I was watching the D3 Pro League Championship earlier and I was just wondering how it is different from the USL? And at that, what exactly is the USL? (I only have some sense as to what it is.) I'm really an MLS fan, so all of this is new. Thanks for any info!
USL (United Soccer Leagues) is the governing body of all the outdoor professional leagues below MLS and WUSA in the United States. For men, there are 3 levels: A-League (2nd division) D3 Pro (3rd division) PDL (4th division) For the women, there is one level (which was/is[?]) broken down into two sub-divisions: W-League (2nd division) USL also oversees the Super-Y League, a national youth league that has teams affiliated with various pro teams (both USL and MLS).
Question I remember the LI Roughriders playing in A-League few years ago but lastnight they were in D3 league championship game. What gives? USL don't have promotion/relegation, do they?
There is quite a big of movement between the three divisions, but it's typically determined by the financial and geographic needs of the clubs and not so much on-field performance. Des Moines went unbeaten in the PDL this year, and they drew incredible numbers of fans for the fourth division, but it doesn't make sense for them to move to D3 next season because there aren't any other D3 teams within a 1000 miles of Des Moines. Therefore, they are considering a move all the way up to the A-League.
This is where it really gets fun. The 2nd division, or A-league, is a professional league. The D3 is considered semi-pro. The PDL is an amatuer league, made up of college kids and a few "overaged" former pro players. Try any of the following sites for more info. www.a-league.com www.d3soccer.com www.pdlsoccer.com www.w-league.com The main USL website seems to be dead and buried.
Re: Re: What's the D3? The USL website was run by UMBRO.com, a seperate entity from UMBRO. UMBRO.com went belly-under and took the USL website down with it.
Luckily, www.superyleague.com is still around and is another very useful website, about the ever-growing Super Y league branch of the USL.