The APP offers a variety of opportunities for college-age players, including:

• APP U.S. Collegiate Championships: This nationally broadcast event features the best pickleball players in the country competing in two tournaments – the APP U.S. Collegiate Team Championships and the APP U.S. Collegiate Individual Championships – on January 3-5. Teams must compete and be a top finisher in a Collegiate Qualifier to secure a spot in the Team Championships, but all players are welcome to compete in the Individual Championships.
• APP Next Gen: Events for players 16 to 23 years old, the Next Gen program is geared towards developing champions in the hearts of young adult players. Next Gen events are three days and consist of competition, coaching, and mentorship from APP senior professionals. For more on APP Next Gen, click here.
• APP Tour: Players of all ages and skill levels are welcome to compete in the 12 APP Tour events taking place throughout the year, as well as the first-ever APP Women’s Open presented by the James held in October 2024. To view the APP Tour schedule, click here.

The APP U.S. Collegiate Championships is a nationally broadcast event that features the best pickleball players in the country competing in two tournaments – the APP U.S. Collegiate Team Championships and the APP U.S. Collegiate Individual Championships. The event will be held January 3-5, 2025.

Teams must compete and be a top finisher in a Collegiate Qualifier to secure a spot in the Team Championships, but all players are welcome to compete in the Individual Championships.

For the first time in the 2024-25 season, the APP will host four Collegiate Qualifiers to determine the field that will compete in the 2025 APP U.S. Collegiate Championships in Westfield, IN. This allows more schools and more players to participate in highly competitive tournament environments and reduces travel costs given regional locations. Qualifiers are as follows:  

• September 26-28 – West Regional in Glendale, AZ (Chicken N Pickle, Glendale, AZ)
• October 11-12 – Southwest Regional in Dallas, TX (Oasis Pickleball Club, Dallas, TX)
• October 17-19 – Midwest Regional in St. Louis, MO (Chicken N Pickle, St. Charles, MO)
• December 5-7 – Southeast Regional in Fort Lauderdale, FL (The FORT, Fort Lauderdale, FL)

Players must be enrolled in college (undergraduate or graduate) and take at least 6 credit hours in the Fall and/or Spring Semester (or surrounding trimesters). If you have any questions regarding player eligibility, please contact collegiate@theapp.global.

Also, all players must have a UTR Sports profile to compete.  To do so, go to UTRSports.net or download the mobile app and click Join or Get Started. Follow the instructions consistent with creating a profile. This process can be completed in a few minutes.

Yes and no. College teams must compete in a qualifier to secure a spot in the Team Championships, but individual college players do not need to qualify for the Individual Championships. All college players are eligible to register for individual events and earn prize money in men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles – even if their team is not competing in the Team Championships.

A maximum of 32 teams will emerge from Collegiate Qualifiers and secure a spot in the Championships. At each qualifier, teams that finish in the top 25% will advance. Registration turnout and facility size will dictate how many teams advance from each qualifier, but we expect 4-8 teams to advance from each Chicken N Pickle qualifier and 8-12 teams to advance from the East Qualifier in Fort Lauderdale.

We have adapted the format for the team competition based on learnings from the 2024 APP U.S. Championships, so pay close attention!

The tournament format for the Qualifiers and Championships will be round-robin match play followed by single elimination playoffs. Each team will consist of a minimum of two men and two women and a maximum of three men and three women.  

Each match will consist of five games played in the following order:

1. Mixed Doubles
2. Men’s Singles
3. Women’s Singles
4. Men’s Doubles
5. Women’s Doubles

Teams receive one (1) line point for a singles win and two (2) line points for a doubles win, so there is a total of eight (8) line points at stake in every match. The winner of each match is determined by total line points accumulated across the five games. If there is a tie after five games (4 to 4), the winner is determined by the winner of the first doubles match (Mixed Doubles). All five games will be played to completion in each match because total wins and point differential is a factor in Playoff seedings and in the APP College Rankings. So, come ready to battle for each point, every pickle point counts!

The first phase of the competition is Pool Play. Pool Play matches will be rally scoring, win by two, one game to 11 (singles) or 15 (doubles/mixed). After Pool Play, teams are seeded in a single elimination Playoff and proceed through bracket play. Seeds are determined by total wins and point differential.

Some other rules of note for the team competition:

• There will be a break of up to 2 minutes between games and up to 10 minutes between matches.
• All matches will be rally scoring.
• Singles: One game to 11, win by 2 and must win on your serve.  There is NOT a freeze.​
• Doubles: One game to 15, win by 2 and must win on your serve.  There is NOT a freeze.​
• Coin toss choices: Serve, Receive, (Court) End, Defer.​
• At the beginning of each match with a new opponent, the choice selected will be used to start each game within the match. ​
• The same team will start serving for each game of the match. ​
• Teams will change court ends during each game when the first team gets to 6 (singles) or 8 points (doubles).​
• At the end of each game, the teams will remain on the side to start the next game in the match.
• Each team is allowed two one-minute time-outs per game​.

APP U.S. Collegiate Championships – Individual Competition is OPEN to ANY college student!

The individual competition is an event separate from the Team event but held at the same time at the same venue.  Whether you are a college player playing in the Team event that wants to vie for an individual medal OR not playing the team event and ready for a fun competition environment, this event is for you!

The 2025 U.S. Collegiate Championships INDIVIDUAL and TEAM Competition events are held during January 3 – 5, 2025. The 2025 U.S. Collegiate Championships INDIVIDUAL competition provides an opportunity for college players to compete in a gender doubles, mixed doubles or gender singles event.

• Players DO NOT need to qualify from a previous tournament.
• Players DO NOT need to be part of the APP U.S. Collegiate Championships TEAM event.
• Individual Competition events are OPEN to ANY college student.
• All Players must be a current college student.
• Minimum of 6 hours in either the fall or spring semester to compete.
• APP will require each player to complete additional information to verify eligibility.

FORMAT

• Round Robin Pool Play.
• Top 2 winners of each pool advance to a single elimination bracket play.
• Matches played 1 game to 15, win by 2 (rally scoring).
• Gold/Silver/Bronze played best 2 out of 3 games to 11, win by 2 (rally scoring).
  

No. The Individual Championships are open; you are free to partner with any other college student.

There is $80,000 in prize money distributed at APP Collegiate Events. It breaks down as follows:

• APP Collegiate Qualifiers – $7,500 per qualifier some text
  • 1^st – $3,000
  • 2^nd – $2,000
  • 3^rd – $1,500
  • 4^th – $1,000
    

• APP U.S. Collegiate Championships (Team Event) – $32,500some text
  • 1^st – $12,000
  • 2^nd – $6,000
  • 3^rd – $3,500
  • 4^th – $2,000
  • 5^th-8^th – $1,250
  • 9^th-12^th – $1,000
    

• APP U.S. Collegiate Championships (Individual Events) – $17,500some text
  • Men’s / Women’s Singles 1^st – $970
  • Men’s / Women’s Singles 2^nd – $620
  • Men’s / Women’s Singles 3^rd – $350
  • Men’s / Women’s / Mixed Doubles 1^st – $2,270
  • Men’s / Women’s / Mixed Doubles 2^nd – $1,400
  • Men’s / Women’s / Mixed Doubles 3^rd – $870

Below is a sample schedule for Collegiate Qualifiers. The schedule may be adjusted slightly based on registration numbers and court access.

Thursday – Welcome

• 6:00PM – Welcome Dinner
• 7:00PM-9:00PM – Courts Open for Practice

Friday – Round Robin Pool Play

• 8:00AM – Pool Play Session I
• 12:00PM – Pool Play Session II

Saturday – Single Elimination Bracket

• 8:00AM-4:00PM – Playoffs (Round 1, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Finals)

The APP will include a full event schedule in the Player Welcome Packet distributed approximately two weeks before the APP U.S. Collegiate Championships. A tentative schedule is below but is subject to change.

Thursday, January 2

• 2:00 pm – Courts Open for Practice
• 3:00 pm – Hotel Check-in
• 6:00 pm – Player Meeting (all players encouraged to attend)

Friday, January 3

• 8:00 am – TEAM COMPETITION: Round Robin Pool Play
• 1:00 pm – INDIVIDUAL COMPETITION: Mixed Doubles
• 7:00 pm – Player Dinner

Saturday, January 4

• 8:00 am – TEAM COMPETITION: Single Elimination Playoff Bracket

Sunday, January 5

• 8:00 am – INDIVIDUAL COMPETITION: Men’s Singles & Women’s Doubles
• Afternoon TBD – INDIVIDUAL COMPETITION: Men's Doubles & Women’s Singles

No. The APP does not provide a stipend to teams or players; however, we do provide hotel rooms (2 rooms, 2 nights) for each team at the APP U.S. Collegiate Championships.

Yes, all team and individual matches at the Qualifiers and the Championships are refereed by USA Pickleball certified referees. The APP takes great pride in the quality of its tournaments and believes that providing officials for every match elevates the competition environment for all players.

Yes, teams can participate in more than one qualifier if they want to increase their chances of securing a spot in the Championships or get more competitive match experience. If a team that already possesses a bid is a top finisher in another Qualifier, the opportunity for a bid will extend to the next highest-ranking team. For seeding in the Championships, the APP will use the team’s points from its top qualifying performance at Qualifiers.

Only two teams from the same school can compete in the APP U.S. Collegiate Championships. That said, there is no limit on how many teams from the same school compete in Qualifiers. If more than two teams from the same school secure bids to the Championships, the school must select the players and determine the rosters for their two allotted teams.

For example, if a team from the University of Florida competed in each of the four Collegiate Qualifiers and all secured bids, it is the responsibility of the University of Florida to determine the roster for their two Championship teams.

At Qualifiers, teams will not be ranked or pre-seeded for Pool Play. Pools will be determined at random due to insufficient and trusted college competition data. Teams emerging from Pool Play will be seeded in the Playoffs based on total wins and point differential.

For the Championships, teams will be ranked by their performance at Qualifiers based on the points allocations below. If a team participates in multiple Qualifiers, the APP will use that team’s highest points total for ranking at the Championships.

Points System at Qualifiers

Gold = 300 + overall points differential

Silver = 240 + overall points differential

Bronze = 180 + overall points differential

4^th Place =120 + overall points differential

*If a team does not place in the top four, they get 20 points for each match won in the Round Robin and Playoff Bracket, as well as points differential.

Given the importance of points differential in the APP College Rankings, every game will be played to completion in each match played at Qualifiers and the Championships.

UTR Sports is the exclusive ratings partner of the APP and USA Pickleball. Equipped with over a decade of expertise as the creator of the gold-standard UTR Rating for tennis, UTR Sports offers the most accurate and reliable global rating for pickleball.

The UTR-P is designed to rate every kind of player, whether you're just swinging your first paddle or smashing your way through pro-level tournaments. UTR Pickleball Ratings (UTR-P) includes both provisional and numerical ratings for singles and doubles players.

Players without match results logged will receive a provisional rating (P1-P5) based on a questionnaire. After a few matches, the rating automatically converts to a reliable decimal rating on a scale of 1 - 10.0 (from beginner to expert/pro).

Get started today by creating a UTR profile! To do so, go to UTRSports.net or download the mobile app and click Join or Get Started. Follow the instructions consistent with creating a profile. This process can be completed in a few minutes.

The team registration fee for Collegiate Qualifiers (TEAMS ONLY) is $200 per team.

The team registration fee for the APP U.S. Collegiate Championships TEAM COMPETITION is $300 per team.

The registration fee for the APP U.S. Collegiate Championships INDIVIDUAL COMPETITION is $25, then $25 per additional event.