Members of the AU men's Ultimate Frisbee Club team say they do not fully agree with a study conducted by University of Washington professor Michael J. Norden, which says that the quality of a school is best judged by the quality of their Ultimate Frisbee team.
Norden's theory is based on comparing ratings of colleges and universities by the Ultimate Players Association and the schools' graduation rates. The colleges and universities with the highest academic excellence also have the best Ultimate Frisbee teams, according to The New York Times.
The members of the AU men's Ultimate Frisbee Club team said they found Norden's theory interesting but doubt that schools should be judged solely by their Frisbee teams.
Joe Maloney, Ultimate Frisbee Club team president and a junior in the School of Communication, said the size of a school is a major factor in the quality of its Frisbee team.
Some schools, such as Brown University, have more funds to allocate to their club teams. While AU currently splits about $12,000 between 13 club teams per year, Brown's Frisbee team alone receives about $11,000 per year, allowing them to travel to tournaments and purchase equipment as needed, Maloney said.
Bigger schools also tend to have better teams, simply because they have more players to choose from, Maloney said. These teams may also include different levels, which helps them include more players, he said.
Maloney and Keith Raynor, the team's treasurer and a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said that while the sport was developed in 1968, it has seen most of its growth take place within the last six or seven years. There are even books and videos about Ultimate Frisbee.
"The amount of colleges that have it is staggering," Raynor said.
The growing number of Ultimate Frisbee high school teams helps to feed the growing trend of teams at higher-quality colleges, Raynor said.
Kelly Reyes, a member of the AU women's team and a sophomore in CAS, said in an e-mail that she was surprised to find that "playing one good Frisbee game has proven to be just as strenuous" as other sports such as field hockey, swimming and track.
"Ultimate Frisbee's recent growth is important because I don't think many people realize how intense it can be and that it requires just as much effort and physical fitness as any other sport, if not more," she said.
The popularity of Ultimate Frisbee as an AU club sport is due in part to the manageable time commitment, Maloney said.
Other reasons for Ultimate Frisbee's growing popularity at colleges and universities across the country are that the game is fast-paced and easy to learn. These factors are important to college students who want to participate in athletics but cannot commit the time necessary to play a sport at the varsity level, according to The Times.
