How are A or B teams decided?

[Lance Steckler]

As a coach you set your schedule well in advance and you just never know how it's going to play out. You are trying to schedule for just over .500 winning percentage. Some tournaments you know are going to be tough and some will not be as challenging.

Most parents think it's about "trophy hunting" but I don't see a lot of that at the older ages. Winning isn't everything but it is something.

I think it's more about area weakness than anything. OR the best in their area are playing PGF or USA versus USSSA. So they win, and get to A level.

Then have to play teams from all over that are higher level. and the resulting losses.

 

[Vertigo]

I think it's more about area weakness than anything. OR the best in their area are playing PGF or USA versus USSSA. So they win, and get to A level.

Then have to play teams from all over that are higher level. and the resulting losses.

When my dd played 14U PONY would actually attract the better competition to their Nationals than USSSA for some reason. We preferred to go there for the better competition than UTrip, or else we’d wind up traveling to OCMD just to play teams from our area.

 

[Bernmoll]

the ones that are always interesting to see are the teams that obviously play a bunch of USSSA tourneys in their home area and win a bunch, with bunch of points and are "elite, platinum, tungsten carbide Hittin' Kittens" A level team.

And then they get to a USSSA national type event, play in A level and get BLASTED and sent home winless. What's the deal there???

I don’t see an issue with this - locally they probably are the ‘best’ team and was classified as such. So they get blasted by a better team- the team and coach know that they need to work harder or reclassify themselves when playing nationally. I would prefer to see that than a team who claims to be worse level than they are just to win a trophy.

 

[Lance Steckler]

not arguing that point. being upper level and playing down for the $2 trophy is not a good look.

BUT claiming to be better than you are, just to mis-lead players and parents to come to your org, isn't cool either. If you're really that good, switch to PGF or harder tourneys versus USSSA only.

if your classified as A, and qualified as A, you can't go into nationals and say "nope, put us in B bracket". Sorry. you're going to play in A.

 

[Beeg]

For USSSA, at least in this NE area, if you are registered as a C team, you cannot have a B player in the same age group guest play for you. Same if you are a B team, you can't have a A player guest play for you.

Once DD moves to an A-team, they didn't play too many USSSA games. Seems like in this area, USSSA is mostly for B&C teams. There are tons of great non-USSSA tourneys within 2-3 hours from us.

 

[DryHeat]

You register as "A" if:

1) You are an A team and know it
2) You are a B team thinking that by registering as A, you will start recruiting A athletes or will somehow develop your players and will become an A team. This is DD2's team. Closely related to point 3 below.
3) You are a delusional B team.

You register as "B" if:
1) You are a B team and know it.
2) You are an A team that enjoys beating up B teams and taking their little plastic trophies and candy.
3) You are an A team and don't know it (yet). You'll know it soon. This is probably teams that just acquired a great pitcher or two abd already had everything else.
4) You are a C team. There are no yeams left in the state registered as C that I van tell. Typically these teams stay away from USSSA, since they get their heads beat in because all of the tourneys here except the state champs are open. You could be a newly formed 12u team, register as B, and will immediately/randomly face some of the best in the state if you play any USSSA at 12u or 14u. There are other non-sanctioned tourneys for these teams. By 16u the best are moving on to PGF etc. and the C teams are gone.

 

[BrianTx01]

In Texas USSSA will kick your team out of B/C if you win too much.

 

[NJZoo]

It's interesting to hear about the popularity of different tournament organizations in different areas. Like others have said, here in the Northeast, USSSA is the most popular and well run organization. After that you have USA, but those tournaments are sometimes a crapshoot because you will often get a lower level of teams entering (not judging by any means), and there is no real ranking system to identify the teams when you register. Then we have larger facilities that sponsor their own unaffiliated tournaments.
My daughter's team had a very successful Fall and USSSA actually bumped us up from B to A. I think that was fair based on our performance. We're a strong team for our state, but not a national level team by any means. The problem with A,B, C is that out of 55ish registered USSSA teams in the state you have 5A, 8C, and the rest are B. With so many B teams you are going to have a pretty big spread from teams on the high end to teams on the low end. So, even within the B division you almost have a B(A), B(B), and B(C) stratification of teams. You will see some B teams that can absolutely compete with the highest level teams, and some that look like rec level teams.

 

[Rick M]

My daughter's team had a very successful Fall and USSSA actually bumped us up from B to A. I think that was fair based on our performance.

Congrats, sounds like you have a great team.

As I said earlier, the biggest problem in USSSA here in the northeast is how few teams register as A. That means the org has to find reasons to bump teams up. They instituted a rule a few years ago that if more than half the team are returning second-year players, they’re automatically classified as A (not sure if that rule still applies).

What you said about B(A), B(B), and B(C) is spot on.


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[Orange Socks]

None of this matters when you hit 16U/18U divisions. The TD's will determine which fields and teams you will play.