The USBF Board has approved a proposal to revise the seeding for the 2027 Open USBC as follows:

Teams will be seeded based on the sum of:

1. ACBL seeding points after the Spring NABC. ACBL seeding points before the Spring NABC will be published in February and there will be an online tool where any player entered in the Open USBC can verify their ACBL seeding points. ACBL Seeding points will be capped at 70. This is the same as the current rule, except for the availability of ACBL seeding points for players to view in advance.

2. Individual Performance Points (IPPs): Open USBC results & previous 2 years' results in NABC team events and Open USBCs. This represents three main changes from the current rules: adding seeding points from the previous five Open USBCs, reducing the weight given to performance points from the prior year, and adding IPPs for results from the year before the last.

a) Seeding points for performance in the previous 5 Open USBCs will be awarded on the same schedule as seeding points for the Spingold, Soloway, and Vanderbilt (10 for first, 7 for second, 4.6 for 3/4th, and 2.7 for 5/8th), decayed at 10% per year. Plus

b) Additional points for performance in the previous 2 years of main events (Open USBC, Spingold, Soloway, Reisinger, and Vanderbilt) of 1x the normal seeding points for the previous year’s events, and .5x the normal seeding points for the year before that. For 2027 there will be no cap on IPPs or on total USBC seeding points

A small committee which recommended these changes to the Board will be considering whether there should be additional changes for the Mixed, Seniors, and Women as well as how many additional seeding points should be awarded for Round Robin finishes and how to set the Quarterfinal bracket for the Open, Mixed, and Seniors.

We wanted to announce the general approach that is going to be taken in 2027 before the Spingold so it would be clear that Spingold results had not influenced the committee or Board decisions. We welcome any comments you may have on seeding and setting the Quarterfinal bracket.

The USBF Board has approved the following dates and schedule for the 2027 USBCs:

April 9-17: Open USBC to select USA2 for the 2027 Bermuda Bowl. 3-day Round Robin followed by 2 day QF, SF, and Final KO matches.

April 19-27: Mixed USBC to select USA2 for the 2027 Wuhan Cup. 3-day Round Robin followed by 2 day QF, SF, and Final KO matches.

April 28-May 7: Senior USBC to select 2 teams for the 2027 D'Orsi Senior Bowl. First stage will be a 2 day Round Robin. Qualifiers will continue in USA1, teams that did not qualify will continue in USA2. Exact format will be determined by the number of teams entered.

April 30-May 7: Women's USBC if more than 4 teams enter. 2 day Round Robin to qualify 4 teams for USA1 SF and Final matches. SF losers will play in USA2 SF, Final loser and USA2 SF winner will play USA2 Final. All KO matches will be 2 days.

May 2-7: Women's USBC if 3 or 4 teams enter. 3 2-day matches as after the Round Robin if >4 teams have entered.

Entry dates

Entry closing dates will be one month before the starting date for each USBC; If fewer than 16 teams have entered an event, entries will remain open for 2 weeks or until 16 teams have entered:

Open: March 9
Mixed: March 19
Seniors: March 28
Women's: March 30

Online Qualification

If more than 16 teams have entered the Open or Mixed USBC by the closing dates, there will be online qualifying stages on March 27 & 28 (Open) and April 3 & 4 (Mixed). The 4-10 lowest ranted teams will participate in the qualifying stage, depending on the number of teams entered: 4 of 17 or 18, 8 of 19-20, 10 of 21 or more.