I guess there are people here who don't know the story. The Circuit came about because the owners of US Club Nationals, Legacy and MadLax, were tired of the national teams entering and winning their tournaments, specifically The Nationals. They decided to restrict entry and not just from The Nationals. The Nationals spear-headed the attempt to have an alternative and they came up with The Circuit. If you want to criticize The Circuit you better despise Club Nationals and like tournaments. They have zero age restrictions and zero class verifications. This includes the mighty HoCo where there will be a large number of 2007 birthdays playing in the 8th grade division.
Don't forget that the Nationals were barred from entering the Club Nationals tournament because they were caught fielding kids who played for other teams in the same tournament. It wasn't the first time they did it - or the last. Nationals did the same thing at the 2022 Future Champions tournament. They had several kids play for both their A and B teams, and even one kid who played for 3 teams in the tournament - his home club team and both the Nationals A and B teams. In their defense (but not really), their A and B team only had 13 or 14 kids each - but that was because the owner got greedy and tried to create two "equal" 2027 teams and ended up with too many kids for one team but not enough for two teams.
There have been and are some really good kids who have played for the Nationals, but nothing Nationals does is for "the good of the game", and I highly doubt they were initiating any kind of age limits for the Circuit. Most likely they just acquiesced in an effort to lure other clubs into the Circuit, and they were also likely the group advocating for the 3 exceptions rule.
