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Why Tulsa National Little League team was disqualified from LLWS originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
As the field of teams for Little League World Series is determined, the Southwest Region received some clarity on one of its participants on Monday.
Oklahoma, represented by Tulsa National Little League, was disqualified from the tournament after three other leagues filed a joint protest against the league a day earlier.
The disqualification came mere weeks after Tulsa National Little League's softball team was booted from the same edition of the tournament for a similar offense.
Here's what you need to know about Tulsa's ouster from Little League World Series qualification.
MORE: Where is the Little League World Series played?
Why Tulsa National Little League was disqualified from LLWS
After a protest filed by three other leagues, the Little League International Tournament Committee ruled that Tulsa National Little League had an ineligible player participate in the Southwest Regional and disqualified the team.
The committee ruled Oklahoma's win over Louisiana in the Southwest Regional semifinals on Sunday as a forfeit. Louisiana advanced to the final over Oklahoma and is facing Texas West on Monday for a trip to the Little League World Series.
While the committee didn't go into detail about Tulsa's violations other than ruling that an ineligible player was on the roster, the protest filed Sunday accused Tulsa of a handful of rule violations, including fraudulent use of the Challenger Division, a league for players with physical or intellectual disabilities, to falsify player eligibility.
"Not only are there multiple sources that have confirmed that Tulsa National Little League did not play a Challenger game this year, there are questions regarding whether the player would even qualify for the Challenger program," the protest said. "Using a special needs program in this manner is so egregious that anyone involved with this should be banned for life from Little League."
Just three weeks ago, Tulsa National Little League's softball team was disqualified from the same tournament on the road to the Little League Softball World Series due to an ineligible player.
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LLWS eligibility rules
Little League says players participating at the "Major" level, which runs from ages 10-12, "must have amateur status, and have participated as an eligible player in eight regular-season games by the beginning of the International Tournament, with the exception of the school baseball or softball season."
Because the tournament committee didn't go into detail about Tulsa's violation, it's unclear how the league violated eligibility rules. Sunday's protest did claim, however, that Tulsa falsified a player's eligibility through fraudulent use of the Challenger League for players with special needs.
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