Minnesota stays No. 1 as Indianapolis climbs in UFA rankings

Minnesota held No. 1 and the top eight stayed untouched in Ultiworld’s Week 11 UFA rankings, but Indianapolis made the biggest move in the middle of the table. The AlleyCats climbed two spots to No. 9 after road wins over Madison and Chicago by multiple goals, moving one place ahead of Atlanta Hustle and back into the Central Division conversation.

The rest of the top of the board barely budged. Oakland, Boston, New York, DC, Carolina, Austin and San Diego all held their spots behind the Wind Chill, a sign that the league’s best teams are still separating themselves even as the margins remain thin. Salt Lake edged up to No. 13, Toronto slipped to No. 14 and Montreal settled at No. 15 as the season entered a stretch that will decide seeding across 22 teams, 132 regular-season games and 11 playoff games before Championship Weekend in Madison, Wisconsin, on Aug. 28-29.

Minnesota’s hold on the top spot fits the preseason picture of a team that was already the Central favorite and the defending division champion. Indianapolis came from a much lower baseline. The AlleyCats spent the offseason overhauling both the roster and the coaching staff after a 2025 season that brought only four wins, three of them against the now-disbanded Detroit Mechanix. Nathan Bussberg, promoted to head coach, oversaw 15 impactful signings in a reset that gave the franchise a different look and, now, a different ceiling.

That change is showing up on the field. Indianapolis opened 2026 at 1-4, then beat Madison and Chicago on the road by multiple goals. The win in Madison appeared to be the AlleyCats’ first road game with 30-plus points against anyone other than Detroit, and the offense has been lifted by Sofiène Bontemps and Elliot Hawkins. Hawkins leads Indianapolis in scores per game, assists per game and yards per game, while Bontemps ranks third in scores per game and first in goals per game.

The climb matters because the postseason path is narrow. The top three teams in each division qualify, the division winner gets a first-round bye and the second and third seeds meet for the right to reach the divisional final. Indianapolis’s move to No. 9 does not guarantee anything, but it does reflect how much the conversation has changed around a team that now looks like the best version of itself since the 2019 Championship Weekend run.