With the massive range of our tournament trail it's pretty dang hard to get teams to travel 2, 3, 4, 5 hours one way, to cross multiple state lines, and/or to travel to a waterbody where a team feels like they have an unfair disadvantage against the dreaded "locals". Trying to cater our tournaments to several groups of anglers is an extremely challenging feat.

To help bring a more localized feeling to the tournament schedule, I am breaking up the schedule in to 3 different divisions (states); Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota. Each state will have its own A.O.Y. standings and T.O.C. qualifications... but the most exciting thing being, each state will also name it's very own STATE CHAMPIONS!

Each state will have its own "state qualifying tournaments". These tournaments are spread across each state to hopefully appeal to eastern and western anglers. Below, are how the (already scheduled) 14 regional tournaments will be broken up into each state's "state qualifying tournaments";

5 KS tournaments 
-3 western KS (Cedar & Norton)
-2 eastern KS (Milford)

5 NE tournaments 
- 3 western NE (Big Mac & Willow)
-2 eastern NE (Sherman)

4 SD tournaments
-2 central SD (Sharpe)
-2 eastern SD (Mo River above L&C)


With the addition of state rankings, there is still an incentive for the teams that follow the trail throughout the season regardless of where we go. For these tried and true to the cause teams, we will still be tracking regional performance. Via regional A.O.Y. standings, creating additional T.O.C. qualification opportunities for these teams, and thus, creating S.W.B. Regional Champions. These anglers will be, hands down, the most well rounded anglers across these 3 states. The pinnacle any western plains team tournament angler can strive to achieve in this region!


For the most part the tournament trail will be ran the same way as it has in the past, we are just adding an extra layer of in-state competition, in-state camaraderie, and a more feasible localized schedule in each state to hopefully cater better to the local anglers that can't commit to lengthy 14 tournament schedule. 

Hopefully this helps!

Putting pen to paper was extremely challenging for this update. Please, take your time to read through the rules document and reach out if you have questions.