No more Early Start Ratings for 2017 USTA League Early Start Leagues

[schmke]

I learned yesterday and confirmed today that the USTA will not be publishing Early Start Ratings to be used for 2017 Early Start Leagues this year. See more in my write-up at http://computerratings.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-usta-does-away-with-early-start.html

 

[Jim A]

I don't understand why usta even has early start leagues in the first place. It is a national organization with a regional structure. These same teams would be able to qualify for 2017 nationals in mid 2016 based on 2015 ratings?

 

[brettatk]

I saw this the other day when I visited the USTA Atlanta site. The wording had changed on registering for 2017 leagues so I emailed them to confirm. I'm not sure right now whether it'll be good or bad for the league. I do know a ton of people in our league were probably going to be bumped up with the early start ratings. Now they'll be able to play for the rest of the year at their current level. Initial reaction is that it'll be really good for those who get bumped down at year end but not so good for those bumped up. Both will have to wait a full year now instead of getting esr's in March and August. I haven't read what schmke has wrote yet, I'll be doing that in a little bit.

 

[Alchemy-Z]

I am happy for this....it was always annoying getting teams together at the 3.5 to 4.0 level cause a handful of players would get bumped up and down every season and the former 4.0 would go dominate the 3.5 level for the fall season - then get bumped- play 4.0 in the spring and then go to 3.5 State (so if you were a legit 3.5) team still rated 3.5 you would often find then people waxing you at state had been 4.0's for 5 months (and I am talking full rosters of 4.0 players) - and then on top of that because they make state they get bench marked back to 3.5- and when the early start ratings came out- the cycle would start all over again.

 

[brettatk]

Just got a chance to read over your write-up @schmke. Let me make sure I understand. Say it's the Fall season of the 2017 league year playing 4.0. Everyone playing on that team was a computer rated 4.0 player at YE 2015. That team wins the City championship and qualifies for State the next Summer. At YE 2016, half the team is bumped up to 4.5. Summer time rolls around and the team wins State and Sectionals. Those players who were bumped will not be eligible to play at Nationals? If so, what if you do not have enough players to make the trip? On one side I can understand the thought behind it trying to make it more fair but they may as well not allow those players to play at State or Sectionals either. But the other side is that the rest of the team now has to suffer because those players cannot play and now they cannot attend Nationals. I'm a little torn on this.

 

[schmke]

Just got a chance to read over your write-up @schmke. Let me make sure I understand. Say it's the Fall season of the 2017 league year playing 4.0. Everyone playing on that team was a computer rated 4.0 player at YE 2015. That team wins the City championship and qualifies for State the next Summer. At YE 2016, half the team is bumped up to 4.5. Summer time rolls around and the team wins State and Sectionals. Those players who were bumped will not be eligible to play at Nationals? If so, what if you do not have enough players to make the trip? On one side I can understand the thought behind it trying to make it more fair but they may as well not allow those players to play at State or Sectionals either. But the other side is that the rest of the team now has to suffer because those players cannot play and now they cannot attend Nationals. I'm a little torn on this.

Yep, as I understand it you got it right. National has said that YE bump ups cannot play at Nationals at their lower level. But they are leaving it up to each section to establish the rules for if or how far they can play in playoffs at their lower level.

So in your example, any local/city playoffs would likely happen in the Fall and without YE ratings out yet, the full roster would be eligible. But say that States/Districts are in 2017. Your section/district can decide whether to allow the bumped up players to continue to play at their lower level or not. Similarly for Sectionals.

Since National is not going to allow them to be eligible, you could make the argument that the section/district shouldn't either so that you don't have a situation like you describe where a team wins their section but then doesn't have enough players to go to Nationals. On the other hand, you could argue you should let them team play and win their section, and if they can't go, then the runner up can still fill their spot and go, so what is the harm?

IMHO, the harm is that the team that can't go may have kept a team that could go from making it to Sectionals where they just lost out on a chance to go to Nationals.

 

[brettatk]

Yep, as I understand it you got it right. National has said that YE bump ups cannot play at Nationals at their lower level. But they are leaving it up to each section to establish the rules for if or how far they can play in playoffs at their lower level.

So in your example, any local/city playoffs would likely happen in the Fall and without YE ratings out yet, the full roster would be eligible. But say that States/Districts are in 2017. Your section/district can decide whether to allow the bumped up players to continue to play at their lower level or not. Similarly for Sectionals.

Since National is not going to allow them to be eligible, you could make the argument that the section/district shouldn't either so that you don't have a situation like you describe where a team wins their section but then doesn't have enough players to go to Nationals. On the other hand, you could argue you should let them team play and win their section, and if they can't go, then the runner up can still fill their spot and go, so what is the harm?

IMHO, the harm is that the team that can't go may have kept a team that could go from making it to Sectionals where they just lost out on a chance to go to Nationals.

I'm sure every Runner-up will immediately go to check the YE ratings of the other team now. It would just suck if you had 11 people on a team and say only 4 of them were bumped at YE. The other 7 that played a big part in earning the trip to Nationals now cannot go and participate.

I guess in the grand scheme of things, it'll drastically cut down on the teams who are notorious for cheating from going to Nationals. That wouldn't suck at all.

 

[cknobman]

I guess this means an end to my (2 year ongoing) mid season 4.5 bump up and 4.0 year end bump down.

 

[kevrol]

I guess this means an end to my (2 year ongoing) mid season 4.5 bump up and 4.0 year end bump down.

Yep. Now you'll get bumped for all of 2017 before being bumped down for 2018.

 

[schmke]

Yep. Now you'll get bumped for all of 2017 before being bumped down for 2018.

Naw, he'll still suspect he'll be bumped up to 4.5 and tank at the end of the year to make sure he stays a 4.0 ;-) I mean, clearly that is why he has stayed a year-end 4.0 the last 2 years! :O (just kidding)

 

[Jack the Hack]

Naw, he'll still suspect he'll be bumped up to 4.5 and tank at the end of the year to make sure he stays a 4.0 ;-) I mean, clearly that is why he has stayed a year-end 4.0 the last 2 years! :O (just kidding)

Yeah, he'll just cheat the system by playing singles instead of dominating in doubles... the most common form of sandbagging...

 

[Jack the Hack]

Pretty interesting decision with the elimination of the ESR. We had a mixed team a couple years ago that had 3 key players bumped from 4.5 ESR to 5.0 YE, which messed up our line-ups for Sectionals. We weren't Nationals contenders, so it wasn't a super big deal, but irritating none-the-less.

 

[cknobman]

Yep. Now you'll get bumped for all of 2017 before being bumped down for 2018.

Naw, he'll still suspect he'll be bumped up to 4.5 and tank at the end of the year to make sure he stays a 4.0 ;-) I mean, clearly that is why he has stayed a year-end 4.0 the last 2 years! :O (just kidding)

Yeah, he'll just cheat the system by playing singles instead of dominating in doubles... the most common form of sandbagging...

WOW you guys are vicious!!!

I wish I was good enough for just one year to get that 4.5 rating.

It may be petty and stupid but its kind of a goal for me.

 

[schmke]

WOW you guys are vicious!!!

I wish I was good enough for just one year to get that 4.5 rating.

It may be petty and stupid but its kind of a goal for me.

Not petty or stupid, a lot of players have such goals and IMHO that is to be admired.