Back in the day all the best Teams primary goal was to qualify for the ASA Gold National. It’s was great seeing all the great teams in the nation Playing at one location. Now go forward in the future and look at what we have Today. No real clear who’s the best. It’s more like, hey we won the World Series or the National. What does that really mean today? It means your team and 50+ other teams won a National or a World Series someplace.
So if you added all the Nationals and World Series together just how many would be held each year? Way to many if you ask me.
Honestly; One could argue there are too many sanctioning bodies. Too many watered down teams etc... I feel though, options are a good thing for players, teams and families and the sport.
Even back 15/20 years ago there were options depending on the level of play but I will say the various levels of play seemed to be better represented especially at the higher levels A and gold.
What I mean by this is, you earned your way into an event by attending qualifying events and winning. You played in the level you were sanctioned and received points for playing up if you faced higher sanctioned teams. if you were B or lower.
Back 10 plus years ago teams played ASA, A/B Gold, NSA A/B, USSSA A,B,or C, ISA, USFA, Pony or Little League not one sanctioning body one week and another next week. (Unless you played in Quakermans events)
Now softball has a couple more sanctioning bodies and all sanction WS (that we played in once at 23U a few years back). It was set up decent with something like 14 teams at that age and the competition at that level was pretty balanced.
A lot of events today are now offering at large bids or avenues where teams that may not have the resume enter or, this option for teams that may have played a showcase specific schedule especially at 14 and above ....
With that said, It is notable if a team wins any national tournament and the ladies should not think less of themselves or team if they play say lesser known event if that is what their season goal is. I pulled up the SEAA WS from last week we played in before our ASA national back in 2010 and it was run good with a lot of other things to do as a team. The new park looks nice and they look to have had about 30 teams in each division 10u through 16 U represented by about 15 states. Ohio looks to have had 5 or 6 in each age range some of the organizations may surprise some...
Regardless 1 or 2 years down the road the only ones who remembers or cares is the players themselves.