A Peak Inside at How Team Ratings Work

May 1, 2014 – Terry Hennessy CEO

One of the most controversial topics in senior softball is team ratings. Our only goal at Senior Softball-USA is to ensure fair competition; there is no other agenda.

Here is the process:

Two times a year – in June and at the end of the year – George Moreno, SSUSA national director / ratings and tournament, reviews the results of all SSUSA tournaments. He looks at teams winning and coming in second at the World Masters, teams that are beating or losing to teams by five or more runs (on average), number of home runs, director and umpire recommendations, and he reviews team rating appeals.

George and I review his initial findings and send a list of recommendations to our ratings advisers around the country. The advisers make recommendations and send them back to us. George and I review the recommendations and compile the final list of teams to be moved up or down (or not moved at all). The managers are notified and the list is published.

We review almost 1,000 teams and generally move between 160 and 200. We do this complete review twice a year. However, if it becomes apparent that a team is too strong or too weak, we reserve the right to move that team at any time.

In addition, while we do look for patterns and like to see a team play in three tournaments, there are times when this is not possible and we have to make decisions based on fewer than three tournaments.

The bottom line is that teams think they are not competitive unless they have a good chance to win and place in the top of their divisions.

This is not our definition.

Our definition is that on a good day, when a team gets breaks, they have the opportunity to win.

Our primary goal is to protect the lower segments of each division. If we allow teams to continue to play down, it drives out the teams on the lower end of the division. We saw the result of this process (in which directors were more interested in attracting teams than putting them in the proper classification) in younger age softball.

There are almost no more A or B teams....all of those teams are playing down – and have driven out literally thousands of legitimate C, D and E teams in younger age groups. This has fostered, over the past 20 years, the culture in softball that teams always want to play down at the lowest possible level to virtually assure themselves a chance to win.

We will not allow this to happen in senior ball.

This “play-down” attitude is exactly what decimated younger age group softball and it is really not even sporting. Every team wants to win, but what is the point if you aren’t playing at the highest possible level for your team?

Terry Hennessy is chief executive officer of Senior Softball-USA and can be reached at terryh@seniorsoftball.com.