The Billiard Congress of America (BCA) today announced it will manage the men’s professional rankings system and player communications duties in its role as the North American representative to the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA). Most recently these duties were handled by the U.S. Professional Poolplayers Association.
“The tremendous international expansion of men's events in recent years has made it clear that the BCA needs to take steps to solidify the men’s professional ranking system,” said BCA Board President Ivan Lee. “We have grown from a single World 9-Ball Championship to WPA World Championships in 8-Ball, 9-Ball, 10-Ball and 14.1, and it is imperative that we maintain a ranking system that consistently allows us to send the best players North America has to offer to compete and represent our continent in these events.”
This decision was made after the BCA learned that an American pro event was conducted in direct conflict with the World 8-Ball Championship. The conflict resulted in players being required to choose between competing in the World 8-Ball event and losing ranking points or competing in the American event and sacrificing their opportunity at a world title.
“The BCA believes that the task of communicating with and assigning professional players to compete in international events is now so critical that they must have direct control of the process in order to take responsibility for it,” further stated Lee.
A follow-up announcement detailing the new ranking system will be released in the near future.
