[IRISHMAFIA]

And everything you mentioned has absolutely NOTHING to do with whom is the President of ASA.

There were numerous proposals to change the format, including an East/West or a Four-corner National Tournament format which was basically killed via a rejection by Legislative Committee chaired by Mr. Steve Monson.

A request for the suspension of the rules from the floor was made to introduce a piece of legislation which seemed to present a compromise. Unfortunately, Mr. Monson was chairing this portion of the general council meeting and before offering the motion to the general council insisted the purpose be raised. When told the purpose, the general council voted 53% to 47% to allow the suspension of the rules to discuss the matter. The only problem is that it requires 75% for approval. This was believed to be a direct result of a CA/TX voting block.

If you really want to know what I think the problem with JO ball is the priorities of the people running the teams. There is no longer that all-important national championship to be earned, but the number of games to be played and opportunities for them to be seen. And this was reflected by the proposed changes.

There were proposals to requires all players to require their PSAT/SAT scores or the team could not participate. So, personal choice and failure to provide such scores by any one player would ban participation by an entire team. There were numerous proposals to eliminate college players from JO ball.

There were also proposals to eliminate the automatic returning berths which would mean more teams would have to earn their way to Nationals.

Merely my opinion, but many of the problems aren't so much with ASA, but with the priorities of the people running the player's and team's associations. The past week, I've seen and heard many things that suggest to me that the ASA recognizes some of these things and are making alternative offers to make the system better, but since that doesn't necessarily aid the cause of those in regional power, they will never get by regardless of what is better for the game overall. BTW, a change must achieve two-thirds approval of the general council, a simple majority means nothing.

One thing I did notice is that the ASA folks do not want to get to the level of other associations and just start handing out berths on a whim and a favor. That is what will make ASA tournaments the most competitive and to be honest, that isn't the priority of all those involved.

Of course, this is just one persons opinion which should be taken with a grain of salt.