N1 seems like the new basic competitive flights, agree?

[sigmabody]

This is the current SoCal League N1 schedule page: https://system.gotsport.com/org_event/events/54026

Unlike the former NPL, which had 1 select group for each gender/age, the N1 division has up to 4 flights per gender/age. Judging from the ratings app, N1 team strength goes from roughly second tier (for the highest end team) to formerly low Flight 3, and skews toward the lower end (ie: only about 1/3 of the N1 teams would be ranked high enough to be Flight 1 in previous league formulations). It doesn't seem to be exclusive at all, but just a parallel competitive structure to the other/legacy Flights structure.

Am I right in concluding that this is effectively the new competitive SoCal League, and the current/remaining Flights system is now effectively just rec soccer (in an overcoat)? Cause it sure seems like there's no effective distinction between the two groups in terms of team strength, except that N1 is a patch on the jerseys, and an opportunity to maybe play against the low-end of ECNL-RL at the end of the season.

 

[SuckItTrebek]

I will be watching but I think it is too soon to make that determination. We really need a full 12 months of this in existence before we can draw any logical conclusions or make informed opinions. But I share your concern.

 

[superfly10]

This is the current SoCal League N1 schedule page: https://system.gotsport.com/org_event/events/54026

Unlike the former NPL, which had 1 select group for each gender/age, the N1 division has up to 4 flights per gender/age. Judging from the ratings app, N1 team strength goes from roughly second tier (for the highest end team) to formerly low Flight 3, and skews toward the lower end (ie: only about 1/3 of the N1 teams would be ranked high enough to be Flight 1 in previous league formulations). It doesn't seem to be exclusive at all, but just a parallel competitive structure to the other/legacy Flights structure.

Am I right in concluding that this is effectively the new competitive SoCal League, and the current/remaining Flights system is now effectively just rec soccer (in an overcoat)? Cause it sure seems like there's no effective distinction between the two groups in terms of team strength, except that N1 is a patch on the jerseys, and an opportunity to maybe play against the low-end of ECNL-RL at the end of the season.

No this is not at all accurate.

More accurate is:

N1 Premier 1 Top NPL / National League teams.

N1 Premier 2 Lower NPL / Lower National League / Mid to high Flight 1 (and then Gold / Navy is split for geographical purposes)

Current SOCAL now is:

Flight 1 = Flight 1 & High Flight 2

Flight 2 = Low Flight 2 / Flight 3

Flight 3 = Low Flight 3 / Rec

 

[Jamisfoes]

Correct me if I am wrong:
N1 premier 1: A team of locked out club
N1 premier 2: B team of locked out club
SoCal flight 1: C team of locked out club or D/E team of big clubs
SoCal flight 2: kids who didn’t make the cut for AYSO extra

 

[sigmabody]

My impression (or relative strength) is:
- N1 tier 1 ~= ECNL-RL, MLSN-AD, or EA, and some higher level teams where the club is not in stronger letter league
- N1 tier 2 != ECNL-RL Regional, EA2, top-end of Flight 1 (who didn't get into N1 for whatever reason)
- N1 tier 3-4 ~= prior Flight 1-2, AYSO Extra
- Current Flight 1-4 ~= former Flight 2+, AYSO, rec

See my previous rant about league fracturing, but this whole SoCal League further splitting their teams is certainly not helping, especially when there's a long tail of utter garbage teams in lower division N1 and their former competitive tiers. Are we really better off in this league system, vs DOC's just arranging ad hoc matches for entire seasons? Cause it doesn't seem like it from where I'm looking.

 

[RandomSoccerFan]

The ordering of the different tiers in the leagues that you've listed may in fact be accurate, if someone's trying to rank the average strength of the leagues from top to bottom. But it may be downplaying the fact that the difference between the top teams in each bracket and the bottom teams in each bracket, is going to be much wider than the average differences between the leagues. A good N2 team would stomp a bad N1 team. A good flight 1 team would stomp a N2 team, maybe even many N1 teams. The fact that so many different leagues exist, that are all shooting for exactly "this much" of talent/experience/whatever, doesn't mean any of them are actually good at attracting exactly "that much" of it. There is going to be a very wide variation from team to team, which complicates things for people trying to objectively say that this league is better than that league, which is better than that other league over there.