There can be only one National Champ, Right?

Winning a national championship means that you’re part of the best team in the country, right? It’s a once-a-year thing with an entire season of recruiting, and try-outs, and cuts, and eliminations, and earning your way by winning tournament after tournament as assigned by a national governing body. That’s how you win a national championship, right?

                Well, according to dozens upon dozens of organizations that host national championships in every sport imaginable, that’s not how it works anymore. I mean, in some cases, that’s still how it works. But that’s hard.

It’s easier just to sign up for nationals. No invitation necessary. Just pay the fee and you’re competing for a national championship. Sounds a little fishy, doesn’t it? Tell that to the thousands of teams across the sporting landscape that are participating in this garbage.

I saw one baseball organization offering national championships 6 different times this summer in 8 different age groups at 6 different locations. And for each event, they’re crowning a different “national champion” in each age group.

And it gets worse. Now in many sports including baseball, soccer, lacrosse, basketball and cheerleading, you can win a national championship among teams that chose not to compete against the best teams. Some sports break it down into gold, silver and bronze divisions. Some use the letter system. Others have a maximum level of experience per participant in each division.

So, to clarify, you can be a brand new team full of brand new players and chose to play against only other teams made of brand new players, and you can be crowned national champions.

I don’t blame the tournament organizers. This is capitalism at its finest. They’ve found enough youth organizations that want that type of tournament and are willing to pay for it. These tournaments are fantastic money-making opportunities for the organizers, and all they have to do is lie to organizations and call their tournament or event “The National Championship” to get their business.

It’s not to say that these tournaments are not quality or that they’re not fun. In many cases, these tournaments are very well run and have a great environment. These host organizations often pair with apparel companies, restaurants and amusement parks to provide the best experience for each team. Sounds like most of these kids are having the time of their lives. The "experience" part of all of this is awesome.

But isn’t that the point of a vacation?

What’s next? Applying to be your school’s valedictorian? Signing up to be your company’s CEO? Registering to be your state’s next Governor? Volunteering to win an Oscar?

These things are major accomplishments. They take a tremendous amount of work, time, sacrifice and commitment. Most people who set out to achieve these things fail. They end up succeeding on a lower level, but they don’t win the top prize.

Why? They’re not good enough. They tried really had and failed to be the best. But, for their efforts, they’re still pretty good. And, more importantly, their effort and commitment is valued.

A national championship in any sport is no different. If you didn’t have to work tremendously hard to get there, sacrifice a ton of time doing what doesn’t come natural to you, you’re not a national champ. If you didn’t beat the 2^nd-best team in the country, you’re not a national champ. If multiple “national championships” in your age group are held by the same organization each year and you don’t get to play the other winners, you’re not a national champ.

I hope you had fun at your pay-to-play tournament at a really pretty facility far away. Enjoy your huge plastic trophy. But please don’t call it a national championship. The real national champ may take offense to that.