out for are, what they think about their respective matchups, and what they need to do to have a successful day Saturday. Without further adieu, here is what each team had to say:
Continue reading “2nd Annual John Betters’ Bobcat Bonanza Preview”