PGF vs. ASA

corlay said:

In the Northeast, ASA has a stronger presence, but PGF does do a qualifier in NJ, and a few other sanctioned tournaments.

PGF seems to draw less teams for any event, but the calibre of team is very high.

What I didn't like about the PFG Qualifier is that is was double elimination with no pool play.
This creates a problem with lodging, mostly.
If your team exists early, and loses 2 on the first day,
good luck getting a refund when cancelling your next 2 night's stay.

Seems like there has to be a better way.

I think some families say, well that sucks that we are out, so let's go sight-seeing for the next few days.
I'm not at all interested in that, personally.
Not keen on PGF dictating my "vacation" location(s).

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Several Minnesota teams have gone to the New Jersey PGF qualifiers because it’s one of the easier places to secure a berth. Good teams, just not very many and multiple berths awarded. No regrets, but the whole travel showcase thing makes no sense. Fly to the East coast to qualify for a tourney on the west coast so you can be seen by the a Midwest school. I agree there has to be a better way.

So USA/ASA 16U/18U Nationals were in Normal and Salem this year. I haven't really heard anyone note that the teams that attended the JOCup or the 16U/18U Gold Nat's in Clearwater were not present at 16U Nat's.

IMO the order of competition for USA/ASA goes like this.

JOCup-Teams get an invite based on program history/competitiveness/connections/etc
Gold Nationals-these teams wish they got the invite
16U/18U Nationals-the rest of the teams

I also hate when I see the hittin' kittin' teams adding Gold to their team name. Did any of these teams actually get Gold qualified??? This is another thread altogether. When you are playing Gold level ball, you know it immediately! Everything else is baby ball.

MNDad said:

ASA Gold has the strictest qualifying process, but of the three ASA Nationals it probably draws the weakest top end teams. ASA A is completely write a check and you’re in. The JO Cup is also write a check, but the high cost ensures a pretty strong field of teams. PGF qualifying is flexible and somewhat goofy IMO. They still draw the highest caliber of teams overall.

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JO Cup was intended to draw teams away from PGF, however it has mainly cannibalized their own Gold Nats. Gold's qualification process used to be extremely competitive, however it's a joke now since so many berths go unfilled (i.e. 23 of 64 in 2017 and 11 in both 2015 & 2016) and very few western teams try to qualify. I know of one case where eastern teams "earned" berths by just entering a Gold qualifier that wasn't played and teams didn't have to show up.

SoCal teams can "earn" an A berth by playing in SoCal State because there are more berths than teams wanting one.

MNDad said:

This year’s 16U USA A Nationals in Normal, IL had 116 teams at 16U. Twenty-six were from Illinois. Twelve 12 of those went 0-2. I think I can safely say most didn’t win or even come close to winning a qualifier. I’m sure the top teams were pretty good. I’m also sure the bottom teams were pretty bad.

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Host orgs get 2 Host berths they can give anyone and at least 8 fill-in berths - they can issue more to get up to 128 teams total. Some hosts (e.g. Salem) very actively recruit out-of-area teams to get more heads in bed$.

U-Sing is not as rigid as many like to believe.