Iluvblue wrote:PGF is in what?? Year 3? teams from California have been asked to go across the country for years for nationals, and what you are seeing IMO,is 12u teams from midwest that have NO SHOT at winning 12u PGF, have simply decided they would prefer to spend far less and go to ASA. it makes sense, but dont blame it on PGF.
IMO, if I am running PGF, I am fine with having tons of12u Ca. teams coming, even if it is invites for the first several years. The tourney will have the number of teams I need, its viable, Premier continues to grow, and in a few years, the top teams from east/midwest will slowly start to come.
16and 18u Premier is already the pace to go, in 3 years.... 3 years, are you kidding me.
In northern Ca ASA is an afterthought at this point and teams that cant make pgf will try to qualify asa. The fact PGF is even spoken with in the same breath as ASA in this short of time speaks volumes IMO.
Whether PGF is is the "Real National Championships" or not is irrelevant to me, and Im sure it is to those running PGF as well. They are getting exactly what they wanted when they started PGF, and dont think ASA doesnt think about pgf in all they do.
Regardless if you want to believe it or not but PGF 18 HS is losing momentum.
There are 5 teams from Texas that finished in the top half in the 2011 tournament that won't be coming back, another two that qualified and have historically had good teams, not going back. One of the original PGD board member's organization is sending their B team in place of the team that was invited. At least one team from Florida, not coming back, although invited.
Looking at the 10 team SE qualifier only the Lady Gators are trying to qualify from the state of Florida. . If they are successful PGF will have two teams from Florida. One of which was an invite. In that SE qualifier, every other age division was cancelled due to lack of interest.
The Colorado 18/HS qualifier has 13 teams in it, the Minnesota qualifier has 8 teams in it. The Indiana qualifier has 21 teams, but at least 6 of those teams are teams that have signed up for every PGF qualifier in the country. 19 teams in the NE qualifier, 4 teams signed up in the North Texas qualifier, two of which qualified in Houston. Lastly 15 teams signed up in the NW qualifier.
That is 90 total teams (some of which are duplicates) that are trying to qualify outside of California for the remaining 17 berths. Add in the 48 teams that attempted to qualify in Houston (32) and Arizona (16) and you have a maximum of 138 teams trying to earn 23 berths (64 berths minues 21 invitations and 12 returning berths-8 berths in California qualifiers. That is not exactly drawing in the top teams from around the country to attempt to qualify for your tournament.
It is easy to get the top teams when you invite them and don't require them qualify.