Looking at the placements for the upcoming season the number of teams placed at AA really caught me by surprise. At all 3 of the oldest divisions(18u, 16u & 14u) there are more teams placed at AA than at A Major Black and I don't recall ever seeing that before. At 18u almost half of the total registered teams were placed at AA(9 of 21) and all 3 divisions have more AA teams in 2018 than they had in 2017(18u 9-8, 16u 9-6, 14u 16-8). I could understand the increase if the number of teams drastically changed but being that the number of teams for each age group is relatively the same as 2017 it simply means that a higher percentage of players/teams(18u 42.8%-36.4%, 16u 23.6%-17.6%, 14u 23.5%-11.1%) are playing at the AA level now .
Was there some new training method that I missed that led to so many players developing faster than in years past that I missed or is this just another move to placate the egos of the parents/organizations?