ACBL at all levels, from management, to the Board of Directors, to the Advisory Council, and various committees have discussed and debated for quite some time now. What should the new requirements be for GNT and NAP stratifications, now that both events have four flights?
The latest decision revises the original motions from the Bridge Committee. Flight C limits will rise from 500 to 750, but still not allow players who achieved Life Master before the season cutoff (usually June 1st for NAP and Sept 1st for GNT).
Here are the latest changes to the National GNT Conditions of Contest.
NAP Changes Come NEXT Year
As a reminder, NAP does NOT change this year, because the motions passed during Summer 2024 NABC, after the current NAP season already began. So for this coming Fall, we still use the old NAP rules with three flights: Open, Flight B (0-2500), and Flight C (NLM 0-500).
Starting next summer with club qualifiers, there will be four flights: Open, Flight A (0-6000), Flight B (0-3000), and Flight C (NLM 0-750).
For this Fall, we have the regularly scheduled 3 flights, with Flights Open and C held at Honors on October 27th, and Flight B held at BRIDGEXpress on November 3rd.
GNT Changes Immediate
The GNT changes take place immediately, meaning in time for this season. Thankfully, District 24 eliminated the team club qualifiers for GNT many years ago (2020 to be exact), during the final year Amy Rhodes was GNT Coordinator. While some Districts find Flight C qualifiers useful for marketing, in D24, the clubs always have a tricky problem making room in their schedule, in particular for a purely Flight C group. Team games are already hard to organize, and once you add the additional restriction that every player must be 0-750 and a NLM, the interest level plummets.
Therefore, the first time the changes impact us will be February 2025, when the GNT District Finals begin (you just register your team straight into the District Finals). There will be quite a few other scheduling changes based on feedback from last year, so that hopefully the crazy KO phase is less of a chore. Stay tuned!