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USSSA BASEBALL League Affiliation Information OverviewMore Kids
Playing More Baseball, this is the USSSA Baseball slogan. USSSA
baseball is a program designed to allow your league to offer
programs that fit the level of play of each team in your
organization. USSSA offers single age division play and four
classes of play within most ages. Every division and class is
offered post-season play that extends to a State level
Championship at a minimum. Most age/class divisions are offered
post-season opportunities that extend to the National level.
All of these programs are as advertised, opportunities or
options that can be taken advantage of or not,
but no longer
will any team not have a place to play. The USSSA
process involves registering teams and then presenting those
teams with opportunities created by the league itself, and/or
opportunities provided by a host of other USSSA affiliated
leagues and tournament hosts. Once a team is registered, they
can play in as many sanctioned events as they choose to. The
team registration is good through the entire baseball year
(August 1st through July 31st). Opportunity for
kids is not where your affiliation with Cenla Baseball and USSSA
Baseball will stop. You're affiliation provides your league the
opportunity to be involved in programs that address the
secondary aspects of your league that are important, but
overlooked. It's More than a Game
is a awareness program dealing with Sportsmanship, Parental
Accountability and Umpire Education. Every league can benefit
from increased exposure to these three vital concepts. Without
any of the three, your league is second rate at best, but they
are often over-looked and taken for granted. Implementation of
this program, and dealing with these vital functions, will no
doubt help to make your organization a better and more enjoyable
place to play. League
Affiliation League
affiliation involves filling out the
League Information Form , registering your teams, and
posting your league results into the USSSA National computer. The League
Information Form gives USSSA the contact information necessary
when issues arise that regard you. It also contains information
that allows USSSA to plan and structure the upcoming season. Leagues
register teams by filling out the registration template (see
illustration) or by having teams register individually at
www.cenlabaseball.com
under the Team Manager Section. Every registered team receives
a log in ID and Password to log into the USSSA computer to their
specific team site. At the team site, manager's can enter their
rosters, view rankings, search for tournaments, post player
statistics and email messages to players about day-to-day team
business. Once a manager receives a log in ID and Password, he
retains that for life and can easily access his home page to
register a new team year after year. Each affiliated league designates an individual to serve as Area Director for the league. This individual will receive a special log in ID and Password to log into the USSSA computer and handle certain league functions, including setting up the league and/or tournaments and posting results of those league or tournament games into the computer. The Area Director will also be a point of contact for the State office when issues or questions arise concerning the league.
USSSA Baseball Registration Template USSSA Fees Below are the
fees associated with sanctioning a league or tournament with
USSSA: League Sanction
Fees
(4-99 Teams)
$75.00 Sanction Fee + $20.00 per
team in the league.
(100 Teams and up)
$75.00 Sanction Fee + $18.00 per
team in the league Optional
(Only if your league decides to host a USSSA sanctioned
qualifying tournament) State
Qualifying Tournament Fees $75.00 Sanction
Fee + $20.00 per team in the tournament. NIT Tournament
Fees
$750.00 Bid Fee $75.00 Sanction Fee + $20.00 per team in the tournament
Area Directors Site on the USSSA National Computer Affiliated
leagues are encouraged to host at least one tournament during
the season. It may be a pre-season tournament or post-season
tournament that is closed to the league, or may be a tournament
open for registration from teams around the state. Either way,
it a) qualifies additional teams for post-season play and b)
enables you as a league to re-coup your registration fees
several times over. One of the
objectives of the USSSA structure of play is to get more of your
teams playing more baseball (and more post-season baseball) and
make it financially rewarding for you as a league to do so. Dual
Sanctioning with USSSA If your league is currently sanctioned with another organization and is satisfied with that affiliation, Cenla Baseball encourages leagues to dual sanction with USSSA. You would continue to organize your league the same way as you have in the past. You would select your All-stars and send them to your present affiliation's post season events. No longer will your league just offer post season play to the top 12 players of an age group, you have now opened your program to give this opportunity to more players. By dual sanctioning you are now creating an opportunity for additional teams from your league to form and participate in post-season play with teams of equal caliber. "More Kids Playing More Baseball" League
Qualifying Taking league
play to a new level. Once your league teams are registered,
your league representative can set up the league season in the
USSSA computer. Game scores are entered for all games played
and teams can monitor the progress of the season online. All
teams receive a USSSA power rating which ranks them along with
all other teams in their age and class in the State and
country. Your top league teams qualify for post-season play and
are rewarded now for having a good season. USSSA
Rosters and Qualifying All USSSA
registered teams enter their rosters online in the USSSA
computer through their team home page. When a team actually
qualifies for post-season play (Louisiana State Tournament or a USSSA National Championship or
World Series), their team roster is frozen. Once a roster is
frozen, the players listed on that roster cannot be added to a
roster of any other registered team. When a roster is frozen,
from that point, teams can make up to three additions and/or
make up to three deletions to their roster, up to 72 hours
before whatever USSSA national event they are attending begins.
The USSSA computer tracks every move that is made to every
registered team and counts the number of moves a team makes
after their roster has been frozen. How are
League Teams Classified? Every team in a
single league may be registered as a Class A team. If leagues
opt to form All-Star teams at the end of the regular season,
those teams will then be registered as a new team and then
placed in the All-Star classification. Larger leagues
that choose to pre-select teams of a higher caliber, must
classify those teams as either Class A or AA before the start of
the season. Leagues designate the higher caliber players to the
AA teams through whatever evaluation process they choose.
All-Star teams from Class A, re-registered and go to All-Star
Classification and All-Star teams from Class AA re-register
and go to Class AAA. The Class A and
AA programs are primarily two levels of recreation baseball.
From time to time, teams may prove themselves in higher
classification tournaments and the league may need to move the
team to that higher classification. USSSA gives you
the flexibility to form your league with opportunities for teams
to participate in post season play that best suites your needs.
Classification of Players Players may
still be eligible to play with a league All-Star team and be on
a Major, AAA, AA team that participates in tournament play
during the season. Participation on tournament teams does not
disqualify players from still being eligible to play in league
play. Qualifying for the All Star State and World Series TournamentsUSSSA now offers two divisions of post season play for Drafted League All Star teams. National Division: Any team that participates as a league team in a drafted league that is registered with USSSA is eligible. This team must meet all of the criteria for being an all-star team with their league as well as with USSSA. To participate in this program the following conditions must be met.
American Division: Any team that is from an approved drafted league that is sanctioned with USSSA and does not meet any of the requirements listed above may still participate in the All Star Division, but they must participate in the American Division. Teams in this division are not limited in how many tournaments they participate in. They may also have players who have played on travel teams (AA, AAA or Major) throughout the year. The following conditions must still be met.
The USSSA
Power Rating The USSSA Power
Rating system is much like the College BCS system of ranking
teams. The Power Rating system, takes into account the strength
of the teams played and the scores of those games to rank every
registered team in their age and class. The development of this
system has been so positive, that it is likely that in a short
time, the Power Rating system will be responsible for
determining the classification of all USSSA registered teams. Cenla
Baseball Online Cenla Baseball provides you and your league participants with a State website that is kept up to date with all of the pertinent information for Louisiana teams participating in USSSA Baseball. The website at www.cenlabaseball.com will help you to answer the many questions that may come your way with a transition to a new format of play. Team Manager provides all the details and instructions for any team to register with USSSA. At Tournament Lookup, teams can search for any USSSA tournament in Louisiana or the nation. The Rankings section, allows managers, parents and players to stay abreast of where their team stand in relation the rest of the state and the country. The State Tournament section gives all teams the information they need for State tournament play. They can locate where, when and who to contact for their State tournament. All the information and links to every World Series site is in the World Series section.All affiliated leagues are strongly advised to make sure that all managers and team parents know that this website exists and what information can be found on it.
Cenla Baseball Home page Insurance
USSSA Baseball offers the most
comprehensive and complete insurance program for their teams.
With USSSA Baseball now being the second largest youth baseball
organization in the United States you can take advantage of the
tremendous buying power that this offers. In most cases, with
the league discounts, the reduction in insurance cost through
USSSA more than pays for the sanctioning cost of the league.
Team medical and liability available for all USSSA sports,
League or Association officers and directors automatically
covered for General Liability ($2,000,000 limit), flexible
coverage $0 deductible or $250.00 deductible depending on
budget.
Communication and Education of
the League
For years, youth baseball organizations have operated in one way. They have a regular season and then pick the all-star team, and the remainder of the league players have to wait until next year to play. It doesn't take long to realize that the USSSA structure of play provides greater opportunity for all players, but qualifying, rosters, classification, etc. are all questions that managers, parents and players will have as you switch your affiliation to USSSA. Communication and Education are critical for you to make as smooth a transition as possible to USSSA. Your greatest opportunity to educate changes is during your spring and fall registration. All leagues are encouraged to prepare a list of Frequently Asked Questions (or something similar) to give to parents and managers during the registration period at the beginning of the season. Use information enclosed herein, information posted at www.cenlabaseball.com or information based on personal experience to devise some kind of handout or information sheet that will be ready for distribution during registration in January and February. USSSA League Benefits (Summary)
Important
Dates Although Area
Directors can post tournaments directly to the USSSA computer,
NIT tournaments have associated paperwork that takes time to
fill out, get signatures and turn in to the National office to
post on the computer. Plan any tournaments that you may want to
host well in advance! The most important reason for this is to
allow teams several months to see the event and plan to play in
it. All affiliated
leagues MUST have their league teams registered by May 15th.
Also, if your league is considered a qualifying event, those
teams actually need to be registered and in the computer before
your league play begins in order to get the league set up and
game scores input during the season. If your league
is forming all-star teams, those teams need to be chosen,
registered and have rosters online by June 15th. In some cases
this may mean choosing the all-star team before the regular
season actually ends. However, it is imperative that those
teams be known and rosters set, so that other teams can adjust
their rosters accordingly before they play in any post-season
event. If your league
is interested in joining the fastest and most dynamic baseball
organization in America, then fill out the forms at the links
below and return to the state office immediately. Click here for League Affiliation Information Form
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