The USA Flatball College Mixed Championships are returning this year on October 1-2, 2016. I wrote about the organization last year, but a little wrinkle in this year’s tournament caught my eye: they will be playing six on six (with a 3:3 gender ratio) on smaller fields.
The idea of moving mixed ultimate to a 3:3 ratio has been discussed before as a way to correct a perceived imbalance in 4:3 play. The 6v6 game has even been tried, like in Washington DC’s advanced league. But this is a relatively high profile attempt to try a 3:3 ratio with a broad-based group of players.
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The fields will be reduced in size from 70x40 yards to 65x35 yards, in order to “fit two Flatball fields easily on one soccer field.”
With USA Ultimate planning on offering competitive opportunities for mixed college ultimate in the fall season, you can imagine they will be watching closely to see how USA Flatball’s 3:3 experiment goes this year.
Originally published at: http://ultiworld.com/livewire/usa-flatball-college-mixed-champs-experiment-33-gender-ratio/