Nationals Host Considerations

School is out, and it’s warm outside so you know that means voting for the host school of the NCDA Nationals 2019 is coming soon. As a board, we would like to send out some suggestions for you to take into consideration when making your decision.  Continue reading “Nationals Host Considerations”

Standings as of 2018-04-24

Standings are aimed to be released by the end of every Tuesday. 

The 2017-2018 College Dodgeball Season is complete. For this 2018 Season, we had 70 technical upsets in 296 ranked matches (76.35% success rate) across 39 events, including Nationals 2018. This is the most ranked matches played in a season (2017 was 286), though we played one less event (2017 had 40 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 the Nationals 2017 and Nationals 2018 bracket. 

Technical Upset Spotlight (Nationals 2018 edition)

A technical upset in the Gonzalez System is when a lower rated team defeats a higher rated team. The overall success rate of the system is currently 80.21% based on 306 technical upsets in 1546 ranked matches played since 2010-09-25.

Nationals 2018 had 13 technical upsets over 59 ranked matches, a 74.58% success rate and a tiny dip below the 2018 Season success rate (76.35%). Saturday had 9 technical upsets over 36 matches, about right on par for the 2018 Season’s predictive success rate (~75%) just prior to Nationals.

Additionally, there were eight overtimes at Nationals, and four of these were technical upsets, which is fairly average overall. OT tends to split in terms of whether the result was a technical upset or a predicted exchange. OT matches make up 9% of all matches at Nationals, 32 of 355.  Overtime occurs slightly more readily at Nationals than across the whole of ranked matches, by a percentage point: 125 of 1546 at 8%.

All exchanges for ranked matches played at a Nationals are doubled, so the minimum/maximum range for a rating exchange is 0.020 to 4.000, with a 2.000 exchange being a completely even match. These double strength Nationals matches account for 22.96% of the records, 355 of 1546.

Saturday’s Upsets

UVA def UNG 2-1

37.254 def 42.598, exchanging 3.069

The largest upset of Saturday, and the biggest rating swing of Nationals 2018, exchanging a hefty 3.069 in a double strength Nationals match. In fact, at a rating gap of -5.344 between the two teams, the technical upset ranks 4th in eight Nationals worth of historical records. To prove this was a pretty big deal, I’m going to throw even more numbers at you. This upset ranks #32 of an overall 306 technical upsets throughout the Records, in the 89th percentile. It is quite rare for this kind of match to happen at on the stage that is Nationals.

CSU def GSU 4-1

34.159 def 38.662, exchanging 2.901

3rd of 13 upsets at Nationals 2018, 8th at a Nationals, 61 of 306 overall.

OSU def UWP 2-1

38.433 def 42.195, exchanging 2.752

4th of 13 upsets at Nationals 2018, 12th at a Nationals, 87 of 306 overall.

VCU def SVSU 3-2 OT

44.805 def 46.935, exchanging 1.113

7th of 13 upsets at Nationals 2018, 38th at a Nationals, 213 of 306 overall. 7th of 32 OT upsets at a Nationals, 40 of 51 OT upsets overall.

Akron def UNG 2-1

38.410 def 39.529, exchanging 2.224

8th of 13 upsets at Nationals 2018, 40th at a Nationals, 216 of 306 overall.

VCU def UWP 5-0

42.675 def 44.324, exchanging 2.130

10th of 13 upsets at Nationals 2018, 52nd at a Nationals, 252 of 306 overall.

DePaul def UCF 4-3 OT

37.413 def 37.845, exchanging 1.043

11th of 13 upsets at Nationals 2018, 57th at a Nationals, 266 of 306 overall. 10th of 32 OT upsets at a Nationals, 47 of 51 OT upsets overall.

Akron def UMD 2-1

36.336 def 36.704, exchanging 2.074

12th of 13 upsets at Nationals 2018, 59th at a Nationals, 271 of 306 overall.

Kent def SVSU 2-1

48.641 def 49.008, exchanging 2.074

13th of 13 upsets at Nationals 2018, 60th at a Nationals, 272 of 306 overall.

Sunday Tournament Bracket Upsets

UMD def OSU 3-2 OT (Bracket)

36.015 def 42.175, exchanging 1.616

Occurring in the Sedenary Play-In Round of 24, a 21 def 12 seed upset. Of the eight Nationals on record, this technical upset is the largest rating gap (-6.160) of any technical upset that has ever occurred at a Nationals. It ranks #18 of all time, in the 94th percentile.

This is obviously the largest seed v seed upset that has occurred in Nationals bracket play, however its exchange is still lower than if UMD managed to defeat OSU in regulation time. The match was close, it was UMD 2-0 OSU at half and OSU climbing back to push into overtime.

Had Maryland been able to close out in regulation, they would have toppled the current largest rating exchange at Nationals, Towson def OSU 2-1 in Nationals 2015 bracket play at WKU. That Octonary, round of 16 match was a -5.575 rating gap and largest Upset exchange (3.115) of a Nationals. Being present for both of these matches, the Towson upset was also a doozy to see in person, and OSU was just a few players away from tying it up before time expired. That’s two heartbreaker early exits in a generation for OSU, when they were heavily predicted to win.

SVSU def Kent 3-2 (Bracket)

48.297 def 51.981, exchanging 2.737

Occurring in the Quaternary finals, round of eight, a 6 def 3 seed upset. There have been a lot of quaterfinal matches across Nationals history, so seeing upsets in this round isn’t out of the ordinary. What this match does highlight is the competitive field of the third, forth, fifth, and sixth ratings across the entire 2018 Season. I’ve mentioned this many times over the weeks of this season, but that section has been incredibly competitive with sixth jumping to third one week and the reverse happening the next. Even on Saturday, Kent defeated SVSU in the smallest technical upset of the weekend (13th/59).

MSU def VCU 4-3 OT (Bracket)

44.319 def 46.226, exchanging 1.291

Occurring in the Octonary round, round of sixteen, a 10 def 7 seed upset. This high scoring Overtime match rocked the crowd. It was very, very loud on the court. It fell sixth of the 13 upsets across Nationals 2018. Over all Nationals, it was the 5th technical upset in OT.

GVSU def CMU 6-1 (2018 Championship)

56.816 def 57.893, exchanging 2.215

In eight recorded National Championships across the Gonzalez system, this is the first technical upset at that level. Going into that Championship, CMU had a slight advantage with just 1.007 points between ratings. Further, this is the shallowest Rating Gaps across the eight National Championships. Ranking 221 of 306 technical upsets, falling in the 27th percentile, it placed 9th of the 13 technical upsets across Nationals 2018.

Candidly, in one way, this is an example of a failing within the system. The Gonzalez system failed to predict the winner at the highest level. However, the rating gap was very shallow, indicating if an upset were to happen it would be more likely to occur in this circumstance. A deeper potential for an upset to happen, a knock to the usual 80.21% success rate across the whole of the system. The system did deliver the top two ratings to the National Championship in the fairest manner we’ve seen across the NCDA’s 14 year history.

It is important to remember that actual results and hard data contribute to the system. GVSU won the match by playing dodgeball better than their competitor. This action can occur at any time.

Post Nationals 2018 Ratings, sorted.

Mov. Rank Rating Team
↑ from 2 1 59.031 GVSU
↓ from 1 2 55.677 CMU
↑ from 7 3 50.447 BGSU
↓ from 3 4 49.979 SVSU
5 49.245 Kent
↓ from 4 6 48.121 Towson
↓ from 6 7 47.976 JMU
↑ from 10 8 45.590 MSU
↑ from 11 9 44.935 VCU
↓ from 8 10 43.771 UK
↑ from 13 11 42.369 Miami
↑ from 14 12 41.747 Ohio
↑ from 26 13 41.620 UVA
↑ from 31 14 41.500 Akron
↓ from 9 15 40.972 UWP
↓ from 15 16 40.584 PSU
↑ from 24 17 40.559 OSU
↓ from 16 18 40.502† UNT
↓ from 17 19 40.324* SIUE
↓ from 18 20 40.020*† ZAG
↓ from 19 21 39.980*† OS
↓ from 20 22 39.362 WKU
↓ from 22 23 38.586*† UWW
↓ from 23 24 38.557*† NIU
↑ from 28 25 37.611 UMD
↑ from 29 26 36.636* Midland
↓ from 25 27 36.263 DePaul
↑ from 36 28 36.009 CSU
↑ from 32 29 35.805 BSU
↓ from 12 30 35.682 UNG
↓ from 30 31 35.564 UCF
↑ from 33 32 35.556 SU
↑ from 34 33 35.044* WVU
↑ from 35 34 34.996 MC
↓ from 27 35 34.619 UNL
↓ from 21 36 34.570 GSU
↑ from 38 37 32.595 BW
↓ from 37 38 29.586 NSU

Movement as of 2018-04-10
* denotes a provisional rating (< 6 matches)
† denotes a team that has not played three games this season, the required minimum games needed to qualify for Nationals.

This is where our Member Teams ended their 2018 Season. Double strength matches at Nationals have the potential to touch every section of the Standings, and they did so with great enthusiasm. Only Kent kept their #5 ranking.

Inactive and defunct teams (as determined by the Exec Board, from not playing in the 2018 Season, among other criteria) have been removed from this table.

Congratulations to everyone on their seasons. It was a big year.

2019 Pre-Season Ratings

Rank Rating Team
1 54.519 GVSU
2 52.003 CMU
3 48.081 BGSU
4 47.730 SVSU
5 47.179 Kent
6 46.336 Towson
7 46.227 JMU
8 44.438 MSU
9 43.946 VCU
10 43.073 UK
11 42.022 Miami
12 41.555 Ohio
13 41.460 UVA
14 41.370 Akron
15 40.975 UWP
16 40.684 PSU
17 40.664 OSU
18 40.622 UNT
19 40.489 SIUE
20 40.260 ZAG
21 40.230 OS
22 39.767 WKU
23 39.185 UWW
24 39.163 NIU
25 38.453 UMD
26 37.722 Midland
27 37.442 DePaul
28 37.252 CSU
29 37.099 BSU
30 37.007 UNG
31 36.918 UCF
32 36.912 SU
33 36.528 WVU
34 36.492 MC
35 36.210 UNL
36 36.173 GSU
37 34.691 BW
38 32.435 NSU

This is where teams will start their 2019 Season. Season to Season Carry Over functions as a way of collapsing the rating gap from top to bottom ratings, and to account for real world losses to a team’s roster. Teams keep 75% of their rating once they enter the off season, and for the remaining portion, it is reverted to the League Mean. We add 25% of the League Mean Rating. More information can be found in the Gonzalez System Spec Doc.

Policy [Section 4.2.2.2.1] denotes that any team that did not play a ranked match in the previous season (this case meaning the 2018 season) does not contribute to the League Mean Rating. For various reasons, some teams might be listed in the rating tables (active, paying dues, etc) but do not contribute to the League Mean Rating when Season to Season Carry Over occurs and every team rating is reverted to the League Mean.

For example, UNT is a longtime member team of the NCDA, but wasn’t able to play any matches last season. They are listed since they continue to pay membership dues. The rating still reverts, but UNT’s rating does not contribute to the League Mean that affects all other actively playing teams.

And just as a reference, all historical ratings continue to revert to the mean from season to season, they just aren’t always explicitly tracked. For manpower purposes we tend to go back and calculate ratings when we need to, like Miami returning after an off period. These calculations do not affect the other active teams, and thus old results, since they wouldn’t be included in the League Mean.


See the Resource Center for more documentation.
Records, Master Spreadsheet: 2005-Present
Records, Individual Docs: 20112012201320142015201620172018
Systems: Gonzalez CurrentGonzalez OldPerroneChampLieblich
Spec Document: Gonzalez System Spec Doc

2018 National Champions – GVSU

RICHMOND – Siegel Center, E.J. Wade Arena, at Nationals 2018:
GVSU def CMU 6-1 in the 2018 Championship match.

Grand Valley State University Club Dodgeball is the National Champion for the 2018 college dodgeball season. At the conclusion of the 59 match event, the Director of Nationals, Hunter Ford [VCU, #4-C], along with the rest of the National Collegiate Dodgeball Association Executive Board, presented the Championship trophy to Brandon Meisel, GV Captain on Sunday afternoon.  Continue reading “2018 National Champions – GVSU”

Nationals 2018

RICHMOND – Siegel Center: In the first day of Nationals 2018,

VCU def UWP 5-0
Kent def SVSU 2-1
UCF def NSU 8-1
CSU def GSU 4-1
UK def DePaul 4-1
UVA def UNG 2-1

CMU def JMU 2-1
Akron def UMD 2-1
GVSU def OSU 5-1
BGSU def PSU 4-3 OT
Miami def UNL 4-1
Towson def MSU 3-2

UK def Miami 3-2
VCU def SVSU 3-2 OT
Kent def UCF 5-1
UMD def NSU 7-0
CMU def CSU 4-0
UVA def GSU 3-1

GVSU def Towson 3-0
BGSU def JMU 2-1
Akron def UNG 2-1
OSU def UWP 2-1
DePaul def UCF 4-3 OT
Kent def UK 2-1

MSU def PSU 3-2 OT
OSU def UNL 3-1
GVSU def Akron 1-0
CSU def NSU 7-0
SVSU def UVA 4-0
CMU def GSU 5-1

Miami def PSU 3-2
VCU def DePaul 4-0
Towson def UWP 4-0
JMU def UNG 5-0
MSU def UNL 5-1
BGSU def UMD 2-1

Nationals 2018 Schedule

Officiating Assignments may be viewed on the G-Sheet. Saturday and Sunday schedules are presented below.

Nationals 2018: Saturday
7:30 AM Doors Open, Siegel Center
8:00 AM Teams Check-In
8:45 AM Anthem
8:55 AM Ladies’ Match
9:25 AM All Star Game
9:55 AM League Picture
10:15 AM Queue 1
Savage Apparel Co Court (1) UWP VCU
District 5 Court (2) SVSU Kent
Richmond Region Tourism (3) UCF NSU
Court 4 GSU CSU
Court 5 UK DePaul
Court 6 UNG UVA
11:25 AM Queue 2
Savage Apparel Co Court (1) CMU JMU
District 5 Court (2) UMD Akron
Richmond Region Tourism (3) GVSU OSU
Court 4 BGSU PSU
Court 5 Miami UNL
Court 6 Towson MSU
12:40 PM Queue 3
Savage Apparel Co Court (1) UK Miami
District 5 Court (2) SVSU VCU
Richmond Region Tourism (3) Kent UCF
Court 4 UMD NSU
Court 5 CMU CSU
Court 6 GSU UVA
1:50 PM Queue 4
Savage Apparel Co Court (1) GVSU Towson
District 5 Court (2) JMU BGSU
Richmond Region Tourism (3) UNG Akron
Court 4 UWP OSU
Court 5 DePaul UCF
Court 6 Kent UK
3:05 PM Queue 5
Savage Apparel Co Court (1) MSU PSU
District 5 Court (2) OSU UNL
Richmond Region Tourism (3) GVSU Akron
Court 4 CSU NSU
Court 5 SVSU UVA
Court 6 CMU GSU
4:15 PM Queue 6
Savage Apparel Co Court (1) Miami PSU
District 5 Court (2) VCU DePaul
Richmond Region Tourism (3) Towson UWP
Court 4 JMU UNG
Court 5 MSU UNL
Court 6 BGSU UMD
5:45 PM Capt Meeting Begins
6:45 PM Capt Meeting Ends
7:00 PM eBoard Meeting Begin
7:30 PM eBoard Meeting Ends
7:45 PM Leave Siegel Center

Live Saturday Updates on the Records Tab.

2018 Wes Hopkins Fastest Arm Contest, sponsored by District 5 and presented by the DePaul Dodgeball Society, may be a floating event during the first queues of Saturday. We may be gathering results from players before the start of their games, and during halftimes during Queues 1, 2 and 3. Any players that would like to be clocked in should find Zig.

Nationals 2018: Sunday
8:00 AM Doors Open Siegel Center
8:30 AM Anthem
8:45 AM Sedenary Play-In Round
Savage Apparel Co Court (1) Game P 16v17
District 5 Court (2) Game T 15v18
Richmond Region Tourism (3) Game R 13v21
Court 4 Game V 14v19
Court 5 Aleks Bomis Alumni/Staff Game
Court 6
10:00 AM Sedenary Play-In & Octonary Round
Savage Apparel Co Court (1) Game S 12v21
District 5 Court (2) Game W 11v22
Richmond Region Tourism (3) Game U 10v23
Court 4 Game Q 9v24
Court 5 Game H 1vP
Court 6 Game L 2vT
11:45 AM Octonary Round
Savage Apparel Co Court (1) Game O 6vW
District 5 Court (2) Game N 3vV
Richmond Region Tourism (3) Game M 7vU
Court 4 Game K 5vS
Court 5 Game J 4vR
Court 6 Game I 8vQ
1:00 PM Quaternary Finals
Savage Apparel Co Court (1) Game G NvO
District 5 Court (2) Game F LvM
Richmond Region Tourism (3) Game E JvK
Court 6 Game D HvI
2:45 PM Binary Finals
Savage Apparel Co Court (1) Game C FvG
District 5 Court (2) Game B DvE
4:00 PM The Ship
Savage Apparel Co Court (1) Game A BvC
5:15 PM Trophy
Savage Apparel Co Court (1)

Live Sunday Bracket Updates on the Tournament Schedule tab.

Nationals 2018 Designs

Presenting the Nationals 2018 Event Logo:

Just like every year, we had a bunch of great concepts for the event logo and related designs. VCU will have some solid concepts for future team apparel, for sure. For the final design, I channeled one of my favorite all time Nationals designs, Nationals 2014 at OSU. Slapping some nice text on the shape of the State outline appears to be a winning formula. By the way, the State of Virginia has a ton of awesome little nooks along their state border and I am more familiar with them than ought to be. Each a cool story. Mostly just people not being able to survey straight along a latitude.  Continue reading “Nationals 2018 Designs”

2018 All Star Game Draft

2018 All Star Game Draft presented by SAVAGE Apparel Co.

Peep the official first look at the Ladies’ Match design at 51:10.

For Nationals 2018, there will be 4 All-Star teams competing in a single-elimination tournament, each game will be a one point sudden-death match. Team captains drafted their picks snake-style. Congrats to our four captains for the 2018 College Dodgeball All Star Game:

  • Alex Jonauskas (GVSU)
  • Torao Ota (VCU)
  • Colby Briceland (Akron)
  • Grant Webber (CMU)

Your host was Hunter Ford (VCU), Director of Nationals

Over the following week and building off Torao Ota’s player logo, we’ll be releasing player logos for each of our All Star Captains as well as the designs for the All Star Jerseys provided by SAVAGE Apparel. See them first on the League’s instagram!

Continue reading “2018 All Star Game Draft”

Bold Nationals 2018 Predictions

In the spirit of March Madness, and with Nationals 2018 approaching soon, myself and other members of the content team have decided to put together some of our bold predictions for Nationals 2018.  While Nationals has traditionally been dominated by a select few teams, there is a lot of reason to believe this year could be different with one of the largest and most talented fields in league history.  I’ve provided each member’s predictions, as well as my personal brief summary of their predictions.  Some predictions are bold, some are not, and others are just downright foolish…or so it seems.  Let’s have a look.

Continue reading “Bold Nationals 2018 Predictions”

Nationals 2018 All-Star Announcement

The annual NCDA All-Star Game takes place at Nationals, which this year will be held at Virginia Commonwealth University.

This year, the National Collegiate Dodgeball Association will be changing the format for the annual All-Star Game. For Nationals 2018, there will be 4 All-Star teams competing in a single-elimination tournament, each game will be a one point sudden-death match.

How will the four teams be determined? That is another big change for 2018. This year, we will have four player-captains to draft the All-Star Teams.  These four captains will be selected in a unique way.

Continue reading “Nationals 2018 All-Star Announcement”

District 5 Becomes the Official Dinner Sponsor for Nationals 2018

District 5 has partnered with the NCDA to help sponsor Nationals 2018 in Richmond, VA.  The local restaurant has been a popular spot in the Richmond area for years and will be an excellent place for teams to gather Friday and Saturday night.  They will also be sponsoring a court and be the official sponsors for the annual Fastest Arm Competition.  All current and former NCDA members will be welcome to attend anytime throughout the weekend.  You can find their website here to learn more details about their restaurant.

Nationals 2018 Updates: Hotels

As we continue to count down the days until the 2017-18 season, I wanted to take the time to provide updates on the progress made towards Nationals 2018.  As Director of Nationals for next season I will put forth the best effort in ensuring we have an event that runs well and continues to improve what is the staple event of the NCDA.

One of the first things I wanted to accomplish was securing group rates at some of the hotels in the area for players, alumni, and fans.  This will help guarantee high quality rooms for the NCDA at affordable prices.  Below are the details for hotels where we currently have.  This list will continue to be updated as more deals are finished.  Continue reading “Nationals 2018 Updates: Hotels”

Nationals 2018 Host Vote Results

ROSEMONT – Office of the Director of Officiating (and Records): The Dodgeball Club at Virginia Commonwealth University will play host for Nationals 2018 in Richmond, Virginia on April 20-22, 2018.

This was a preferential election. Each Member Team submitted a ballot ranking the candidates by preference. 16 votes dictated a quorum for our current total of 32 teams. The votes were transferred in a instant runoff format until the most preferred candidate won a majority. 30 ballots were received, giving a threshold to win as 16 votes.

VCU was the most preferred candidate, winning in the third round of counting by just two votes (16 to JMU’s 14). Akron (9 votes) was defeated in the second round, and PSU/NIU (3, 2 votes) were defeated in the first round.

Candidate 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th
Akron 6 5 6 8 5
NIU 3 2 4 4 15
VCU [winner] 8 10 6 2 4
JMU 11 5 6 6 2
PSU 2 8 8 9 2

Please view the preferential Election counts output for the full detail on on how the votes were counted and transferred via the preferential voting format.

Nationals 2018 Host Bids

Following the NCDA’s voting policy, the vote will be preferential. Teams will submit their ballot by ranking each school in order of their preference and email this ballot to the League. The most preferred school will host Nationals 2018. For Nationals 2018, there are five schools placing a bid to host:
Akron, NIU, VCU, JMU, PSU.

Voting will run from May 1st to May 6th, or will end early if each Member Team casts a ballot by email to ncdadodgeball@gmail.com

Example Ballot

1. Delta
2. Oakland
3. Marshall
4. K-State
5. UofL

Member Player Representation

Member Teams are left to their own devices to determine their preferences. However, some teams in the past like to run their own mini-preferential election within the team. Some may have each officer submit a preferential ballot. Some have their entire club membership vote. Let me me know if you would like this. I can count those in our voting program and deliver your team’s preferential ballot through that process.

* Candidates are presented in a randomized order.

Continue reading “Nationals 2018 Host Bids”