So if the number is 75, it looks like only 1 team (Team North Florida) turned down one of the 12 berths earned from last year. I guess ASA has figured out how to keep almost all of the top 12 teams from leaving ASA for PGF and by having 75 teams they can go no gate fee. Smart business reacting to competition.

It appears that, for the exception of Cal Lite, California is sending the "B" teams to ASA Gold.

Oh really. Glad to see we have finally figured out who the all-knowing Bracketologist is, As The World Turns.

Let the fighting begin between the SoCal haves and the have nots....the unitended circumstance of the elitist thinking we are better than you.

Elitist thinking? What the? How about a random, totally unrelated example:

After having dug to a depth of 10 feet last year outside of New York City, New York scientists found traces of copper cable dating back 100 years. They came to the conclusion that their ancestors already had a telephone network more than 100 years ago. Not to be outdone by the New Yorkers, in the weeks that followed, a Los Angeles, California archaeologist dug to a depth of 20 feet somewhere just outside Oceanside. Shortly after, a story in the LA Times read: "California archaeologists report a finding of 200 year old copper cable, have concluded that their ancestors already had an advanced high-tech communications network a hundred years earlier than the New Yorkers." One week later, a local newspaper in Wallis, TX reported the following: "After digging down about 30 feet deep in his pasture near the community, Bubba, a self-taught archaeologist, reported that he found absolutely nothing. Bubba has therefore concluded that 300 years ago, TX had already gone wireless".

Mea Culpa: I just got that in an email and was looking for an excuse to post it. It did remind me of some of the silly regional bickering you see/hear with softball.

Perpetually Acornless Squirrel

Excellent analogy. Give that Squirrel an acorn!

Thats Mr. Bubba to you, Squirrel.

Don't have to be as smart as the Bracketologist to figure that CA is not sending the top teams.

It would seem than ASA has responded to most if not all of the suggestions from coaches. But as someone said in another thread, it's not likely the PGF honchos will give up their invitational tourney, not with all the influence those invites are affording them.

Are you saying the 12 teams with returning berths are the top teams? Four (4) of those berths came from territorial nats, so I wouldn't consider them top teams.

The next 4 finishers last year were all SoCal teams, including a couple of 16u teams, and it looks like USA Athletics is the only one returning.


ASA tripled the Gold entry fee, so the gate fee is incorporated into the entry fee, just like PGF.


They wouldn't have any competition if they were smart before PGF came into existence.