USCSA MISSION STATEMENT

‘To be the National governing body of team ski & snowboard competition at the collegiate level.

To promote and increase awareness of and participation in alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, snowboarding freestyle in the United States.

To provide competition and development opportunities for student/athletes in a team atmosphere leading toward National titles in each discipline.’

ORGANIZATIONAL PROFILE

The United States Collegiate Ski & Snowboard Association (USCSA) is the sports federation for collegiate team ski racing, snowboarding and freestyle in America. In excess of 150 colleges from coast to coast, field some 4,500 men and women, alpine, cross-country, snowboarding and freestyle athletes in over 200 race events annually.

Competition takes place across three progressive tiers. Conference qualifiers determine the participants at the five USCSA regional championships. The Regional Championships are the last step on the road to the annual United States Collegiate Skiing and Snowboard Championships, the showcase event in college racing

Organized as part of a non-profit 501 (C) 3 Educational Foundation, the USCSA believes that student/athletes, of all levels and abilities should have access to a quality and exciting venue of ski & snowboard competition. The USCSA fosters parity, both of representation and ultimately competition, to create and maintain a level playing field and does all it can to raise the level of competition throughout all their programs from the bottom up.  The USCSA also recognizes, that for athletes to be truly successful individuals, academics should take priority over ski & snowboard competition.  To help foster this, the USCSA stresses education first and offers a variety of academic based awards.

THE FORMULA FOR SUCCESS

The USCSA has grown and thrived due to its unique approach.  It is the only collegiate level national governing sports body to foster competition among institutions with varying national sports affiliations.  This means that schools who are NCAA, NAIA, NJCAA, or other independent sport bodies can all participate in the USCSA.

Another special feature of the USCSA is that teams can have different institutional status. Teams organized as club sports and varsity sports compete on the same level against one another, making the USCSA the place for everyone!

Team performance is emphasized within the USCSA, a departure from the typical individual or world cup scoring format in skiing.  Teams field five racers with the top three performances being used for the team score.  Most former USCSA athletes agree that the USCSA's team orientation has been the seed for developing and nurturing a team approach in other aspects of their lives and careers.

Overall team performance is considered separately for each discipline, so a school can field any single or combination of a men's alpine, women's alpine, men's cross-country, women's cross-country, men’s snowboard, women’s snowboard,men's freestyle, women's freestyle competition team.

The USCSA follows stringent rules of individual eligibility. This assures equitable standards for all student/athletes.

BASICS OF USCSA TEAM SCORING (Alpine and Cross-country)

ALPINE:

A school enters five competitors. Each competitor is seeded randomly in one of the five seeds. The competitors combined time from two runs is their score. You then combine the team’s best three individual scores for a team time. One point is awarded to the winning team, two points for second, etc. The championship is determined by adding team finish points in slalom to that of giant slalom, with the low total being the winner.

The Individual Combined Award:

The total USSA race points are utilized for the slalom and giant slalom events, with the low total being the winner.

CROSS COUNTRY:

A school enters five competitors. Each competitor is seeded randomly in one of the five seeds. Team finish places are determined by the sum of placement points of the three best individual team members. Team scoring  is accomplished by adding together the team scores of the individual classic, the individual freestyle and the team relay. Scoring is a point by place system. Relay team scoring is as follows: 6 points for first place, 15 points for second, etc. The points are increased by 9 for each team on through the remaining relay results.

The Individual Combined Award:

The total place points will be utilized for the individual classic and individual freestyle events.

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