5 Reasons Competition is Dying in Contact
Why contact flag football's future is in jeopardy.....

There are several reasons why teams do not make it out of adolescence stage and why contact flag football is not producing enough new competition to sustain certain styles long-term.  Here are a few.....  

1.  Uncontrolled rosters – Players can jump from team to team, coaches can recruit (steal) other teams best players and players can join teams just to play in tournaments because their team is not going without any consequences; further reducing total team participation.  The top teams get bigger and stronger, while weaker teams are left to decide between REC flag or softball – and softball usually wins out.  When was the last time you saw a 30+ softball roster?  Smaller rosters = more teams. 

2.  Tournament formats – This actually is a main cause of rosters swelling.  If you play in a double elimination tournament of 20+ teams and lose your first game you will have to play 9+ games to win in a period of 2 days.  By the time you reach the 5th or 6th game (with time between games shrinking), both teams no longer care if they lose; matter of fact the team that loses actually wins!  If the tournament is 3 days you can only play one game on Friday because no one wants to spend money with the possibility of a 2 and out by Friday afternoon and you arrived Friday morning.  2 days with 8+ games is not happening with an average size roster – remember everyone does not workout to play flag, as with softball pot-bellies and high cholesterol are still in full force! 

3.  National organizations not enforcing roster limits – Roster limits maybe 25 or 30 for an 8-Man team.  30 players sign the paper but 35 players suit up; who’s counting?  Teams know that to win a major tournament with 20+ teams, they have to have rotation so they stock up, merge and recruit players from other teams, which is why you see the same teams in the top division tourney after tourney. 

4.  Lack of roster control kills commitment – By taking top players and switching teams at will, there is no longer a commitment.  If you want to win now, why practicing and struggle with your team when you can just join another one?  And once a talented player tastes success in the maturity stage, asking him to return to adolescence is a “no go”.  Top players quickly become addicted to success, not struggles. 

5.  Teams sandbagging – Without proper roster control, teams can change their name and drop down to lesser competition by change the team name or simply returning year after year without being forced to the next level.  Sandbagging teams keep many true lower division teams from competing in tournaments.  Why spend money when you know you will not get equal or greater value in return?  This kills teams from making it out of the infancy stage.  The only way to prevent teams from sandbagging is to control the rosters.  Now changing team names mean nothing.