Class A is the highest division in college paintball, like Division I in other college sports. Class A is played with a different format than the traditional 5-man format used in Class AA competition. Two teams play a match against each other. Each match is 32 minutes long, divided into two 16-minute halves. A match consists of a series of points. Teams start with 5 players at starting stations at opposite ends of the field and attempt to capture a flag in the middle of the field and take it to the opposing team's starting station to score one point. After a point is scored, there is a 2-minute timeout and another point is played until game time expires. You can read more about the forma in the Class A Rules (link TBA)

While a team only fields 5 players at a time, because of the rapid succession of points, teams may roster up to 16 players to substitute in, and most roster at least 10. Another key difference between Class A and Class AA is Class A is set up around a full-length season schedule, where each school is expected to field a team at all of their scheduled events. Class A is thus reserved for the largest, most established schools in the NCPA to give them the opportunity to compete diretly against other established programs while making room in Class AA for less-established teams.

Who can play?

Any school in the NCPA can participate in Class A, however you must receive a bid at the begining of the season to be included in a Class A Conference schedule. Bids are given out on the judgement of the NCPA executive staff, and take into consideration many factors. Teams that are not in a Class A conference may still play one of the Class A Open events (see below).

Qualifying for Class A

Unlike Class AA, in which any college team can play any Class AA event, Class A plays in a conference structure, where the teams in each conference are decided at the start of the season and only those teams may play. Teams are selected at the start of the year based on a bid process. Bids are awarded, in order, to:

• Teams who successfully completed the previous Class A season, including attending the National Championships.
• Teams who competed in Class A at the National Championships event.
• Teams who completed the previous Class A season except the National Championships.
• Teams who fielded at least two Class AA teams at the National Championships, in order by AA Season Ranking.
• Teams who regularly fielded at least two Class AA teams at other Class AA events, in order by AA Season Ranking.
• Teams who pay the entire non-refundable season entry fee at the start of the season.

Team Size

Class A teams are limited to a minimum of 5 players and a max of 16. This only includes players and does not count coaching staff or pit crew. As always, all players in an NCPA-sanctioned college tournament must be full time students at the same college or university, but staff can be anyone age 10 or older.

2006-2007 Class A Season Goals

This season the NCPA will be focusing on stability of the Class A program, and several decisions have been made to accomodate that goal, including selectivity in regards to awarding conference bids and securing the majority of a team's season entry fee at the start of the season.

Season Structure

The season will consist of three types of events leading to the National championships: Conference play, Qualifier Open Events, and other Open Events.

Conference Events

Each conference team will play 8 or 9 games in-conference during the regular season (8 for 5-team conferences, 9 for 4-team conferences). (An additional 2-3 matches will be played at the National Championships, see below.)

Qualifier Open Events

There will be two Qualifier Open events, Collegiate World Cup and the National Championships. The top two teams in each Qualifier event advance to the National Championships Finals.

Open events

For locations that do not have enough Class A level teams to support a full conference schedule, the NCPA will sanction Open Class A events. These events are open to any team that can support the minimum number of players. You are not required to play a certain number of games, however the more you play the better chance you have of getting a higher score. Cost for the Open events will be $1200 per team. (A team that plays another team more than 3 times during the season will have their results scaled to three matches.)

Nationals Championships

The National Championships will include the conclusion of conference play as well as the National Championships Open tournament. All conference teams and non-conference teams will play each other in the same preliminary round, with results counting towards the season rankings for all teams.

Qualifying for National Championships Finals

Class A Team Ranking

Teams will be ranked by total number of wins. Matches played in Open tournament playoffs (after the preliminary round) will not be counted. If a team plays more matches during the season than a conference team plays in their regular season, their number of wins will be scaled to match a regular conference schedule. Ties will be broken by average margin of scores in matches that count towards season ranking.

For example, let's say the fewest number of matches played in a conference during the season is 11. If your team played 11 games and won 7 of them you would score 7 wins for the season. If however you played 12 games and won 8, you would score (8/12)*11 = 7.33 wins. If your team only plays 7 matches and you win all 7, you score 7 for the season.

National Championships Finals

There will be 12 spots in the National Championships Finals bracket.

• 2 for top 2 teams at Collegiate World Cup
• 3 for the top ranked team in each conference (Conference and Nationals play only)
• 3 for 2nd place team in each conference (Conference and Nationals play only)
• 2 for top 2 ranked teams overall for the year
• 2 for top 2 teams at Nationals Open

The top 2 teams at Collegiate World Cup (unless they are a conference team) advance directly to the National Championships Finals. After the prelims of the National Championships Open tournament, the top 2 teams in each conference will advance directly to the Finals, and the two teams with the best overall season record at that point will also advance to the Finals. The top remaining teams in the Open tournament will then play off for the remaining two spots.

Finals Seeding

The top team from each conference will be given a bye to the quarter-finals. The remaining teams will be seeded by season ranking.

Conferences

There will be three Class A conferences this year:

• North-East
• Mid-West
• Great Lakes

2006-2007 Class A Conference Bids

The following teams have been awarded a bid for the 06-07 Class A season:

1. Univeristy of Connecticut Huskies**
2. University of Illinois Illini*
3. Purdue University Boilermakers*
4. University of Maryland Terrapins
5. Penn State University Nittany Lions*
6. Grand Valley State University Lakers*
7. Drexel University Dragons*
8. Illinois State University Redbirds*
9. Ohio State University Buckeyes**
10. University of Pittsburgh Panthers
11. Indiana University of Pennsylvania
12. University of Cincinnati Bearcats*
13. Rutgers University Scarlet Knights*
14. United States Military Academy Army
15. University of Wisconsin-Plattville Pioneers
16. University of Wisconsin-Madison Badgers
17. Ohio University Bobcats

If I got a bid am I guaranteed a spot?

No. Our goal is 4 teams for each of the 3 conferences. Conference spots will be awarded on a first come, first served basis based amongst bid recipients based on the date the complete first payment is received, so you should pay your season registration fee as soon as possible. In the event that 5 teams in the same conference area pay prior to the registration deadline, it is possible that we may expand that conference to 5 teams, however, there will be no more than 5 teams per conference.

Conference Team Payment Plans

If your team received a bid and you would like to accept it the next step is to get your season entrance fee paid. There are 3 payment plans available:

1. • $3600 due by 11:59pm Sept 15, 2006
2. • $2000 due by Sept 15th
   • $2000 due by Dec 15th
3. • $2000 due by Sept 15th
   • $1200 due by Dec 15th
   • $1000 due 7 days before spring event or Feb 15th (whichever comes first)

Payments by check can be made to NCPA, Inc. and mailed to:

NCPA, Inc.
530 E South Ave
Chippewa Falls, WI 54729

Payments may be made online by credit card or eCheck through paypal. There is a 3% internet processing fee for payments made online. Click one of the buttons below to make your payment, or send money directly to ncpa@college-paintball.com.

Summary

If you played in a Class A conference nothing has changed from last year. You will still get a bye to quarter-finals if you win your conference. The difference is that now there is one OPEN spot that can also get a bye to quarter-finals. This spot can be filled by a non-conference team or a conference team that did not win their who performed well elsewhere, so there is a strong incentive for teams to play Cup, Nationals Open, and other Open events.