Difference between A and B nationals

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I'm new to travel ball, just wondering the difference between A and B nationals as far as quality and quantity of teams. Is it worth 5 days and 10 hours on the road? Thanks for the help.

 

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Depends if you mean ASA, NSA, USSSA or some other organization. Generally, you have many tiers of travel ball. The top would be the teams that play in the PGF/Premier Nationals. ASA Gold used to be the top and is still excellent. The girls you watch on TV in the College World Series will mostly have played on teams that play in PGF/Premier Natioanls and ASA Gold. After that, you have ASA "A" Nationals, which is still excellent, especially at 16-U on down.

Beyond that, you have the ASA regional nationals, such as Eastern Nationals, Northern Nationals, etc. You have NSA "A" World Series, same for USSSA, and then the "B" World Series for NSA and USSSA. I think ASA also has a "B" Nationals, which would be a level below those Easterns, Northerns, etc.

To be able to tell you the difference between "A" and "B" would require specifically discussing each sanctioning body. The type of players who will get recruited to play at any college will almost always be playing PGF/Premier, ASA Gold and ASA A. You will certainly get some girls who play NSA A and USSSA A tournaments playing in college, but the college coaches attend mainly the top ASA events (and PGF/Premier).

I hope that helps a little.

 

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Thank you Joe, I'm looking at 12u eastern b asa.

 

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Purely from the standpoint of player development, I believe that it is worth it to attend the ASA "A" Eastern Nationals rather than the "B" tournament. Your players will see a much higher level of play and will be able to test themselves against that competition.

I recognize that time and money are important to you from your opening post. If you had posed your question last fall or winter, I would have suggested that you attend the Midwest All Sanctions World Series held in Columbus at Berliner or that (gulp) you attend NSA Nationals, which are actually regional Nationals and I have no idea where those are this year. USSSA world series might be closer this year; again I don't have that information. But for all three of these events, there is at this point a barrier to attending. Midwest All Sanctions has filled at your age group, though you could get on a waiting list. Ohio NSA has required that you play in the NSA State Tournament in order to attend NSA Nationals, ad I have no idea whether that tournament has filled. USSSA requires a certain number of "points" from playing in local USSSA tournaments before you can attend USSSA World Series.

If you really want your players to catch the fastpitch fever and if you have already qualified for ASA Easterns, I would encourage you to attend that tournament. An alternative that you could look at would be to attend ASA Northerns, which many years is closer to Ohio than Easterns are. Your ASA Eastern berth should get you into ASA Northerns.

UPDATE: I just checked for the location of ASA Northerns this year and it is in Minnesota while Easterns are in Maryland, so there isn't any location advantage to attending Northerns. AND ASA Eastern "Bs" are in Connecticut so now I am really confused by your post.

Amateur Softball Association of America (ASA)

 

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We do have the option to go northern also. We typically are 2 win on Sunday team. We won a qualifier in a small tourney. Clearly we cannot compete at "a" level at nationals, just concerned if the "b" tourney is worth the expense.

 

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OK, now I see the point of your OP. This is a hard call, best answered by someone who has attended an ASA "B" Nationals. You might indeed be right that it is not worth the time and expense.

 

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Ive had my hand in running B nationals at Dayton a few times, and have to say no, the competition isnt at the level of A , but it isnt a cake walk either. There are very tough strong teams and great competition. Sounds like it would be a excellent choice depending on the location for your level team.

 

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This isn't my battle, but I need to correct some misinformation on this post. I am not the biggest fan of this requirement, but I am just the messenger on this one.

Playing the state tournament to advance is not an Ohio NSA requirement. That is a NSA by-law for all states. The only way to go directly to the NSA Worlds and by-pass the state tournament is to win an NIT for age groups 10U to 16U. Since many states do not hold 8U state tournaments, those teams can advance directly. 18U can be advanced at the discretion of the state director since the season is very short for those teams. The same with 23U as not many state directors run state tournaments.

In the past there may have been selective enforcement but being a TD for the past few years at the Worlds, teams have been told they are having there entry fee returned if it is found out they did not participate in the state tournament. There is a proposal going to convention to give the Zone president lattitude in allowing a team an exception to this. Our zone director told me that if that passes, the team better have played a predominantly NSA schedule and better have a rock-solid reason for missing states.

I am not a USSSA director but the same requirement is in their by-laws also. The Ohio director does not enforce it but the entire East coast does as the Eastern VP is a former NSA state director and a stickler for the rules.

Okay now back to the discussion of which Nationals are tougher A or B. I can say from personal experience that once the NSA B's get down to the final 10-12 teams, the calibur of softball goes up as evidenced by the number of 3-1, 2-1, 1-0 tie breaker score cards I get as a TD. Once we got to Saturday, the remaining 4-6 teams could have easily did well at the A state level. I do not know where they place on a regional or national level, but the ball was very strong at that point in the event

Ohio NSA has required that you play in the NSA State Tournament in order to attend NSA Nationals, ad I have no idea whether that tournament has filled.

 

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Thank you all for your help.

 

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Hey cgs just curious what your thoughts are on the Midwest all sanctioned world series in Columbus? Were heading there this year, played last year and made fools of ourselves, should be different this year. Give me your honest opinion on this one.

 

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@ louisvillesoftball - Are your players from the same league? What type of tournaments do you typically win 2 games on Sunday?

@ all - ASA Class B is supposed to be for rec teams. Is it enforced there?

Article 507 Classifications of Championship Play (see bottom page 66)

d. Girls? Class B Fast Pitch. Teams and players who participate in Class A tournaments, or higher, that lead to a National Championship Finals, shall not be eligible to participate in the Class B competition. Girls? Class B teams must be made up of players who participate in the same league.

EXCEPTION: A Girls? Class B Fast Pitch team that participates in a higher classification National Qualifier must comply with Article 507 ( B ) ( 02 ).

 

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They are not in any league, this is a first year travel team that has played in tourneys within an hour of our area. I did not know of that rule.

 

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We have played in A tourneys. We tend to be placed in weaker pools and fare well on Saturday. The "a" teams usually handle us. ( Emeralds, Ohio Power, Thunder Elite, etc.)

 

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Hey cgs just curious what your thoughts are on the Midwest all sanctioned world series in Columbus? Were heading there this year, played last year and made fools of ourselves, should be different this year. Give me your honest opinion on this one.

This will be our third year of using this tournament as preparation for a Nationals tournament. We have found the competition to be a little bit uneven, but nonetheless something approaching the range of talent that shows up at ASA Easterns.

Every year we have played we have exited the tournament earlier than we might have predicted. But each year we have performed well at the ASA Nationals tournament (2 ASA Easterns and 1 USA/ASA) so the Midwest All Sanctions has served a good purpose. Am hoping this year we can do well both at the Midwest tournament and at Nationals, but we shall see.

 

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This isn't my battle, but I need to correct some misinformation on this post. I am not the biggest fan of this requirement, but I am just the messenger on this one.

Playing the state tournament to advance is not an Ohio NSA requirement. That is a NSA by-law for all states. The only way to go directly to the NSA Worlds and by-pass the state tournament is to win an NIT for age groups 10U to 16U. Since many states do not hold 8U state tournaments, those teams can advance directly. 18U can be advanced at the discretion of the state director since the season is very short for those teams. The same with 23U as not many state directors run state tournaments.

In the past there may have been selective enforcement but being a TD for the past few years at the Worlds, teams have been told they are having there entry fee returned if it is found out they did not participate in the state tournament.

Yep, in the past the rule, which I really thought was an Ohio rule (thanks for the correction on that), has been applied unevenly. Depending on who you knew, you could get into the NSA Nationals without playing in the State tournament. It will be interesting to see how things play out now that the rule is being enforced. Do you know whether the number of Ohio teams playing NSA Nationals was up or down last year?

 

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In my very/very/very humble opinion this NSA requirement is nothing short of a money grab. Since NSA has no requirement for teams to earn qualifying berths the only reason to force a team to play in the state tournament is to raise money - kind of holding them hostage. If a team doesn't have to earn a berth there is no other explanation.


It is also a bit shortsighted on their part at the older age groups. Because of the timing of almost every NSA State tournament it makes it tough to schedule. Our NSA State tournament falls directly during the time when 16 and 18's are searching out showcases and maybe playing in ASA Qualifiers.

 

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Actually the numbers were up in 2011 compared to 2010. I do not know what the final numbers for this year will be but I anticipate sending more teams than in 2011.

Nothing will compare to the glory days when the Worlds were at Berliner every other year as teams wanted to play a World Series with minimal travel involved. The All-Sanctions event moved right into that date and will be there as long as CRPD wants them there.

Yep, in the past the rule, which I really thought was an Ohio rule (thanks for the correction on that), has been applied unevenly. Depending on who you knew, you could get into the NSA Nationals without playing in the State tournament. It will be interesting to see how things play out now that the rule is being enforced. Do you know whether the number of Ohio teams playing NSA Nationals was up or down last year?

 

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We played 16-U at Midwest All-Sanction last year on the dirt fields, and it was a disaster when it rained overnight ... no crews around to work on getting fields ready for hours, though eventually did get started. I guess the turf will help with that? We also saw a wide disparity of talent.

 

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Actually the numbers were up in 2011 compared to 2010. I do not know what the final numbers for this year will be but I anticipate sending more teams than in 2011.

Nothing will compare to the glory days when the Worlds were at Berliner every other year as teams wanted to play a World Series with minimal travel involved. The All-Sanctions event moved right into that date and will be there as long as CRPD wants them there.

I think it was in the glory days (which weren't that long ago) that exemptions from the requirement of playing in the State tournament were freely awarded. I know of several instances when teams playing ASA Nationals used the NSA Berliner event as a prelude to their final tournament of the year.