ECNL Girls Playoffs 2026

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SuperSoccerStar

Does anyone have any official documentation from ECNL on these changes that are happening to the playoff structure? Word is in Southwest and U15-U17 they are going from 8 to only 5 teams now for the National Playoffs. U18/19 is down to 2 teams. They also added Southwest to their League Cup schedule that gives an automatic playoff bid to the winner? Is that part of the 5? Is that for these age groups? Also location. Is it in St Louis in 2026? For U18/19 only 2 teams are making playoffs now? This is quote a big blow to the Southwest Conference in the most important recruiting years of these kids lives.
 
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SuperSoccerStar said:
Does anyone have any official documentation from ECNL on these changes that are happening to the playoff structure? Word is in Southwest and U15-U17 they are going from 8 to only 5 teams now for the National Playoffs. They also added Southwest to their League Cup schedule that gives an automatic playoff bid to the winner. Is that part of the 5? Is that for these age groups? Also location. Is it in St Louis in 2026? For U18/19 only 2 teams are making playoffs now?
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Just rumors for now. 32 teams, single elimination, 5 games in 7 days, location tbd.
 
Changes are due to world cup in the US next year. We were told playoffs in Seattle (I guess it could be St. Louis instead) but later in July. Yes, on the 32 teams champions league, 5 spots for SW.
 
5 spots for the SW seems crazy. Beach 2009 got the last 8th playoff spot and still made it to ECNL Finals a few months ago. Two years ago the SW had at least a total of 6 spots to qualify for the playoffs. I would love to hear the justification for the change.
 
Darmah said:
5 spots for the SW seems crazy. Beach 2009 got the last 8th playoff spot and still made it to ECNL Finals a few months ago. Two years ago the SW had at least a total of 6 spots to qualify for the playoffs. I would love to hear the justification for the change.
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At what point do parents realize that if you're not on a top 5 Southwest ECNL team that a top team in Southwest GA is likely a better option? Assuming playoffs and finals provide more exposure than showcases.

It's going to get really ugly when clubs from other parts of the nation who are 20 maybe 30+ rankings below Southwest ECNL get into playoffs. While #5-#8 Southwest are ignored. I bet they implement some kind of national wildcard to address if this happens

b3mSVYbDLvow8.webp
 
Carlsbad7 said:
At what point do parents realize that if you're not on a top 5 Southwest ECNL team that a top team in Southwest GA is likely a better option? Assuming playoffs and finals provide more exposure than showcases.

It's going to get really ugly when clubs from other parts of the nation who are 20 maybe 30+ rankings below Southwest ECNL get into playoffs. While #5-#8 Southwest are ignored. I bet they implement some kind of national wildcard to address if this happens

b3mSVYbDLvow8.webp
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For a 2028 what ECNL is pulling is absolute bullshit to be honest
 
SuperSoccerStar said:
For a 2028 what ECNL is pulling is absolute bullshit to be honest
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If the ECNL's goal is simply to get the best teams into the playoffs, the Southwest’s argument holds to a certain extend as there’s a lot of talent there.

But that’s not how playoffs work. By that logic, the World Cup would mostly feature teams from Europe (Italy got left out in 2022... unthinkable) and South America (Columbia got left out in 2022... unbelievable). Same with the NFL... strong AFC North teams often miss out, while weaker NFC South teams get in. For the development and health of any league incl. ECNL, the regional balance matters more than having more of the talented teams in the Playoffs. That's how this works...
 
John T. said:
If the ECNL's goal is simply to get the best teams into the playoffs, the Southwest’s argument holds to a certain extend as there’s a lot of talent there.

But that’s not how playoffs work. By that logic, the World Cup would mostly feature teams from Europe (Italy got left out in 2022... unthinkable) and South America (Columbia got left out in 2022... unbelievable). Same with the NFL... strong AFC North teams often miss out, while weaker NFC South teams get in. For the development and health of any league incl. ECNL, the regional balance matters more than having more of the talented teams in the Playoffs. That's how this works...
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Good luck with that.

Reality is if you dont keep the top teams in your league happy it's going to cause issues.
 
Rumor was 7 days in Seattle - avoiding the two venues over 3 weeks.
For sure, ECNL would have to have a robust showcase program at the same time//venue to facilitate college recruitment - ie: if your team does not qualify for playoffs, they are invited to the showcase games on the same fields that week. Without some sort of program like that, limiting teams to playoffs (not a bad thing inherently to expedite the process of championships) will completely backfire
 
Carlsbad7 said:
At what point do parents realize that if you're not on a top 5 Southwest ECNL team that a top team in Southwest GA is likely a better option? Assuming playoffs and finals provide more exposure than showcases.

It's going to get really ugly when clubs from other parts of the nation who are 20 maybe 30+ rankings below Southwest ECNL get into playoffs. While #5-#8 Southwest are ignored. I bet they implement some kind of national wildcard to address if this happens
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Still better to be in ECNL than GA. On top of the showcases at the playoffs there are several other showcases throughout the year a team can choose to play in. What does GA have to offer? Trend is more ECNL players recruited for P4 than GA (4 to 1) and less scouts going to GA events.
 
rainbow_unicorn said:
Still better to be in ECNL than GA. On top of the showcases at the playoffs there are several other showcases throughout the year a team can choose to play in. What does GA have to offer? Trend is more ECNL players recruited for P4 than GA (4 to 1) and less scouts going to GA events.
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I dont think that's true. Especially for the top GA clubs. But it's not worth arguing about religion. I just highlighted that if Socal ECNL clubs are ranked higher than ECNL clubs from other parts of the nation and they get boxed out of playoffs just because theres too many high level teams in Socal people are going to be pissed. This just makes it that much easier to go MLSN/GA when they come knocking.
 
If I remember correctly, SW had 6-8 spots last year for u/17 (08) playoffs. (U/19 for Norcal only has 1 spot)

I thought you had to win league to advance at the oldest age.
 
davidnunez said:
Rumor was 7 days in Seattle - avoiding the two venues over 3 weeks.
For sure, ECNL would have to have a robust showcase program at the same time//venue to facilitate college recruitment - ie: if your team does not qualify for playoffs, they are invited to the showcase games on the same fields that week. Without some sort of program like that, limiting teams to playoffs (not a bad thing inherently to expedite the process of championships) will completely backfire
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Southwest teams better all show up at the first showcase and win all 3 games to prove a point they are leaving good teams in the dust with this new change. They have known for how many years that world cup is in Seattle? I'm sorry but using that excuse is pathetic.
 
I think if you look at the teams in Virginia this year, there was a quite a showing of SCAL teams. Pretty much begged the question of why do we have the nationals in Virginia when at least a 1/4 of the teams are from SCAL playing SCAL teams
 
People are making this out to be a bigger deal than it is. This is a one-time slimming down of playoffs due to World Cup hosting. SW conference is acknowledged as being the toughest conference and was awarded with 8 spots for 17 teams on a normal year...much high proportion than any other conference. Our SW team was a perfect example where we were the #48 seed out of 48 teams going into playoffs but advanced to final 8.

Regarding class '28 recruiting, teams should be doing at least three ECNL showcases and attending college specific ID camps for target-realistic schools to mitigate any risk of their team not qualifying for playoffs.
 
davidnunez said:
This is a mega opportunity for an enterprising group of folks.. essentially the real USA Youth Cup.. (Surf cup used to be something like this - top 7 teams in the country + SD Surf)
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Something I think would be neat is to have a Socal/Norcal tournament over two weekends. One weekend in Norcal the second weekend in Socal + switch each year. Only do a single flight with all the top teams from the top clubs.

Just to make it more exciting winner gets half the parking fees broken out per age group.
 
Carlsbad7 said:
I dont think that's true. Especially for the top GA clubs. But it's not worth arguing about religion. I just highlighted that if Socal ECNL clubs are ranked higher than ECNL clubs from other parts of the nation and they get boxed out of playoffs just because theres too many high level teams in Socal people are going to be pissed. This just makes it that much easier to go MLSN/GA when they come knocking.
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It’s an absolute fact ECNL is just better than GA. 60% of D1 comes from ECNL, 18% GA. It’s not religion.

 
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