Nationals Requirements

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Can somebody help me out here--I'm thouroughly confused now. For the various "bodies," i.e. ASA, NSA, USSSA, of softball out there, what do you have to do to qualify for nationals?

Under the thread for ASA nationals there was something about going to states or not going to states for NSA and now I'm just confused. If someone could just list the requirements for me, I'd really appreciate it.

I thought for ASA, once you qualified for nationals, via a national qualifier, you didn't have to go to states, but maybe things have changed. I do not know the requirements for PONY, USSSA or NSA. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance! ;D

 

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NSA you need to qualify then they "WANT" you to play in their NSA State tournament. But each year there end up teams at nationals that never play in States

ASA you only need to qualify once either at a State tournament or a Regional qualifier

The other sanctioning bodies....Pony, Usssa...etc. I have NO clue what there rules are.

 

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PONY - you must finish no less than 3rd place in a qualifier. # of berths in each qualifier are determined by the number of teams in an age group.

 

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For NSA, if you qualify at a qualifier, then NSA wants to to participate in the state tournament to "validate" (for lack of a better word) that berth. ?If you win a berth at a National Invitation Tournament (NIT), (like "Heat it Up" last year and there was one other NIT in the state last year) then you do not have to attend the state tournament, you get to go directly to the World Series. ?This was how the Cleveland Wildcats got their berth to the NSA B World Series last year (they did a great job also at the World Series).

USSSA: you try to win a berth at a USSSA tournament. ?IMHO, USSSA has a more favorable berth award system that favors the younger half of each age group (the odd years of each age group). ?For example, if your team is an all 11 year old team, then your team would enter the tournament for 11U teams. ?If there isn't enough teams for an all 11U group, you get bumped up into the 12 and under group but you still earn an 11U berth to the World Series. (I think I got that right).