NCDA preseason rankings page spotlights college dodgeball contenders

NCDA’s 2026 preseason power rankings page is live on the association’s blog, but the visible snippet does not show the actual order. What it does show is the spread of schools NCDA wants in the frame early: Akron, Bowling Green State, Central Michigan, Cincinnati, Clemson, Concordia-Wisconsin and Georgia State.

That matters because preseason dodgeball rankings are more than decoration. In a sport where travel-heavy weekends and regional swings can reshape reputations fast, the first list helps decide which programs get treated like title threats and which ones have to earn that status the hard way. NCDA is already building that conversation with Central Region Preview 2025-2026, Ohio Region Preview 2025-2026 and Michigan Region Preview 2025-2026 content, plus a related social post labeled “Way-Too-Early 2026 Power Rankings!”

The association’s own history gives the page more weight than a simple hype post. NCDA’s rulebook says the group was founded in 2005 by a handful of Midwestern colleges, then expanded to the East Coast, the Deep South and the Great Plains. It also says NCDA became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2014. That makes the preseason rankings part of a longer competitive system, not just a one-off nod to the start of a new year.

NCDA’s standings page backs that up by pointing to a records master spreadsheet that runs from 2005 to the present. The association has spent nearly two decades turning college dodgeball into something with a paper trail, and the preseason rankings sit right on top of that archive. They do not tell the whole title story by themselves, but they do show which programs are getting early visibility before the first results arrive.

The organization’s public identity is built around that same mix of competition and growth. Its site uses the slogan “We are College Dodgeball,” and its X profile, which joined in February 2010, tells schools to DM the account to start up a team at their school. Put together, the rankings page, the regional previews and the records archive show a sport still mapping its 2026 hierarchy, with the first flashpoints likely to come in regional play long before anyone settles the championship picture.