I think the CAHA Board and presidents basically came at this whole thing with a couple main concerns:
1) An above-board coach and organization would drop their non-performing teams to Bantam A. CAHA clearly does not trust its club presidents to do the right thing so everyone gets summoned to San Jose for an audition. I guess the presidents are worried players would leave once the LOI has been voided and therefore can't be trusted to objectively evaluate their own teams. Personally, I doubt players leaving would happen in any great numbers. Most A teams have enough players by now. There is nowhere for the disgruntled AA player to go. Teams should play at the level they belong. Period.
2) CAHA created a rule mandating a AAA organization must have 2 AA teams if they want to keep the AAA team.
CAHA Rule 8.1.b states, "Member Associations fielding Tier I teams shall maintain a minimum of two (2) teams at the Tier II level in the current and previous season."
If we use the Jr. Reign as an example we can shed some light on the matter. They sent 3 AA teams to San Jose. The club also has an 18AAA team. The result of the weekend for the Riverside-based organization is:
12AA: 1-3
14AA: 1-3 (The one win was against the very weak JK2 squad. The scores of the games they lost were 1-9, 0-7 and 0-3).
16AA: 1-1-2
I believe the Reign also have ab 18AA team but they weren't in San Jose. I don't know how good they are but this team alone will not be enough to maintain the club's AAA eligibility.
Based on performance at the evaluation jamboree, one could make the argumnent that all three participating teams should be dropped to A. That, however, would jeopardize the viability of the 18AAA team. CAHA appears to want the Jr. Reign to keep their AAA eligibility. For this reason we have a silly new AA tier scheme. Jr. Reign teams get to stay "AA" and no LOIs are voided. It's a brilliant plan.
The problem is that several other teams will be going down with the ship. I feel bad for the "bubble" teams that will be needed to complete a 2nd flight system to accomodate the Jr. Reign.
I really hope I am wrong. If CAHA comes out and tells the Jr. Reign to drop to A I will be the first to congratulate them.