Friday March 29th, 2024
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2016 Convention – Conference USSSA meeting notes!

1) Get rid of flip flop altogther?
   There is support to get rid of the flip flop in Conference.  Whenever a conference team plays another conference team there will be no flip flop rule.

2) Have at least one conference umpiring crew at each conference event?
   Budget and travel distances and at times having more than 1 event on the same weekend make this difficult but it will be looked into.

3) West coast teams should get later start times at the HOF Classic?
   This is being considered and where possible will probably be implemented to help the west coast teams.

4) Labor Day Weekend tournament should be the last regular season Conference event?
   There was no support for this idea at all.

5) How to enforce the player contact rule in conference?
   There was mostly silence as there really is no way to stop a phone call or text message or police it.

6) Penalty for dropping out of a tournament?
   TBD until they see who joins the conference.

7) Give 20 more points to the team forcing the "if" game?
    There was some support but probably won't happen.

8) Get rid of speed up rules because the batter is never ready to go?
    Apparently there has been some conversation around the fact that the speed up rules speeds up the pitcher and the infielders and the defense is ready to go but the batter is not.  So this is being discussed.
    
9) Can Conference players play open tournaments?
   Yes if it is before the Conference season starts.
   Yes if it is a paper roster tournament.
   No if it is an Open NIT where points are given out to teams.
   
10) Should the home team of every Major World Series game still be the higher seeded team?
    Yes because of TV.
    
11) All Conference teams bats that fail will be cut open.  Doctored bats will be a suspension of multiple years.  Players will get a new bat for every bat cut open and found to be legal.  Non Conference bat cutting procedures are yet to be determined but may be random.  All of this is pending legal review.  Also teams and players will sign a waiver allowing their bats to be cut open.  All the details will be forthcoming.

12) Conference entry fee raised to $5,500.  The $500 it went up by is to help with umpire travel costs.  Also all teams will have to have team insurance which is an addition $300.

13) C teams will be allowed in Conference but will have to basically fill out an application stating what their reasoning for joining is, their prospective schedule, and that they will comply with statistics submission and play a full schedule.

14) The online scoring system iscore will be used by all conference teams for instant statistics updates online and live scoring.

15) The new point system is a guideline and a maximum.  Basically regardless of points 'AA' in 2016 is equal to 'A' from 2015.  And 'A' in 2016 is equal to what 'B' was in 2015.

 

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