What happened to ASA/USA Gold Nationals?

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Nov 18, 2013
2,255
113
We have a travel org in our area that won the 18U tournament last year. Their goal is to win ASA nationals. I followed them this year at nationals and was surprised at two things. One was that college players (even sophomores) are allowed to play at ASA nationals. Seems kinda pointless to allow college players to play in what should be a travel tournament. Also, I was surprised at the level of talent. I did not know many of the teams in the bracket but began to check in game changer and saw a lot of .500 clubs. Seems to me like PGF has really taken away the "Nationals" from everyone else.

College players are eligible for ASA/USA A Nationals, and USSSA World Series events as long as they still meet the age requirements. They’re not allowed in ASA/USA Gold or any other sanctions I’m aware of.

Summer after freshman year of college DD played on an 18U team. She got roughed up pretty good that season and it helped her work through some things. Facing college players gives girls who will be playing college ball the following year a chance to see what they’re in for.
 
May 30, 2013
1,442
83
Binghamton, NY
And that prompted my question. We are in the PNW, and the 18G USA qualifier only had 10 teams in it this year. 7 years ago, I remember 30 plus teams vying for 2 berths and great competition.

PGF Qualifiers are generally double-elimination bracket, with no preliminary pool play.

So, this has a weeding-out effect. No one is going to pay the entry fee if they arent legit, and truly believe they wont be 2-and-done.
 
Nov 18, 2013
2,255
113
PGF Qualifiers are generally double-elimination bracket, with no preliminary pool play.

So, this has a weeding-out effect. No one is going to pay the entry fee if they arent legit, and truly believe they wont be 2-and-done.

The PGF qualifiers we were in always had pool games. I think the main reason there isn’t as many teams is all the automatic berths that are handed out for both Premier and Platinum like candy.
 

marriard

Not lost - just no idea where I am
Oct 2, 2011
4,312
113
Florida
PGF Qualifiers are generally double-elimination bracket, with no preliminary pool play.

So, this has a weeding-out effect. No one is going to pay the entry fee if they arent legit, and truly believe they wont be 2-and-done.

All our PGF qualifiers in FL are 2 warm up or pool games into double elimination. So there is still a 4GG. We are getting a lot of 'pre-set brackets with live streamed drawings which is interesting.

Even USA who have gotten everything wrong in state, and still INSIST on straight into double elimination in qualifiers are doing so with a 'modified double elimination which guarantees you three games.

Your area may be different :) I know one of the reasons PGF does it hear is because Florida is so large geographically and teams are coming from a great distance to get there.
 
Nov 29, 2009
2,975
83
All our PGF qualifiers in FL are 2 warm up or pool games into double elimination. So there is still a 4GG. We are getting a lot of 'pre-set brackets with live streamed drawings which is interesting.

Even USA who have gotten everything wrong in state, and still INSIST on straight into double elimination in qualifiers are doing so with a 'modified double elimination which guarantees you three games.

Your area may be different :) I know one of the reasons PGF does it hear is because Florida is so large geographically and teams are coming from a great distance to get there.

The USA guys running the Chicago Metro tried doing the modified double elimination bracket a while back. All they did was to add anther layer of games in the loser bracket. During the first round of the loser bracket games. The first round losers played each other. The losers of those games were then eliminated. They sprung it on everyone one year without warning. Pretty much every team told them don't ever use that format again or they wouldn't participate in the tournament again.

The reason for the blind draw at the PGF events is the make sure the pool games have no bearing on the seeding. That way coaches can get all of their players in the games in front of college coaches without putting the team at a disadvantage. The guy running the PGF regional in the midwest tried to do a modified format this year. He had pool games AFTER brackets started. He didn't get much positive feedback from the experiment.
 
Jul 16, 2013
4,659
113
Pennsylvania
College players are eligible for ASA/USA A Nationals, and USSSA World Series events as long as they still meet the age requirements. They’re not allowed in ASA/USA Gold or any other sanctions I’m aware of.

Summer after freshman year of college DD played on an 18U team. She got roughed up pretty good that season and it helped her work through some things. Facing college players gives girls who will be playing college ball the following year a chance to see what they’re in for.

I agree. Even though DDs team could have played 18u last summer we voluntarily moved to 23u in order to play against college players. Great experience...

When we first started travel ball (2012) ASA/USA ruled PA. But USSSA now attracts more teams to its tournaments. We have some NSA events but not many. We had some PONY events a few years ago but dont notice them anymore. To my knowledge there is no PGF presence yet other than a qualifier in NJ.
 

marriard

Not lost - just no idea where I am
Oct 2, 2011
4,312
113
Florida
I agree. Even though DDs team could have played 18u last summer we voluntarily moved to 23u in order to play against college players. Great experience...

We haven't really had any 23U options in Florida until this next summer. This just started up and is getting a good deal of attention. Hoping it gets off the ground and survives for when DD is in college.

This is interesting:
Florida Gulf Coast League: Summer College Softball
 
Jul 16, 2013
4,659
113
Pennsylvania
We haven't really had any 23U options in Florida until this next summer. This just started up and is getting a good deal of attention. Hoping it gets off the ground and survives for when DD is in college.

This is interesting:
Florida Gulf Coast League: Summer College Softball

That is awesome!! I was aware of this option for college baseball players but didnt realize it existed for softball.
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
We haven't really had any 23U options in Florida until this next summer. This just started up and is getting a good deal of attention. Hoping it gets off the ground and survives for when DD is in college.

This is interesting:
Florida Gulf Coast League: Summer College Softball
There are SO many summer leagues for college baseball players...at one point after my freshmen year I was playing in 3 wood bat leagues at the same time. Surprising there are so few options for college softball. Do some college aged girls just not play all summer and just workout instead?
 
Nov 18, 2013
2,255
113
I agree. Even though DDs team could have played 18u last summer we voluntarily moved to 23u in order to play against college players. Great experience...

When we first started travel ball (2012) ASA/USA ruled PA. But USSSA now attracts more teams to its tournaments. We have some NSA events but not many. We had some PONY events a few years ago but dont notice them anymore. To my knowledge there is no PGF presence yet other than a qualifier in NJ.

MN teams used to fly out to that NJ qualifier to pick up their PGF berths. There were only a handful of teams and even if they didn’t win one the NJ teams other than Intensity didn’t want it so it got handed down.
 

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