ESPN Rise Championship on ESPNU at 8:00

ESPN Rise / Premier National Championship game is on ESPNU tonight (Sat) at 8:00. Socal Athletics vs. Texas Impact Gold. Impact Gold is hitting the ball real good this week. Should give the Athletics all they can handle.

 

...Thanks for the heads up! Both of these teams play at the highest TB level and its good to see our sport recognized on ESPN by teams that show how talented our kids are. "this ain't little league"!

Props Amish for your thread.

Fishman

 

championship

Good to see our game on TV, but hate to hear all that propaganda that they are shoveling along with it. Those 2 teams were invited there. But they ARE good. Just wonder how they would have done in Marietta last week.

And to think all of this was done for a 1 year fix. Maybe since the Gold Nationals are in Cal next year we can get that championship on TV.

Ty

 

What do you mean "invited there"?

 

There is a power struggle going on over the "elite travel ball" space, known previously as ASA Gold. A number of the power brokers in elite softball got frustrated with ASA over the handling of the Gold classification and created the Premier Girls Fastpitch organization (PGF).

All spots in the ASA Gold National are earned thru a qualification process. In order for PGF to get a National tournament that could compete head to head with ASA Gold, they offered "invites" to the established, successful programs around the country. Roughly 2/3 of the spots in this year's ESPN Rise National tournament were invited teams. The other 1/3 were thru qualification.

The net results was that the major CA programs did not even attempt to qualify for this year's ASA Gold National.

Next year, I expect they will still have invites but fewer.

 

ASA Gold vs. Premier Girls Fastpitch

This year, I think a lot of people were wondering if PGF had any legs. At this point, I'd say they are off and running.

- Partnered with ESPN Rise.
- Held a National tournament that equaled, if not exceeded ASA Gold for elite talent.
- Had it's national championship game on national television.

Short of everyone burying the hatchet, 2011 will be an interesting year as ASA attempts to react. In the end, I see this fight being good for softball.

 

With ASA Gold Nationals in Southern Cal next year, and the reversal of several other rules that were passed last year, many people feel that the Premier Event will either take a backseat or disappear all together. It was intended to push across certain points to ASA and give California teams a way out of having to go through qualifiers and fly to Atlanta. I would be surprised if it exists in the same format as it did this year.

The entry fees for those teams that played in "qualifiers" was used to fund those invited teams to come there with little or no costs.