https://www.usyouthsoccer.org/us-yo...occer-national-leagues/#.WtetF6AvQKw.facebook I thought I would give this item it's own thread because it is national more than Chicago only. FRISCO, Texas (April 18, 2018) — US Youth Soccer is pleased to unveil its new US Youth Soccer National Leagues Program for high-level competitive leagues that will kick-off in the 2018-19 soccer season. The US Youth Soccer National Leagues Program will feature a network of Conferences (formerly known as Regional Leagues) that are more geographically focused, under one leadership and management structure, and linked into the highly successful National League and National Championship Series. The current system of US Youth Soccer Regional Leagues (Eastern Regional League, Midwest Regional League, Southern Regional Premier League and the Far West Regional League) will cease to exist at the conclusion of the 2017-18 soccer season. The new US Youth Soccer National Leagues Program structure for 2018-19 will commence in the Fall of 2018 and will feature two tiers of competition: The National Tier called the US Youth Soccer National League that will feature a total of 176 teams in the 13U through 19U age groups in each gender. [National League Qualified teams for 2018-19] The Multi-State Tier comprised of leagues each individually called a US Youth Soccer National League (Geographic Area) Conference [in the previous system these were known as the Regional Leagues] The Conferences are now under the management umbrella of the highly successful US Youth Soccer National League. League Managers will oversee the day-to-day activities of the Conferences in accordance with National Leagues Policy and the National Leagues Rules and Regulations.
*Might* wanna change the name of the thread...US Soccer didn't change anything, but US Youth Soccer did. Separate entities that are (frustratingly) always considered one in the same. Semantics, I know... Personally, I feel this could be a good thing. A platform for one-off teams (not whole clubs) to play at regional and national levels. Let's not kid ourselves tho, it'll be the same level of what the current National League and MRL Premier divisions are. Hopefully they'll eliminate the BS MRL White II divisions, or whatever the hell they call them, that only have northern IL teams in the division. Wonder what this means for all those teams that had to go thru the process of qualifying for MRL and USYS National League? #earnyourplace lol
For me the important information will be how may teams are in these new regional leagues? for MRL I I believe they where in the process of moving to the 32 color crayon box to start naming additional divisions. I think the cerulean division would have been really strong... The other important piece would be which states combine. The map they show for east coast looks like 2-4 states per Geographic area. If they can keep the distances shorter and resist the urge to add any team with a pulse that can pay then this could improve upon the current Regional League/National League setup.
What I want to know is when are all the other conferences going to be announced? Our state cup is about a month away, surely we will know something by regionals right?
This is just bizarre to me. The selling point here seemed to be that the regions were going to get smaller, with semi-manageable travel. Instead, we've got Midwest geographic spreads that look like an ECNL or DA nightmare.
It actually looks like they expanded what was/is currently MRL to include Western PA and Western NY, and then created separate conference names for the Fall and Spring season grouping states by their High School soccer "off" season. I also (like Beau) had hoped that "more geographically focused" meant smaller & less travel. One interesting thing I missed in the original announcement but noticed when I just re-read the information was the intention to create showcase events for the "conference" teams. I think this is a good idea depending upon how it is implemented.
I'm wondering how they're going to get enough teams just in Virginia. They're clearly trying to separate Virginia from Maryland because of the high school season conflict.
I was hoping for less distance to travel. As it sits now the furthest we have had to travel for a MRL match this season is 2 hours. That could drastically change if my daughter now has to get to NY, MI, PA are you serious.....
Kentucky here...we've played Michigan teams in Indy and Cincinnati, and played Northern Ohio teams in Cincy and Akron. Yeah, adding Buffalo, Syracuse and Pittsburgh doesn't sound like "reducing travel" to me. Every other region so far broke up into four conferences each. Region 2? Two.
Kentucky here also. Last year the furthest we went for MRL was 3 hours... Indy. This year was 7 hours... Rockford, IL.
They could have separated into four conferences based on population centers: Great Lakes: Michigan, Ohio North, PA West, NY West (Detroit, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Cleveland) Ohio Valley: Kentucky, Ohio South, Indiana, West Virginia (Louisville, Cincinnati, Columbus, Indianapolis) Midwest: Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota (Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis) Heartland: Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa (St. Louis, KC, Omaha)
I'm assuming too few per group. I'm guessing Kentucky has maybe three teams (spanned across the different levels of MRL), I'm guessing WVa is similar. OS has a bunch, I think IN is a little light. Of course, this is just a guess, I haven't done any research to support it.
FWIW, I asked U.S. Youth Soccer about the Midwest conferences, and they said they'd have an announcement down the road. So ... is that map not final? Or are they just not confirming it?
Seems official to me. https://www.usyouthsoccer.org/asset...great_lakes_conferences_fact_sheet_5-4-18.pdf
The full National League conference setup, as of a May 8 tweet. Michigan shows as being in Midwest, but Indiana and Michigan teams can supposedly choose which conference (Midwest or Great Lakes) based on their geographic locations.