Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn’t a date change like that blow up a lot of teams? Our 12U team has 6 girls with Sept-Dec birthdays (including the coaches daughter). I assume they’d play another year at 12U and the rest of the girls would have to find another team? That really sucks!

Do they suck? I mean, I think most girls are more than ready to move up after two years at an age level. Why would they play three years at 12u even if the rules allowed it. My daughter's team mostly played 14u tournaments our final spring of 12u and we had two 11s. They are a 14u team now with two girls who are still 12u eligible.

They don't suck but why would half the team want to move up to play against much older girls when they could be so much more competitive against 12U? Also that's the age when the pitching distance changes again...why not maximize your time at the "easier" level?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This gets enforced for travel. House leagues seem to be stocked with kids older than the stated age level.

They also might have a move-up date in spring (versus USSSA’s August move-up), which would potentially change things compared to travel teams.

Or do you mean that you know leagues that allow a lot of play-downs?

Just suspicion. Some teams have a lot of really tall players for the age level. One league in particular that we play every year has a rec league program that could win B level travel games, but they'd have to pass age checks.

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn’t a date change like that blow up a lot of teams? Our 12U team has 6 girls with Sept-Dec birthdays (including the coaches daughter). I assume they’d play another year at 12U and the rest of the girls would have to find another team? That really sucks!

Do they suck? I mean, I think most girls are more than ready to move up after two years at an age level. Why would they play three years at 12u even if the rules allowed it. My daughter's team mostly played 14u tournaments our final spring of 12u and we had two 11s. They are a 14u team now with two girls who are still 12u eligible.

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn’t a date change like that blow up a lot of teams? Our 12U team has 6 girls with Sept-Dec birthdays (including the coaches daughter). I assume they’d play another year at 12U and the rest of the girls would have to find another team? That really sucks!

It could if that's what your team wants, but the Sept-Dec girls could also just play up. Soccer is potentially also going through this with ECNL changing cut-offs.

Wouldn’t a date change like that blow up a lot of teams? Our 12U team has 6 girls with Sept-Dec birthdays (including the coaches daughter). I assume they’d play another year at 12U and the rest of the girls would have to find another team? That really sucks!

Anonymous wrote:This gets enforced for travel. House leagues seem to be stocked with kids older than the stated age level.

They also might have a move-up date in spring (versus USSSA’s August move-up), which would potentially change things compared to travel teams.

Or do you mean that you know leagues that allow a lot of play-downs?

This gets enforced for travel. House leagues seem to be stocked with kids older than the stated age level.

Anonymous wrote:i thought they made a formal announcement back in 2022 that they were sticking with 12/31.

Granted, that was 2 years ago, but i thought they were pretty emphatic about it

They definitely did, but more recently there is increased chatter like this: https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1033270278585715&id=100057082584774&_rdr

i thought they made a formal announcement back in 2022 that they were sticking with 12/31.

Granted, that was 2 years ago, but i thought they were pretty emphatic about it

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think USSSA has already made that change in some states. Not VA or MD though.

Would it not be chaos if some states move and others don't? It's not like teams only play in their home state.

No. You either have a team that can all play at your desired age group in every sanction in every state in which you play or you have a player or two that can play in most but not every single tournament you play. Or you play in two different age groups depending on the sanction.

Much less of a big deal for the older kids, but for the younger kids that sounds like a mess.

Example: you have a late fall 2014 birthday on a 10U team for the 2026 season. Anywhere with an 8/31 cutoff, that player plays 10U. Anywhere with a 12/31 cut-off they are ineligible. Teams aren't going to just jump to the bigger ball and 40' distance so that player can play in the 12/31 states. I guess teams that really want those kids and want those kids for 10U versus 11U would just not play in a sanction where the kid is ineligible, but it still seems like a mess.

The general consensus I have heard is that USSSA is going to switch to the 8/31 cutoff for all states for the 2025-26 season.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think USSSA has already made that change in some states. Not VA or MD though.

Would it not be chaos if some states move and others don't? It's not like teams only play in their home state.

No. You either have a team that can all play at your desired age group in every sanction in every state in which you play or you have a player or two that can play in most but not every single tournament you play. Or you play in two different age groups depending on the sanction.

Anonymous wrote:I think USSSA has already made that change in some states. Not VA or MD though.

Would it not be chaos if some states move and others don't? It's not like teams only play in their home state.

I think USSSA has already made that change in some states. Not VA or MD though.

Currently I believe among the softball governing bodies the cut-offs are:

USA Softball - Aug. 31
Alliance - Aug. 31
Triple Crown - Aug. 31 (for 2025, so I guess effective January?)

versus

USSSA - Dec 31st
PGF - Dec 31st

I heard USSSA is meeting to consider moving to August 31 and I've seen a handful of rumors that the change will go through. Anyone have any intel?