The Girls Club Championship Committee (GCCC) has released the final ranking for the High School Club National Invitational Tournament (NIT). Note that the following ranking is different from a traditional final placement and became necessary after a last-minute schedule change:
HS CLUB NIT FINAL RANKING
1. United
2. North Bay
3. South Bay
4. Morris
5. Belmont Shore
5. PA United
5. West End
6. Danville
7. Brunswick
8. KC United
The original structure for the 10-team club competition began with the bottom-four teams (Brunswick, KC United, PA United, West End) contesting quarterfinal play-ins, with the two winners advancing to the quarterfinals. From there, the competition was supposed to move forward in traditional fashion for those eight teams.
But that did leave the two quarterfinal play-in losers (PA United and KC United) to play each other twice in consolation games. That scenario was made further unattractive when PA United defeated KC United 71-0 in the teams’ first consolation game.
So after Day 1 wrapped up, the GCCC changed the Day 2 match-ups – specifically, West End and PA United swapped games. While those changes salved the repeat of a second PA United vs. KC United game, they derailed the pathways to final placing matches – hence the need for final rankings.
The process lacked transparency and communication, and that stoked the fallout after the first set of rankings were circulated to high school club coaches on May 22. The GCCC reconvened, and fielded additional concerns regarding match-ups, and in the end the committee accepted culpability:
“After reviewing the results from last weekend and the snafu caused by the game swap, the committee has voted to use this ranking,” GCCC spokesperson Pam Laura wrote. “Thank you all for your patience and input as we worked through this. Lots of lessons learned for next year.”
Keep in mind that there are two separate committees for the NIT. The GCCC is charged with the high school club competition, and the National Girls Coaches Committee manages the single-school DI and DII NITs.
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