Fiend at Court Unplugged
USTA League teams that advance to the National Championships are subject to a provision known as “Move-Up/Split-Up.” In fact that is the exact title of section 2.06 in the USTA League Regulations. Teams that qualify for Nationals are prohibited from competing together at the same level the following year. Last weekend, someone pointed out an insane loophole where the spirit and intent of those rules can be violated. In fact, there is at least one team in my local area who has apparently made the same discovery.
First, let’s take a look at the Move-Up part of the rule.
Move-Up – Teams and team members that advanced to, or qualified for, any National Championship may play together as a team, in whole or in part, if they move up one NTRP team level.
2.06A(1), USTA League Regulations 2022.
That relatively straight forward provision is to prevent “dynasty” teams from going to NTRP Nationals in consecutive years. Of course, the devil is always in the details. A team that goes to Nationals is likely to have one or more player “bumped up” at the end of the year which would already preclude them from competing for the same team in some (but not all) USTA league types.
However, not every player on a team that advances to Nationals will be bumped up. In fact, it is pretty common that there is no change in NTRP ratings of players on National qualifying teams. That is where the Split-Up part of the regulations comes into play.
Split-Up – No more than three (3) players who were on the roster of any team that advanced to, or qualified for, any National Championship team the previous year may play together in the same Division, same Age Group and at the same NTRP team level as the National Championship team(s), if their NTRP rating allows.
2.06A(2) (excerpt), USTA League Regulations 2022.
The Split-Up provision has the effect of scattering players from National qualifying teams who did not get bumped up across other teams in the division. That is healthy for the tennis ecosystem. Bitter rivals one season can become close teammates the following year. At the same time, it makes it difficult to sustain USTA League teams out of private clubs.
The insane loophole is there. I would suggest that you pause reading for a moment to review those two rules and see if you can spot it.
Do You See It?
While teams have to Move-Up or Split-Up into groups of no more than three players, there is absolutely nothing in the rules that prohibits more than three players from a team from playing together via a Move-Down. That would normally only be possible in combination format leagues where the players NTRP levels are added together. Specifically, this exists for Combo, Mixed, and 55+ divisions.
For example a 55+ team that advanced to Nationals at 8.0 can have players who were 3.5, 4.0, and 4.5 on the roster. As long as the NTRP combined rating of each doubles team totals 8.0 or lower, it’s a valid team. Those same 3.5 and 4.0 players could play together on a 7.0 season the following year. All they have to do is recruit enough 3.0 players to round out the roster. In other words, it is possible to skirt the Move-Up/Split-Up rule with a Move-Down.
It breaks the spirit and intent of the rules, but apparently is perfectly legal. There is one team in my local area that is proof positive that the USTA is allowing this to occur.
- USTA League Regulations, 2022, downloaded February 5, 2022.
But under no circumstances should a team that went to Nationals return more than 3 players to the same team in the same league the next season, correct?
The way the rule seems to be interpreted by the USTA adds the clause “at the same level.” I don’t make the rules, I just write about them.
In the first paragraph, last sentence, “loophole in where the spirit” either drop the “in” or change “where” to “which”.
Thanks! I made the correction.
Those people are everywhere! Rather than pitting their tennis skills against opponents, they are pitting their wits against the system. They will probably recruit 3.0s whose skill level should have had them moved up to 3.5, but who deliberately played poorly to stay as 3.0s.