All-Region Teams are comprised of individual players, as selected by their peers, who exhibit excellence in skill, athleticism, integrity, and leadership during the current college season.  Freshmen of the Year (FOTY) are chosen through a similar process for true freshmen players who exhibit these same characteristics or show great potential in these areas.  An All-Region Team and a Freshman of the Year are named every year for each college region in each of the two college divisions (Open and Women's).

(Awards instituted in 2002)

Each team that participates in the UPA College Series is eligible to vote for these awards.  (College sectional and regional coordinators are also eligible to vote.)  Each team or coordinator may select up to 7 players from their region and division for the All-Region Team and one freshman player for the Freshman of the Year award.  The voting mechanism will be set up and communicated directly to team contacts and coordinators after the first weekend of college regional championships.  The 7 players receiving the most votes in each region, by division, will be named to their All-Region Team.  The individual freshman player receiving the most FOTY votes in each region, by division, will be named Freshman of the Year.  The teams and individuals will be announced on the UPA website during the week of the UPA College Championships.

While the primary focus of UPA Series events is team-oriented, these individual awards serve a number of important purposes. Many players put a great deal of time and energy into excelling at one or more aspects of Ultimate.  Recognizing that excellence on an individual level serves not only to reward the individuals for their work, but also to highlight to other players the qualities that are important to the UPA and its membership, including hard work, skill, integrity, athleticism, leadership, or a combination of these characteristics.  Individual awards also provide an excellent opportunity to develop characters and storylines within the sport and the UPA Series.  These help create interest in Ultimate beyond the playing field, both as a service to the UPA membership and as a tool to help promote the sport and the organization to members and non-members, Ultimate players and non-Ultimate players alike.