It's easy to put down the tournament as having a crappy field by looking at last year. But clearly having a U13 game on ESPN has stimulated interest.
I count 21-22 teams got invites. There were a couple of big name teams blown out in the North in just a single game, at least one of which isn't coming. But no other teams invited got blown out in the other qualifiers (some lopsided scores, but a blow out to me is 15-0 or the like). There are probably 2-3 teams in the South and West (combined) that are a little weaker, but not bad teams. And you can't just say these other brackets are pure crap, because their champions have played Igloo close in the last 12 months.
Who are the AA powerhouses that aren't coming or "Elite" teams from Hoco that would come and win? Crabs has the name but not the on-age players.
I personally don't like the 5/1 cutoff and think WSYL could do the sport a real service by going with the 9/1 date, but who's going to tell the parents of summer-birthday Johnny that he is going to be young for his lacrosse team?
