# Ranking boys leagues



## original805 (Aug 10, 2020)

Please rank these boys leagues strongest league first...
ecnl
ecrl
mls academy
elite academy
coast (Premier only)
presidio
Scdsl


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## espola (Aug 10, 2020)

original805 said:


> Please rank these boys leagues strongest league first...
> ecnl
> ecrl
> mls academy
> ...


Why (Premier only)?


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## original805 (Aug 10, 2020)

espola said:


> Why (Premier only)?


coast bronze, silver is pretty weak lets be honest.  Trying to compare apples to apples


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## baller6988 (Aug 10, 2020)

original805 said:


> Please rank these boys leagues strongest league first...
> ecnl
> ecrl
> mls academy
> ...


If you are going by the top tier in each level then i will take a stab at it.
1. MLS
2.Ecnl
3. Coast Premier
4. scdsl flight 1
5. elite academy
6. ecrl
7. presidio


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## ToonArmy (Aug 10, 2020)

What is elite academy again?


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## espola (Aug 10, 2020)

original805 said:


> coast bronze, silver is pretty weak lets be honest.  Trying to compare apples to apples


My first thought was that I was going to respond was that there is a lot of overlap, year to year, week t week (back when we had weekly games), team to team.  But your (Premier only) exception makes it look like you already know the answer you are looking for.


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## Eagle33 (Aug 11, 2020)

original805 said:


> Please rank these boys leagues strongest league first...
> ecnl
> ecrl
> mls academy
> ...


1. MLS Academy
2. ECNL
3. SCDSL (Discovery)
4. CSL (Premier)
5. Elite Academy 

8. ECRL
56. Presidio


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## Eagle33 (Aug 11, 2020)

ToonArmy said:


> What is elite academy again?


Bunch of clubs who couldn't get into DA before or ECNL now created EA League. They call it 2nd tier of MLS


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## northeastlafc (Aug 11, 2020)

original805 said:


> Please rank these boys leagues strongest league first...
> ecnl
> ecrl
> mls academy
> ...


It’s nearly impossible to rank these leagues except putting ECNL & MLS Academy at the top since the top players will gravitate to those leagues. Also since ECRL & EA League are new we cannot rank anything yet. The boys pyramid is only up and down within their respective organizations (USYS, USYS, etc). Coast Premier, SCDSL Discovery & Presidio’s SDDA brackets should in theory be under the closed leagues but I think the FC Golden State Brazilians that always win the U19/20 Premier Division in Coast very year could probably defeat most of the teams in the closed leagues.


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## Eagle33 (Aug 11, 2020)

northeastlafc said:


> It’s nearly impossible to rank these leagues except putting ECNL & MLS Academy at the top since the top players will gravitate to those leagues. Also since ECRL & EA League are new we cannot rank anything yet. The boys pyramid is only up and down within their respective organizations (USYS, USYS, etc). Coast Premier, SCDSL Discovery & Presidio’s SDDA brackets should in theory be under the closed leagues but I think the FC Golden State Brazilians that always win the U19/20 Premier Division in Coast very year could probably defeat most of the teams in the closed leagues.


you can rank any league, even if they haven't started yet, by knowing clubs/teams participating in it.


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## espola (Aug 11, 2020)

Eagle33 said:


> you can rank any league, even if they haven't started yet, by knowing clubs/teams participating in it.


Since they haven't started yet, there are no results - what exactly is it you are ranking?


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## notintheface (Aug 11, 2020)

1. It
2. Doesn't
3. Matter
4. Because
5. Kids
6. Prefer
7. Teams
8. With
9. Their
10. Friends
11. Instead
12. Of
13. A
14. Particular
15. League
...
999. CSL


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## dad4 (Aug 15, 2020)

Seems you could look up the YSR score of each team in each league, and rank the leagues by average YSR score.

It doesn't work so well for ex-DA teams, but works fine for everyone else.

Not that it matters.  But if you need a score it's easy enough to make one.


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## Rambo1 (Aug 15, 2020)

1. MLS Academy
2. ECNL
3. CRL
3. SCDSL Discovery
4. CSL Premier
5. Elite Academy 
6. ECRL


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## Not_that_Serious (Aug 15, 2020)

Rambo1 said:


> 1. MLS Academy
> 2. ECNL
> 3. CRL
> 3. SCDSL Discovery
> ...


What is an Elite Academy? I’m actually joking but that isn’t even running and most teams are out of flight 1/gold.

as mentioned, doesn’t matter at this point and teams are being combine or dropped at most clubs. older kids playing with friends or just had time to reflect on enjoying other things in life


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## Traore (Aug 15, 2020)

Is the Elite Academy the non-MLS clubs in the league?  So only LAFC and Galaxy are MLS Academy?


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## Dargle (Aug 15, 2020)

Traore said:


> Is the Elite Academy the non-MLS clubs in the league?  So only LAFC and Galaxy are MLS Academy?


No.  All the teams in the MLS League are in the same league (just like the DA league). In theory, MLS Academy teams will play fewer games against non-MLS teams in the league at U15 and U17, but this year is kind of a lost year so who knows. The non-MLS teams in the league are all former DA teams (and they’re all practicing now, unlike the MLS academies, which are being restricted by MLS itself)

The Elite Academy League has three clubs not in the MLS league and some of their teams were or would have been CRL, Premier, Discovery level this year. The other teams are second teams to the teams in the MLS league in their club. Some also would have been top CSL/SCDSL teams this year (esp TFA’s teams), but others are far lower quality.


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## mlx (Aug 16, 2020)

You guys are forgetting to place NPL West. 

Also, isn't CRL composed of Gold /Premier teams?


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## thedudeabides (Aug 16, 2020)

original805 said:


> Please rank these boys leagues strongest league first...
> ecnl
> ecrl
> mls academy
> ...


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## futboldad1 (Aug 16, 2020)

dad4 said:


> Seems you could look up the YSR score of each team in each league, and rank the leagues by average YSR score.
> 
> It doesn't work so well for ex-DA teams, but works fine for everyone else.
> 
> Not that it matters.  But if you need a score it's easy enough to make one.


YSR is HIGHLY inaccurate when it comes to older teams (14 yo +) .... this is because it rewards blowouts way too much so if you play regularly vs weak opponents in league you are ranked way higher than you should be..... this is 100 percent true for the girls teams so I am assuming the same for the boys as it is the same algorithm but my son no longer plays (baseball full time) so can't say for sure for boys teams


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## dad4 (Aug 16, 2020)

futboldad1 said:


> YSR is HIGHLY inaccurate when it comes to older teams (14 yo +) .... this is because it rewards blowouts way too much so if you play regularly vs weak opponents in league you are ranked way higher than you should be..... this is 100 percent true for the girls teams so I am assuming the same for the boys as it is the same algorithm but my son no longer plays (baseball full time) so can't say for sure for boys teams


Totally agree that YSR overvalues blowouts.  If you really need it, you can get around this by applying the YSR algorithm but excluding all mismatches.

However, if you just want a quick sanity check on the strength of CSL gold versus elite academy, do you have a better idea than average YSR score?


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## Desert Hound (Aug 16, 2020)

dad4 said:


> Seems you could look up the YSR score of each team in each league, and rank the leagues by average YSR score.
> 
> It doesn't work so well for ex-DA teams, but works fine for everyone else.
> 
> Not that it matters. But if you need a score it's easy enough to make one.


Overall YSR is pretty good. The best option out there to be honest. 

It does not do a good job in closed leagues like DA or ECNL. Now granted we know these are the strongest teams generally speaking. But since they do not play a lot of outside competition, it is hard to compare them vs the rest of the soccer world. DA of course rarely played ANYONE outside of DA. ECNL will occasionally (not the majority) in stuff like Surf Cup, Silverlakes, or Players. I suspect GA will follow along like ECNL in terms of not a ton of outside competition.


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## Dargle (Aug 16, 2020)

dad4 said:


> Totally agree that YSR overvalues blowouts.  If you really need it, you can get around this by applying the YSR algorithm but excluding all mismatches.
> 
> However, if you just want a quick sanity check on the strength of CSL gold versus elite academy, do you have a better idea than average YSR score?


Perhaps the biggest problem with doing that now is that CSL hasn't set their brackets yet.  The strength of Gold will depend upon who applied for and was accepted into Premier, who left for Elite Academy, which Silver Elite teams will be promoted to Gold, and who is still active as a team and a club.  Same is true for SCDSL Discovery.  Plus, tons of the top kids in top CSL and SCDSL teams have been trying out with MLS League teams that have tryouts and some with ECNL as well.  Right now, you basically have to speak to someone with a kid in the age group who really knows the area teams and what they are up to in order to get a sense of what is really going and even they will only know a fraction of the teams.


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## espola (Aug 16, 2020)

Desert Hound said:


> Overall YSR is pretty good. The best option out there to be honest.
> 
> It does not do a good job in closed leagues like DA or ECNL. Now granted we know these are the strongest teams generally speaking. But since they do not play a lot of outside competition, it is hard to compare them vs the rest of the soccer world. DA of course rarely played ANYONE outside of DA. ECNL will occasionally (not the majority) in stuff like Surf Cup, Silverlakes, or Players. I suspect GA will follow along like ECNL in terms of not a ton of outside competition.


That was one of the weaknesses of DA (or maybe they saw it as a strength?) -- no objective comparisons possible with other methods of player development.   Was this one of the factors considered when USSF dropped the program?  I don't know - I wasn't in the room.


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## Eagle33 (Aug 17, 2020)

Dargle said:


> Perhaps the biggest problem with doing that now is that CSL hasn't set their brackets yet.  The strength of Gold will depend upon who applied for and was accepted into Premier, who left for Elite Academy, which Silver Elite teams will be promoted to Gold, and who is still active as a team and a club.  Same is true for SCDSL Discovery.  Plus, tons of the top kids in top CSL and SCDSL teams have been trying out with MLS League teams that have tryouts and some with ECNL as well.  Right now, you basically have to speak to someone with a kid in the age group who really knows the area teams and what they are up to in order to get a sense of what is really going and even they will only know a fraction of the teams.


The difference between CSL Premier and SCDSL Discovery is: CSL have 3-4 top teams and the rest is crap and SCDSL have 3-4 crap teams and the rest is good.


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## Dargle (Aug 17, 2020)

Eagle33 said:


> The difference between CSL Premier and SCDSL Discovery is: CSL have 3-4 top teams and the rest is crap and SCDSL have 3-4 crap teams and the rest is good.


Hard to make a generalization like that. It has depended a lot upon age group.  More relevant to this thread, though, is that it’s hard to know for sure what’s left of either right now.  Even without pandemic-related drops, the big change for boys is that the number of DA teams used to drop as you went up in age groups (a talent funnel process), which meant lots of strong kids returning to Premier and a Discovery. Now, the MLS league (former DA) and Boys ECNL (still very new) provides lots of opportunities at older age groups, as does the brand new EA and ECRL leagues. Premier and Discovery are likely going to have some teams that stay intact despite all of that and lots of teams that struggle because of dilution.


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