Photo: Adam Troy
The schedules are out for the 2023 US National Championships!
Since this is the first tournament held under the Competition Committee's work, let me walk everyone through the seeding and schedule process.
First, the number of teams determines the schedule types available. There were a total of ten teams registered (one special condition which will be described below). That gave us a choice between using a three group scheduled or a two group schedule. The preference of the committee was to always have the smallest number of teams in a single group, so the three group schedule was chosen. The seeding was then determined by the latest rankings from USA Floorball, based on the previously announced tournament results. This gives us the current rankings as follows:
| 1 | NTFA |
| 2 | Chicago |
| 3 | Menlo Park FC |
| 4 | Utah |
| 5 | USA Men's U19 |
| 6 | SoCal |
| 7 | Colorado |
| 8 | Chicago Mad Dogs |
| 9 | Fresno |
| 10 | San Francisco |
| 11 | Austin |
| 12 | Triangle |
| 13 | Fresno 2 |
| 14 | St. Paul |
| 15 | Tomah |
| 16 | USA Women |
| 17 | Birmingham |
| 18 | Utah 2 |
| 19 | NTFA 2 |
| 20 | Nashville |
As this is the start of a cycle, Men's U19 is reduced to the lowest seed since they are starting over (and all their 17-18 year olds are aged out). With the other 9 teams, that means the seedings are as follows
Group A - NTFA, Chicago Dogs, Menlo Park FC, Colorado
Group B - Chicago Mad Dogs, Austin Floorball Club, US Women's National Team
Group C - N2FA, Southwestern Knights, Men's U19
The Southwestern Knights (representing Southwestern Adventist University in Keene, TX) requested a special consideration to play only on Sunday for religious reasons or they would be unable to play. I consulted with other committee members and it was decided to adjust three games in the schedule which would allow the Knights to play their three games on Sunday. The penalty for that was that they would have to play a back-to-back game while the other clubs would essentially remain neutral in their schedule. We wanted to have the tenth team rather than run with nine teams.
With the adjustment to the schedule, the first fifteen matches of the weekend are group stage games. The matchups from the competition committee schedules were not changed, only the times of four games. The tournament will begin at 12:00PM on Saturday, September 2. We will play 9 games on Saturday and will be done by 6:45pm. Immediately following the last game, a meeting will be held to discuss more of the competition committee's changes to the club system in the US. We encourage everyone to stick around!
Sunday morning at 9:00 the group stages continue with 6 more games, ending at 12:30. After that, the teams will be seeded into the bracket as shown here:
The first two matches are the "Round of 16 games", with the B3/C3 game (marked R16-6) and the C1/C2 game (marked R16-2). All losers will go into the consolation bracket, shown here:
The 9th place Playoff features the two teams losing in the Round of 16. Those teams are done on Sunday afternoon. The four quarterfinal matches (QF1-4) will play after the R16 matches, then the 9th place game, and finally the consolation playoff (PO1-2). The winners of the consolation playoff play for 5th place, and the losers play for 7th.
Monday morning, September 4, will feature the two semifinals to begin at 9:15AM. Following the two semis, the final four matches will be the placement matches. Starting with the 7th place, then the 5th, then the Bronze medal, and finally the Championship match will be at 1:00PM. We will be off the floor by 2:00PM, unless there are overtimes on Monday. We would ask that as many people as possible stay to pick up the floor, and learn how to put it away neatly and safely.
We're looking forward to a great National Championship! Safe travels, and we'll see you in Dallas in just a week and a half!
