LHGCL byes and qualifying tournament

Well, as you know by now, there will be no more games due to the weather not cooperating this season. I feel bad for the 3 teams competing for the bye in the Lloyd Division. Is it fair for the 2 other teams not having the chance to get the bye? No, of course it is not, but it is what it is. It doesn’t matter anyway because these teams will easily get into D1. Same thing with SS. They are all SO good!!

https://www.girlsclassicleague.org/jgal

LH should've tried to have every team play each other at least once between Fall and Spring. That way, the score could have just been doubled in case the second game didn't get played. IMO, that'd be the fairest way to have broken the three way race for the bye.

No doubt some very good teams came super close. I think no matter how you slice this, there just wasn't enough time left to get all of the games in and finish the season. I do think it would have made sense for each team to play each team at least once though. Regardless, I have complete faith in the other bye contenders and know they will do great things at the qualifier.

Does anyone know if the format of the divisions is going to be changed up for next year? It seems like it the older groups were changed to D1 and D2 with 15 teams in each. Wonder what U11 will look like...

The one team who is probably disappointed the most is Solar South..2nd most points out of 30 teams and no bye....

SS and Angelone both have to be very disappointed. High number of points and to be second with those ridiculous goal differentials sucks for those two teams. SS was already in a tough situation with Voutier in their division, and Angelone With those draws killed them. That’s the way it goes though.

Does anyone know when the qualifying tournament brackets are announced? Is it the week of the tournament or long before that?

Shortly after the TUT tournament

Is TUT used to seed for QT in conjunction with FBR?

“Shortly after the TUT tournament”

Are they not the same weekend? July 18-21

Qualifying tournament is July 23rd-28th (1st round) August 3rd and 4th (2nd round for teams on the bubble)

Information concerning qualifying tournament will be listed on Lake Highlands web-site in 2-3 weeks

And of course they will have the JGAL to help seed. With 20 in 1st and 10 in 3rd, the top half of JGAL would seem to be reasonably safe assuming no big roster turnovers. Bottom half will have to scramble to make 1st but most should make 3rd but never know who is coming from other leagues.

According to JAGL, top performing teams in the league that didn’t earn a bye, will be given seeding priority into the qualifying tournament.

I would imagine that SS, Angelone, Bones, Grado, Spirit will all get top seeds. These teams consistently play top teams and don't hide and play teams ranked 10 to 30.

Mpereztx10 wrote:I would imagine that SS, Angelone,  Bones, Grado, Spirit will all get top seeds.  These teams consistently play top teams and don't hide and play teams ranked 10 to 30.

Logic would dictate there are only so many opportunities for teams in the top 10-15 to come out of "hiding" and play teams "above" them in the rankings...

Yes. But could "volunteer" for top division in a tournament. Certainly one value of the JGAL was to match those teams against the top 10.

smugrr wrote:Yes. But could "volunteer" for top division in a tournament. Certainly one value of the JGAL was to match those teams against the top 10.

I think JGAL did a bad job of creating a non-diluted, competitive league by letting any team and their sister in.  Just look at the standings in each division...There are 9 teams with 3 or fewer wins.  If I recall, the whole point of JGAL was to let in the top 30ish teams to fight it out and get ready for Classic League.

So if our team has a bye can we player pass to another of our clubs teams for qualifying since we wont have anything to do that weekend.

JGAL was a disaster... some of which wasn’t the league’s fault but it was a disaster none the less. The 30 team 3 division setup with a “bye” as a carrot was a money grab and hurt NTX teams when it comes to development and national rankings (for out of state tournament seeding). The lack of rules for player sharing created an incentive for complete team swapping across divisions... this could have easily been prevented. It is what it is and I’m glad we are all moving on. LHCL in the fall will finally give us what we all want which is a competitive league where all the top teams are forced to play each other and a more competitive game on the fields week in week out.

The concerning thing about the qualifying tournament is the team that plays may not be the team the league intended to slot in a bracket. For instance, which FCD team is going to finally represent the FCD “A team”? I’m assuming Lovegood will but based upon national ranking they could be seeded against a top seed when the national ranking doesn’t represent the quality of that team with the consolidated talent from multiple teams. I sure hope LHCL knows this and seeds accordingly. A simple question in the tournament application of whether your roster has significantly changed over the last year would be sufficient.

Another example that I think would be unfair is seeing a team like DT Salsa being slotted a 2 seed in the QT but DT Samba with their bye shows up to help them make D1. I personally don’t think Salsa needs the help but this is the sort of thing that can happen. You could make the same argument with Solar teams getting help from Colvin who has a bye. This type of thing can create a nightmare scenario for a great team that should be safely in. How does LHCL handle this sort of thing?

I assume we could play for another team put us on the roster then get a release afterwards and move back to our old team.

ProphAC wrote:Another example that I think would be unfair is seeing a team like DT Salsa being slotted a 2 seed in the QT but DT Samba with their bye shows up to help them make D1.  I personally don’t think Salsa needs the help but this is the sort of thing that can happen.  You could make the same argument with Solar teams getting help from Colvin who has a bye.  This type of thing can create a nightmare scenario for a great team that should be safely in.  How does LHCL handle this sort of thing?

This is from the league policies are rules

j. NO GUEST PLAYERS ARE ALLOWED. Any players that are deleted
between the Qualifying Tournament and the first game of the season will be
investigated to ensure that the player was not playing with the team as a guest
player simply to enhance the team’s possibilities of qualifying for the league.
Violations of this rule will result in the team being disqualified from
participation in the LHGCL for that soccer year. A report of such activities will
be submitted to the North Texas Soccer Youth Commissioner for further action.
k. Any team that participates in the Qualifying Tournament and qualifies for the
league, but decides not to participate in the league that season will not be
eligible to participate in the LHGCL for a minimum of one year from the end
of the season in which they decided not to participate

This is not the same as Club player pass

Don't you have to retain a certain % of your team in order to keep the bye though? I would think that should somewhat keep things in order if Colvin, Rush and Samba want to keep their byes.

melashbrew wrote:Don't you have to retain a certain % of your team in order to keep the bye though? I would think that should somewhat keep things in order if Colvin, Rush and Samba want to keep their byes

I don't know if the following would apply but here is official wording form LH


2. General Definitions for League Playing Format and Qualifying Tournament
a. Teams are invited back into LHGCL for the next soccer year (“Bye”) according
to the playing format below. The spirit of a bye is to reward returning
teams/players for their performance the prior year. A “team” is generally
determined by the team name and club affiliation. There is no minimum number
of players from the previous soccer year that must be retained by a team to keep
a Bye for the club for the next soccer year. However, there are two situations
where a bye would not be extended to a club based on the team standings from
the prior year.
(1) If 75 percent of the players on a team (based on the roster as of April 1 of
the previous soccer year, rounding fractions up to the next whole number*)
leave a team/club to join another team/club, the league Bye will be awarded
to that group of players with their new team/club, except as outlined in
(2.a.2) below. If this takes place, the Age Division Commissioner must be
informed at the time the roster is submitted.
*Examples:
75% of 14 players = 10.5 = 11 players
75% of 15 players = 11.25 = 12 players
75% of 16 players = 12 players
75% of 17 players = 12.75 = 13 players
75% of 18 players = 13.5 = 14 players
20180807 6 Rev 1.5
(2) If 50 percent of the players on a team (based on the roster as of April 1 of
the previous soccer year, rounding fractions up to the next whole number*)
are not retained by the team applying for a bye, the league bye will remain
with the club however the Division placement in the league will be
determined by the LHGCL Executive Board or designated board
committee. Appeals to the division placement will be heard and ruled upon
by LHGCL Executive Board or designated board committee.
*Examples:
50% of 14 players = 7 players
50% of 15 players = 7.5 = 8 players
50% of 16 players = 8 players
50% of 17 players = 8.5 = 9 players
50% of 18 players = 9 = 9 players

Thank you, soccerisdumb!