The main thing it seems to be is a move to stop using "renegade" sport leagues for sandbagging.

The Sport Bowling Average Adjustment Scale also has been modified:
http://usbcongress.http.internapcdn.net/usbcongress/bowl/sportbowling/pdfs/AverageAdjustmentChart2015-2016.pdf

Frequently Asked Questions about the new Sport Bowling program.
http://usbcongress.http.internapcdn.net/usbcongress/bowl/sportbowling/pdfs/NewSportBowlingFAQ.pdf


New Sport Bowling program to start Aug. 1
Terry Bigham
USBC Communications
Published: June 1, 2015 | Bowl.com

ARLINGTON, Texas – To encourage more bowlers and leagues to take advantage of competing on challenging lane conditions and to improve certified tournament average integrity, the United States Bowling Congress will make several enhancements to the Sport Bowling program for the 2015-2016 season, which starts Aug. 1.

Leagues choosing to compete on Sport lane patterns now will have the opportunity to report as a Sport/Challenge league without submitting lane tapes or requiring bowlers to purchase membership upgrades. The USBC Sport membership, including the awards program, will be discontinued as bowlers no longer will need to purchase a membership upgrade to compete in Sport leagues.

“We are removing what historically has been noted as the two largest barriers to participation – the membership cost for the bowler and the additional work required by those running Sport leagues – so more leagues can take advantage of Sport patterns,” USBC Executive Director Chad Murphy said. “Removing the barriers will improve the average integrity for all certified tournaments, which is the key reason for the adjustment to the program.”

The Sport Bowling page of BOWL.com will re-launch July 1 with complete information and reference materials for bowlers, league secretaries and proprietors. The page will have Sport Bowling patterns, video tips on how to play certain Sport patterns, ideas for league formats and more information to help start and run a Sport Bowling league.

“USBC will lose some revenue as part of the switch, but average integrity is important to the future growth of the sport,” Murphy said. “We also want to encourage bowlers and leagues to take advantage of any Sport Bowling options they choose. Whether it is PBA Experience, Kegel Challenge, World Bowling or others, we should see more competition-level patterns in use because the process will be as simple as certifying the league with the new designation with no paperwork or tapes required.”

Starting with the 2015-2016 season, leagues that want to compete on Sport Bowling conditions will designate as a Sport/Challenge league on the league application form; bowlers competing in the league will have a corresponding icon next to their average for that league.

Because Sport Bowling conditions are more challenging than typical league conditions, bowler averages on Sport conditions usually are lower. Designating these leagues moving forward will assist league and tournament operators in automatically adjusting averages for a bowler.

The Sport Bowling Average Adjustment Scale also has been modified, based on data of more than 20,000 averages, as part of the Sport Bowling makeover. The new chart can be found here. The scale, of course, does not supersede a tournament director’s ability to adjust any bowler’s average upward for a tournament.

The Sport Bowling program started with the 2000-2001 season in response to technology changes in the sport. Sport Bowling emphasizes the bowler’s ability to make consistently accurate shots and to know when to make necessary adjustments. Most major USBC events, the PBA Tour, PWBA Tour and World Bowling events are conducted on Sport Bowling patterns.

I want to know what "close to 4-1 ratio" means
that will designate participating in this program or not
is it 4.4-1 or 4.6-1?

i know there be these questions come our challenge league meeting
what if you bowl on 5-1 all season and do the last 8 weeks on the Nats pattern?

It says they will have the opportunity to report as a sport league.  It doesn't say how that will be monitored or enforced.  The bagging will continue.

The league reports as a sport league, not the bowler.  Last two sport leagues I bowled were not sport sanctioned, but local association coded them as sport leagues, and my average was rerated in a handicap tournament ( rightfully so ) in another association. 

I guess there is nothing to force a league to report in this manner, but the onus is on the secretary, not the individual bowler. 

One more thing, based on some replies here, current rules/procedures does not preclude a league from declaring themselves sport.  As Jeff stated on his blog and avabob above, a league can still declare itself sport without the hoopla associated with official registration.  So how is this new rule/change any different?

spmc,
    I think you are a bit confused. In the current format, to be a Sports League, a league must register, send in tapes weekly, and each bowler must pay the additional sport membership fee. If you didn't do all of that, you were not a sport league. In Riggs' case, he made sure all the local tournament director knew that this particular league was a sports league, even though it was not identified as such because they couldn't send the tapes in anymore. They chose to rerate people who bowled in that league. That does nothing for people who would bowl in a tournament away from their local area. The new rules will identify the league as a sports league for everyone to see when they look on bowl.com. Why would a secretary of a league risk issues by not reporting it. Plus, most centers, now and days are the secretary of the league so they would automatically report it without questioning it, because failure to do so could result in local tournaments may not want to use that center going forward.

Until I see how this pans out, I just don't see people reporting their leagues.  Nothing is preventing today's leagues from notifying the local association they are using sport compliant conditions and not registering the league as sport.  Riggs and avabob have attested to leagues doing this. 

Perhaps leagues don't know they can do this.  Perhaps some leagues are ignorant to what its members are doing with their average.  Besides, what is the penalty for not registering the league as sport for 2015-2016?  NOTHING.  Sport shots are legal league shots and do not have to be registered as sport.  USBC will have to mandate any league running a sport shot MUST register as a sport shot league.  Failure can lead to the center losing certification.  Otherwise it will be business as usual.

The main problem with the implementation of sport bowling is the lack of rule enforcement.  If there was an economical way to verify bowling conditions, then USBC could do something about conditions.  But because it would be expensive to even implement random testing, no one will ever verify is people are abiding to rules. 

Personally, I think there is too much emphasis on the "sandbagging" of leagues, and more attention should be noted that because a center doesn't have to run tapes and the bowlers not have to pay more in sanction fees to bowl on sport conditions, more centers would try sport leagues. As the current president of a sport league, it is VERY hard to get people to try a league that they have to pay an additional sanction fee for, when they don't even really want to pay a sanction fee as it is.

The other issue that has come up over the last 12 years of our league, is that often times, the patterns that are given to us by the USBC and the PBA sometimes don't meet the 3:1 ratio (many times as little as 3.1:1 or 3.2:1 were the tapes) that was required when the lanes got taped. For our league in particular, the laneman would have to adjust the patterns to be in compliance, and the patterns were most often times more difficult than what I would see in PBA regionals. With the new rules, the patterns can be used exactly how they are designed, and the topography of the lane and differences in lane machines and oils will be the variables. At least the pattern, provided it was entered into the machine properly, will keeps its integrity.

I personally think the change should help get a few more sport condition leagues as well as bowlers try sport bowling. I will, however, miss the opportunity at EARNING the upgraded sport awards. The USBC should have kept that as an option for leagues that still wanted to send in tapes, and follow the strictest of rules.