Colorado is far and away the favorite to take the region. In fact, Colorado was ranked second in the nation in the NUMP preseason poll for 2006. The team graduated five players from last year’s roster, including Shalini Lo-Nam and Anne "Pogo" Pogoriler. Despite those losses, Alex Synder and Caroline Matthews return as fifth year players keen on breaking Colorado's semifinals curse. Picking up Carleton transfer student Heather Pavlak helps their cause.

2005 was a heartbreaking year for UC-San Diego as the team beat Colorado on Saturday at Regionals before eventually succumbing in the finals. For this season, UCSD's Psycho graduated four of its starters and is missing ten players total from last year’s roster. Nonetheless, most of the returners gained experience playing with club team Safari during the fall. Vivi Mai and Kelly "Muff" Jarvis are especially talented players whose dedication will help carry the team. UCSD will be gunning for a return trip to the UPA Championships where it has made semifinals or better three out of the past five years.

In contrast to the long-standing traditions established at Colorado and UCSD, UCLA is still a new team that is working hard to make a name for itself. This year could be the year it gets its chance. Not only did the team graduate just one starter, but the squad’s main handler, Anna "Maddog" Nazarov, gained the experience of a club season playing with Skyline and the team gained ex-Stanford player Heather "Chuckles" Armstrong. Pooja Shah and Emily Gauthier are other players that will use their talents (speed and height, respectively) for the team's benefit.

UC-Santa Barbara, Claremont, Arizona, and Southern California are all teams that could serve up some surprises once Regionals comes around. UC-Santa Barbara is probably the most competitive of this tier. The team did not graduate many players from last season and returns Claire Fletcher as a fifth year player. Moreover, Jenny Hascom, of the women's club team Fury, will be coaching the team and contributing her expertise to the team’s strategy. Claremont made it through last year's rebuilding phase and should emerge more competitive for the 2006 season. Claire Storck is the team's main handler and hopefully she will be joined by Sydney Fleischer by the end of the season. Fleischer is a dynamic player who is unfortunately sidelined with a major foot injury at the moment. Arizona qualified for the UPA Championships in 2003 and has been working towards achieving that level of competitiveness again. The team graduated a large percentage of its roster from last season, but has a strong recruiting class. Southern California (USC) is a relatively new team that has improved every season thus far. Traveling to more tournaments will likely keep the Hellions of Troy (HoT) in the mix during the spring.