How the Billiard Congress of America Ranking System Works

The Billiard Congress of America  (BCA) Ranking System is designed to rank American players according to their performance in American tournaments. Open single-discipline tournaments with total prize funds in excess of $40,000 and select invitational events whose fields include a substantial number of American players are considered for inclusion in the list of ranking events. No event shall be included whose dates conflict with major American or International events such as the WPA World Championships or ranking events that are already included on the BCA rankings calendar.

The BCA recognizes that not all events are equal. Events with larger fields, larger purses, and a larger number of top players deserve to carry more ranking points and they shall. In like vein, events that are smaller in scope will have ranking point deductions applied. The BCA standard event is a tournament with a field of 64-128 players whose prize fund is between $50-100,000 and whose field includes 13-15 of the top 20 players in current ranking points. The BCA reserves the right to change the definition of a standard tournament as circumstances require.

Fields less than 64 players will be penalized 10% of their points. Fields less than 48 players will be penalized 15% of their points. Fields of greater than 128 players will be given a point bonus of 10%.

Purses less than $50,000 will be penalized 10% of their points. Purses greater than $100,000 will be given a bonus of 10% of their points and purses greater than $200,000 will garner an extra 15% in points.

Fields that do not draw more than 12 of the top 20 players will be penalized 10% of their points and fields that draw more than 16 of the top 20 will earn a point bonus of 10%.

In order to maintain current player rankings as much as possible the BCA is beginning the rank standings by using five events that carried American ranking points that have occurred in the la st twelve months. These vents are: the 2007 EnjoyPool.com Championship, the 2007 World Summit of Pool, the 2007 US Open, the 2008 UPA Pro Players Championship and the 2008 Desert Shoot-Out. Please note that events such as the Desert Shoot-Out will not be included in future rankings as it conflicted with the WPA World 8-Ball event in the UAE.

Events in 2008 that will earn ranking points include: The Predator 10-Ball Championship, the GenerationPool.com Championship, the Turning Stone events, the US Open, and the Reno Open. Other events may be targeted for inclusion in this list as they qualify such as the Seminole Finale whose purse last year would have qualified them for inclusion on the list.

The basic points system that we will use is the same one used by the Camel Tour back in the 90’s.

Here is the breakdown for double-elimination events:

1st=140 points
2nd = 120 points
3rd = 100 points
4th = 80 points
5-6th = 70 points
7-8th = 60 points
9-12th = 50 points
13-16th = 40 points
17-24th = 35 points
25-32nd = 30 points
33-48th = 25 points
49-64 = 20 points
65+ = 0 points

For single-elimination events the points are awarded as follows:

1st = 140 points
2nd = 120 points
3-4th = 100 points
5-8th = 70 points
9-16th = 50 points
17-32nd = 35 points
33-64th = 20 points
65+ = 0 points

View the current BCA Rankings