I have to believe that BASS will be calling those guys and several farther down the list. They are going to have to come up with 30 plus guys from somewhere.

30?, try 70.

They reduced the field of the Elites from 110 to 80, so that's 30 spots gone there. I said 30 plus.

Holy cow wasn't factoring in them having to reduce their field

Adding a trail costs some serious money. Did it just go poof and appear?

Will the money tree still be producing in a few years? I'm still trying to understand the long term finances of it.

There were 108 Elites to begin with, 60 left to MLF, so that leaves 48, correct? Give or take. Now, they need 80, so that leaves 32 to be filled. They invite 10 from the Opens, correct?? So that would leave 22 to invite outside of the normal protocol. Right?

What I am saying is that they are going back into the archives to find those 12 and not going down the Opens list. That is what I have been told. I would think that if a Davy Hite, Larry Nixon, Derek Remitz, etc. get a call from BASS and invite them to fish at a huge discount next year, it would be hard to say no.

I think they will find a way to fill the fields through competition. I do not think they want the pay to fish format that FLW hased used up through the coming season. That being said I think at this point FLW is in very fine shape, I do not see their big sticks leaving. They lost a few anglers, to MLF but for the most part still have their stars. I cannot see their starts leaving for BASS at this point. It would be a even move. Also FLW has a feeder program, and online presence things like that. They have a better program for the Marshall's, lower entries but a shorter more manageable schedule. BASS will just need to make the best of it and home grow their future stars over the next 2-4 seasons, and I think they can and will do that.

They could easily pull 22 more from the opens.

Yep Sam George will probably be fishing the Elites next year after trying for the last few years to qualify the normal way.

I wonder what the market value is of the Classic vs the Elite tour? Could BASS cut its losses and sell either? The Masters is not owned by the PGA. It's owned and executed by by Augusta. Neither are the US Open or the British Open owned by the PGA.

It would be cooler imo if the Classic was owned by Toyota, BPS, Walmart, CBS, ESPN or some other third party and it was by invitation of qualifiers or the top 100 in the world along with special fish in qualifiers. That way you'd get the championship we all want to see which in this current state of affairs might mean KVD,Scott Martin and I guess Keith Combs all fishing against each other.

I guess Toyota was headed this way before turning over their event to BASS to run. Mistake. DOA.

Texas Parks and Wildlife, Yeti, Toyota and American Airlines should get together again and make it happen. Fork and the AAC every year.

The Share A Lunker Bassmaster Classic brought to you commercial free on ? What date?