Breaking News: A change to the USTA League Nationals move-up/split-up rule

I just learned that a communication was sent out to some captains about a change to the move-up/split-up rule for 2018.

As background, the USTA has a move-up/split-up rule in place that requires that teams that go to Nationals split-up the following year, e.g. they can't come back as the same team the next year, or tjeu have the option to move-up to the next higher level if they do want to stay together.  Specifically, no more than three players from a Nationals team can be on the same roster at the same level.

This is done, presumably, to keep the same teams from coming back to Nationals each year.  Of course, many Nationals teams end up having some players bumped up, so that naturally changes the make-up of a team, but if a team of 16 has even eight players bumped up, only three of the remaining eight can play together on the same team.

A few years ago, when the 40+ age group was introduced a side-effect of this rule was that players that went to Nationals in say 40+ could not be on a team the following year in 18+ that had more than three Nationals players even though it was a completely different team.

I wrote about some changes made in 2015 to address several issues, but it only went so far.  Specifically, this language was still in place in the 2017 regulations:

No more than 3 players (2 for Adult 2.5 and 5.0+) who were on the roster of any team or combination of teams, that advanced to, or qualified for, any National Championship the previous year may play together in any age group within the same Division and NTRP level or lower NTRP level as the National Championship team, if their NTRP rating allows.

This meant that the scenario I wrote above would still restrict players in the other age group.

What I just learned is that for 2018 this is changing.  Specifically, some players have been told that if they go to Nationals with an 18+ team, the split-up rule will only apply to the roster of any 18+ teams the following year, but a 40+ team could have more than three Nationals players on it.  And this could go the other way with a 40+ Nationals team not imposing a restriction on the rosters of an 18+ team.

I have not seen this in any draft document for 2018, and until that happens it isn't official, but the communication to the players came from the USTA so I believe it to be accurate.

Stay tuned, as I learn more, I'll update this or write again.