thank you |
Clubs that place 1st and 2nd in the conferences are automatic qualifiers for Champions Cup and the top 4 playoff teams not already in Champions Cup are also invited. They play the round robin round in Dec with the top 16 teams in each age advancing to the Champions Cup playoffs while those that don't play against 4 teams invited to play in the consolation bracket. |
Should have stressed - CLUBS not individual teams that place in top 2 in a conference last year. So a club that has all of its teams at 3rd and 4th would place higher than a club that has 2x 1st place teams and the rest are dogs. The 4 extra spots would be filled by the best teams not associated with a club that is already attending this year based on last years national playoffs. |
But there are 11 conferences? That would mean 22 teams make Champions Cup. I wish GA had more transparency on how the league operates, only having referee guidelines on the site isn't very helpful. I know they take the top 16 clubs from the previous years, just not sure how they determine it across the age groups. |
For the automatica qualifiers, they take the strongest CLUBs across all groups. Not every conference gets the same amount of automatic qualifiers. Take a look at this: https://girlsacademyleague.com/champions-cup/ Scroll down to the bottom, and you will see the qualifiers from last year (who competed this year). Those CLUBs had the best performance in those conferences across all age groups. Think if this way, for each 1st place team a club within a conference has across the age groups, they get one point. For each second place team, they get points, and so on across all the age groups. Then total that amount for each CLUB within the conference and the team (or teams) with the lowest total gets the automatic bid(s). Then four wild card teams are chosen to round out the 20 competing in December according to this criteria: FOR ALL CLUBS: The Champions Cup Finals at IMG this year will include FOUR (4) non-Champions Cup teams at U14, U15, U16, U17, and U19. These four teams will be invited to attend the event by the GA following the Winter Showcase. Invitations will be based on: Performance in last year’s playoffs (U14 performance last year applies to the U15 team this year). Performance in regular season play through December 10. Performance at Winter Showcase if applicable (attendance at Winter is NOT required). From the 20 in December, the top 16 complete in Florida for the Champions Cup. |
GA does have it on their site but it's a little hard to find. Open the Referee One Sheeter from https://girlsacademyleague.com/resources/. Then click on the 2024-25 GA Frameworks link. All the details about champions cup, playoff qualification, automatic qualifiers are included. |
| Last year there were fewer conferences |
Important info for all the new people coming from ECNL. In GA, champions cup is separate from playoffs. Champions cup is a competition for the top clubs. There is no equivalent in ECNL. GA also has end of season national playoffs where individual teams qualify. This is similar to ECNL's playoffs. It is confusing because ECNL calls their national playoffs "Champions League" which makes people think GA's Champions Cup is the same thing but they are different. |
I don't think that is right. the champions cup this past dec say for U17 had 20 teams broken down in 5 brackets of 4. there are 11 conferences so that is 22 teams. |
The link shows 16 automatic qualifiers and 4 wild cards. |
thank you. makes sense now. they should change it to "Club Champions Cup" or "Champions Club Cup" |
They were at the GA showcase in November. Talked to one of the parents there and they needed to bring down kids from their NY team to have enough players (and their NY teams are no where near the level of the NC teams) |
there is no GA showcase in November. what am I missing? |
Looks like the 2011s were at the regional event in Nov, not a showcase. |