By AARON SMITH
USBC communications
ARLINGTON, Texas – The United States Bowling Congress Women’s Championships will feature a new average structure and go from six to four divisions in doubles, singles and all-events starting at the 2024 event in Cincinnati.
The change, which will make the number of divisions consistent with team competition at the event, comes based on a recommendation from the USBC Championship Tournaments task force. The group recently convened to reexamine the format, rules and policies for the USBC Open Championships and Women’s Championships.
The new division structure for the 2024 Women’s Championships will be similar to the Open Championships. All averages are based on a Championships Average (tournament average based on most recent 27 games at the event):
- Diamond – 701 and above (team), 351 and above (doubles), 176 and above (singles/all-events)
- Ruby – 621-700 (team), 311-350 (doubles), 156-175 (singles/all-events)
- Emerald – 541-620 (team), 271-310 (doubles), 136-155 (singles/all-events)
- Sapphire – 540 and below (team), 270 and below (doubles), 135 and below (singles/all-events)
The task force did not recommend any adjustments to the Open Championships.
The task force uses surveys from bowlers and historical data from the events to make recommendations to the USBC Board of Directors. The task force, which is comprised of tournament participants, volunteer leaders and USBC staff, was first assembled in 2015. During the 2015 meeting, the group recommended adding the Standard Division to the Open Championships and adjusted rules for team composition.
Topics evaluated by the task force in 2022 included:
- Division structure
- Restrictions for professional bowlers
- Restrictions for team composition
- Difficulty and publication of lane patterns
- Livestreaming of competition
The task force previously recommended adjustments to improve the integrity and fairness of the Championship Tournaments, including not publishing the lane patterns until after the event has concluded or providing information about lane-play strategies (livestreaming team or doubles/singles on BowlTV).
Survey data from participants at the 2022 Open Championships reinforced the recommendation to keep current policies in place.
- The data showed that 60.5% of all participants across all divisions said lane conditions at the 2022 Open Championships were appropriate (Classified – 66%, Standard – 64%, Regular – 54%).
- The data showed that 55% of all participants across all divisions said the lane pattern should not be revealed until after the conclusion of the tournament (Classified – 69%, Standard – 58%, Regular – 43%). More respondents agreed the lane pattern should not be revealed when comparing to those who disagreed across all divisions.
Surveys were sent to all participants with email addresses on file from the 2022 Open and Women’s Championships. USBC received the surveys after the conclusion of each event.
To view the survey report from the Open Championships, click here. The survey report from the Women’s Championships is available here.
Registration is open for both the 2023 Open and Women’s Championships. The 2023 Open Championships will be held from March 4 – July 24 at the National Bowling Stadium in Reno, Nevada. The 2023 Women’s Championships will be contested from April 23 – July 2 at the South Point Bowling Plaza in Las Vegas.