For leagues, early March. IWSL releases this weekend, NISL just posted a schedule to determine a schedule, YSSL seeds next week. ECNL I think is posted, not sure about USYS. Tournaments are kind of at their own speed.
Took me awhile but just realized that this comment was directed at me. I'm definitely not Kieran. I am not sure if his team would be the right platform for my kids - its pretty risky moving to a brand new club. But with his track record at Evolution it's less risky than it normally would be. My main concern would be immediate competitiveness at U13 - this is when the badge actually starts to matter. And I have to say that the skepticism people here are evincing could be justified if your kid is on Eclipse's top team and secure there, but not everyone is in that situation. For a development focused club it has potential - how well do the powerhouses develop their youngers or 2nd teams? Even the 2nd tier clubs like Team Chicago or Ela or Campton United (or whatever they are becoming) - do they really develop players, or are they desperately chasing wins? I know my opinion on at least 1 of these clubs. The chance to get in from the ground up has to be tempting.
https://usclubsoccer.org/first-round-of-league-operators-of-top-team-based-competition-announced/ First round of league operators of top team-based competition announced New competition brings together NPL & National League CHARLESTON, S.C. (Feb. 27, 2026) – US Club Soccer and US Youth Soccer are proud to announce the first round of league operators of a new competition, beginning with the 2026-27 season, that serves as the top team-based league of both organizations. This new league, temporarily referred to as “NewComp,” will bring together the National Premier Leagues (NPL) and National League, ushering in a new era of collaboration in the youth soccer ecosystem and serving 10,000 teams and more than 150,000 players. The competition’s inaugural season will be capped in summer 2027, as part of a postseason structure operated by the Elite Clubs National League (ECNL). Qualification will include the top-performing teams from this competition, along with selected ECNL Regional League (ECNL RL) teams, creating a highly competitive and meaningful postseason event. The existing postseason structures within the ECNL and ECNL RL will remain, and this new additional postseason pathway will further strengthen and integrate the competitive pyramid while adding opportunity. The combination of postseason pathways will offer best-in-class college scouting opportunities and event experience for families. More information about the playoff structure will be announced next week. The new competition will consist of eight conferences – Northwest, West, Central, South, Midwest, Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Southeast – with multiple districts in each conference and those districts advancing teams to the postseason. The first round of operators is as follows in alphabetical order, and the remaining operators will be announced in the coming weeks: Arizona Youth Soccer (West Districts 2-3) Carolina Premier Soccer League (Mid-Atlantic District 3) Colorado Soccer Association (West District 1) El Paso Premier League (South District 4) Elite Development Program (Northeast Districts 1-4) Florida Club Leagues (Southeast District 2) Great Lakes Alliance (Midwest District 1) Michigan State Youth Soccer Association (Midwest District 5) Mid-Atlantic Premier League (Northeast District 3) NorCal Premier Soccer (West District 4) Northern Illinois Soccer League (Midwest District 4) SOCAL Soccer League (West District 3) Southeastern Clubs Champions League (Southeast District 1) Texas Club Soccer League (South District 2) Twin Cities Soccer Leagues (Central District 1) Virginia Premier Soccer League & National Capital Soccer League (co-operated; Mid-Atlantic District 2) Washington Premier League (Northwest District 3) A breakdown of the conferences, league operators and districts is available here. Additional operators will contribute to the eight conferences on a to-be-announced district-by-district approach. By layering districts into each conference, the new competition reaches more players and reduces travel burdens for families. Leagues that wish to apply for open districts may do so via this application. League operators will meet next month in Atlanta with team registration opening early April. A committee comprised of US Club Soccer and US Youth Soccer representatives will consider all applications based on demonstrated success, operational plans, staffing structure, league management experience and market knowledge. Operators were selected based on their commitment to access and inclusivity, quality competition, and player-first decision-making across all districts. Additional approvals will be announced as applications are finalized, and all designations remain subject to ongoing compliance. This committee was approved by both organizations’ board of directors and will support the new league in its inaugural season. “Having been involved in the oversight of national youth leagues for almost a decade, this competition is exactly what youth soccer needs,” said Marc Frankland, commissioner of the new competition. “I’m proud to work with US Club Soccer and US Youth Soccer to develop a league that focuses more on local travel and aligns with the U.S. Soccer Pathways Strategy to create a unified, team-based competition that is player-focused and merit-based.” These efforts coincide with U.S. Soccer’s Pathways Strategy, an initiative committed to making the game easier to navigate, more accessible and more supportive. The NewComp pathway is inclusive of ECNL, ECNL RL and localized/state competitions, providing opportunities for promotion of top clubs within this new competition into the ECNL RL, as well as localized competitions and state leagues into NewComp. “An extraordinary amount of diligence and care are being put into the creation of this new competition,” said Alexandra Rieben, US Club Soccer Senior Vice President of Programs & Partnerships. “US Club Soccer, US Youth Soccer and the ECNL are all working to provide a league platform that welcomes more players, minimizes travel, connects above and below in the current pathways structure, and elevates the best teams in the country. Because of our collective commitment to collaboration, the next chapter of American youth soccer is one that the entire ecosystem will be proud of and model after for years to come.” Tom Condone, US Youth Soccer CEO, added: “We are committed to a competitive structure defined by clear standards, consistent accountability and expanded opportunity for players.”
Marc Frankland ruined USYS and the MRL and put his head in the sand for years as USYS was dying and getting picked off year after year ... and he's rewarded with another chance. This league has the potential to get back and help clubs that can't get into ECNL and GA, but recycling the poor leadership from a failed league doesn't seem good. Also, its written with a lot of vague talking points and they seemed to want to imply ECNL will be involved and these teams will be playing those teams, but they won't and even this press releases says it - but it seems they purposely added ECNL a few times to just cause confusion. Also, keeping ECNL and ECNL-RL playoffs the same, but having top performing teams join ECNL-RL in the playoffs (but not the ECNL-RL playoffs teams) just means it is being designed as a smoke-n-mirror to seem as though it will be a great new thing.
my guess is this is a third tier league with a third tier playoffs. They will play against ECNL-r teams who missed playoffs. USYS teams will win a lot of these games and then get picked off to join ECNL-r with the promise of promotion that will never come and clubs will fizzle out and keep feeding talent to mls/next, ECNL and GA at u13 and above.
Yes - of course this is a 3rd tier league, that's by definition. Right now NPL would be considered a 3rd tier league, as would NL. Bringing them together as a single league is a good thing for those teams, theoretically cutting down on needed travel and creating more opportunities for the same exact population of player/teams. A common complaint on these boards it that there are too many disparate (yet similar) leagues, having less is moving in the right direction. A unified playoff system for them seems also like a good idea. None of this changes the fact that anyone (player, or team), who does exceptionally well in a 3rd tier league is going to get picked off by one of the higher leagues sooner or later. That's always going to be the case.
ECNL RL seems fourth tier though. Or is it just in Chicagoland that clubs like Elmhurst City, Rush North Shore, Wheaton and Deportivo stand ahead of the ECNL B teams? Do you settle for ECNL RL because you were first team till the next year’s tryout when the new kids come, and by then you’ve missed the chance to try out for an NPL A team? Imagine being an NPL team that got “promoted” to ECNL RL.
I think it's MLS Next HG, with ECNL slightly below. Then MLS Next AD and RL roughly equivalent and then NPL as 3rd tier.
To update Galaxy 2013 - at the GA Champions Cup they were competitive in a 2-0 loss vs Top Hat, which is one of the top teams in the country, and beat IMG today, a good mid-range GA club, 2-1. Word is they are getting some very good players coming in for the Fall. And this is the lowest performing top team year on paper. I don't see a club in decline at all.
Never said anything about “decline”. Was just pointing out that their younger groups didn’t seem to be as strong as you would expect considering the move to GA and the success the older teams have had. Sounds like it’s flipping though. Inevitable if you have a good club with the right badge.
They won against Beadling, *at* the IMG tournament, no? It's still a nice win, when they were expected to lose 0-2. But they've still lost their last 6 in a row prior, and 14 of their last 16 - showing as ~ #450 in the country as the top U13 team in club. It's all relative - but if they want to be near the top 50, let alone the top 250, they've got quite a hill to still climb.
SR published a big update this morning. It happened in the middle of a game I was watching on the sidelines, so I couldn't play with it for a little while. Two obvious changes stand out. First, they've changed the year categories to U14/U15/U16 instead of starting with the year. So one of the categories is (U15/2011). This seems like prepping for the age shift later this year, when teams that currently show 2011 will instead show U15 in online results. Another big change is the addition of future schedule on a team's page. So when you go into a team, you not only see all results, but it shows future games at the top - with links to info on that game. When you click on the game, it shows logistics like address (that it then can give directions for), but it also pops up the prediction for that game, and lists the results of the last 5 recorded games between the two teams. It provides instant research that had to be done with quite few clicks prior.
I don’t have an update, and in the Apple store it shows the most recent update was 4 months ago. Do you have an android phone?
Yes - this is on android. Usually updates will go to both platforms within a day or two. I'll try and update our ios devices once back home this evening.
Here are screenshots of the scheduling info for future games on a team page: Here's what the age group selection looks like now: It looks like the FAQ and related docs have been updated on their main site. I can't find any release notes, so not sure if there are other key features added that I've missed. EDIT: OK, found some more info. If you look in the iOS app version history, it shows that the latest is 4.2.0, this was the version that added game result history for the past 5 games, and allowed predictions for unranked teams. The new Android version that was released yesterday is now at 5.0.0. All it says, under "What's New" in the play store, is that "this major update adds team schedules and improves the usability of result predictions. Recording player statistics also got easier!" But on the Android side I can't find a full list of release notes anywhere. I imagine 5.0.0 will hit the iOS store shortly. They have mentioned in the past that it sometimes takes a few more days for it to get through the app publishing process on that side.
If tournament brackets and not just league games show up in there that would be awesome, always nice to know if the organizer hit or missed on the bracket setup
For one of our teams it had included future games in league, state cup, as well as a separate tournament. Though that tournament goes on for a number of weekends. Not sure what they are able to include, probably depends when the tournament director posts the schedule up and the frequency of SR scanning the entire game space for new data.
OK - I played with it a little more. Users can bring scheduling data together (if it exists in the db, but isn't attached to a team), just like they can now bring together game results data (if it exists in the db, but isn't attached to a team). So SR will try and automatically attach anything it can already, but if it isn't able to, the data just sits in unranked. So if you're aware of a future tournament that a team is in, and it is posted online somewhere, you should already see it in SR. If it isn't there at all, you can likely just send them a link for SR to add it, just like you can now do for missing game results.
MLS Next Academy expansion list is out - https://www.mlssoccer.com/mlsnext/n...clubs-and-conferences-ahead-of-2026-27-season Evolution (x Pony) are in along with 46 other clubs.
Doesn’t Galaxy sc have MLS Next in Naperville? What is MLS thinking with this one? That is going to dilute the talent pool in that area even more. Wow that’s interesting!!
Yep. Think it is all fairly comparable to ECNL-RL honestly in terms of density in Chicago and probably a reminder that this academy division is an RL equivalent. I am sure Galaxy isn't happy or hoping they can play their way into the Homegrown division since there is probably room there for a team that is a bit further west. Perhaps the heavy reliance on Ponys (see below) player pool makes this not as complicated as they are Chicago based? It looks like Evo's higher performing teams are in NL club p1/2 as Ponys FC Evo / Evo-PFC collaboration, which makes the expansion as Evolution a bit odd (Evo's messaging comms suggest it is still in partnership). Assume that is just the club that was willing to front the cash or meet the requirements? MLSN Great Lakes North is Fire, Galaxy, FC United, Sockers and 9 Michigan teams. This actually probably is a needed addition of another non-MI team & ECNL-RL has grabbed most of the major contenders in Chicago. Indy premier is presumably going to be in Great Lakes South, all of WI teams are North. The whole thing could use a re-alignment for a more diverse competition. All of this would probably look a bit different if Eclipse didn't have a stranglehold on their ECNL badge in the Chicagoland area and just periodically keep expanding in various directions.
I would wonder where Evolution will be basing the team, as they seem to be oriented increasingly towards the city. Anyway, the parents I have talked with locally don't seem to have Evolution much on their radar. They seem like they are still a mess. If the badge is based out here I suppose that could change. On NaperSoccer's point about Galaxy hoping to move up to Homegrown, it seems like it could at least be possible. Their teams have done very well this year - pretty consistently near the top of standings so far.
That 2013 team went 2-2 in the GA Champions Cup finals, and as mentioned I know of some really good players coming over in the Fall. Stay tuned.
They are the 3rd strongest club in state (girls). It sure seems likely that they will be able to build a competitive team. But there is still quite a way to go. Here's what the club looked like back in Feb 2025: and here's what they look like now: There's every reason to believe that the team will improve as it gets older, as it certainly has been that way for every previous year. But it's still way too early to claim success now - right now it is by definition, a losing team.