Socal named as Operator for National 1 League

RandomSoccerFan said:
Combined with the National League from USYS. In other regions, it is more significant than to many of us here on the west coast.

usclubsoccer.org

National 1 League - US Club Soccer Website

Beginning in 2026-27, the National 1 League is the top team-based competition in US Club Soccer and US Youth Soccer, elevating teams across the country into a unified national platform integrated with the ECNL.
usclubsoccer.org usclubsoccer.org
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Is the full list of teams/clubs somewhere?
 
SDSoccerMom13 said:
Is the full list of teams/clubs somewhere?
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Here are all NPL clubs: https://usclubsoccer.org/npl/
Here are all National League clubs: https://www.thenationalleague.com/

One can assume every one of the NPL clubs, and every one of the National League clubs, is now magically part of "National 1 League". I'm sure there may be corner cases where some clubs dropped out and chose not to join for the year, and other cases where new clubs subscribed that were in neither prior. But that would happen (in small doses) every year for either of the preceding organizations as well.
 
RandomSoccerFan said:
Here are all NPL clubs: https://usclubsoccer.org/npl/
Here are all National League clubs: https://www.thenationalleague.com/

One can assume every one of the NPL clubs, and every one of the National League clubs, is now magically part of "National 1 League". I'm sure there may be corner cases where some clubs dropped out and chose not to join for the year, and other cases where new clubs subscribed that were in neither prior. But that would happen (in small doses) every year for either of the preceding organizations as well.
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Not true. I mentioned earlier that bottom 3 NPL teams may be "relegated" and National League teams with poor records and poor goal differential are not guaranteed. I know of one club that has 6 National League teams and the club was only pre-approved for 2 N1L spots.
 
superfly10 said:
Not true. I mentioned earlier that bottom 3 NPL teams may be "relegated" and National League teams with poor records and poor goal differential are not guaranteed. I know of one club that has 6 National League teams and the club was only pre-approved for 2 N1L spots.
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I'm not sure you're understanding that it isn't new. That already happens with NPL. Bottom teams get relegated out of NPL and into Premier. It's not a new thing with this new league - it's always been in place. I imagine National League has always had similar mechanisms to boot low-performing teams/clubs. It's interesting that a club that has 6 teams, will be only given 2 slots - but my hunch is that they are likely some pretty weak teams.
 
RandomSoccerFan said:
I'm not sure you're understanding that it isn't new. That already happens with NPL. Bottom teams get relegated out of NPL and into Premier. It's not a new thing with this new league - it's always been in place. I imagine National League has always had similar mechanisms to boot low-performing teams/clubs. It's interesting that a club that has 6 teams, will be only given 2 slots - but my hunch is that they are likely some pretty weak teams
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Socal runs NPL. Teams relegated go to Socal Flight 1. Not sure how often it actually happens.
 
RandomSoccerFan said:
Yep. Here's how it works in NorCal, and happens every season:

norcalpremier.com

Explained: Promotion and Relegation in NorCal League Play - NorCal

Through promotion and relegation, NorCal is able to ensure that its NPL and ECNL-RL are properly balanced in order to foster development.
norcalpremier.com norcalpremier.com
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Original post was definitely referencing Socal not Norcal. I don't know Norcal much but I'd venture to guess players roll to MLS Next and EA as much as possible (based on 4 friends comments) on boys side, don't know girls side at all.
 
RandomSoccerFan said:
Yep. Here's how it works in NorCal, and happens every season:

norcalpremier.com

Explained: Promotion and Relegation in NorCal League Play - NorCal

Through promotion and relegation, NorCal is able to ensure that its NPL and ECNL-RL are properly balanced in order to foster development.
norcalpremier.com norcalpremier.com
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Reading this link - as age ascends, Norcal has 5 flights - ECNL-RL, NPL 1, NPL 2, NPL 3 and then Premier at U16.
That's pretty... uh... clear?

I'd bet that any team relegated in U10-U15 is going to lose their best 3 players and just change into a different team completely. While its a interesting concept parents just aren't that patient, and the best players parents do have options.
 
Just to be clear - you're not speculating on something that might happen in the future due to a recent change. You're making assumptions on what has actually happened over the past few years. I can't assume to know how well all teams fare when they are relegated, but in the older ages teams tend to fall apart pretty quickly when they've peaked and are dropping back down (as top players leave). I know some of our coaches of teams that are at risk of being in the relegation zone are critically focused to do anything they can to avoid that fate, as it's certainly seen as something that will severely impact, if not essentially eliminate a team.

But - keep in mind that NPL (and now N1L) isn't the top of the pyramid, so all of these teams, whether NPL1,2,3, etc., are always at risk of losing their best players every season, as they get opportunities not only with RL, but with ECNL and MLS clubs. It's not like if the teams weren't relegated, they would be that much better at retaining players - by definition, they are already at the bottom of the bracket. What it does do is make sure that teams that simply aren't competing well at this level are no longer able to do so the following season, and they can find the right competition level some rungs down.
 
RandomSoccerFan said:
Just to be clear - you're not speculating on something that might happen in the future due to a recent change. You're making assumptions on what has actually happened over the past few years. I can't assume to know how well all teams fare when they are relegated, but in the older ages teams tend to fall apart pretty quickly when they've peaked and are dropping back down (as top players leave). I know some of our coaches of teams that are at risk of being in the relegation zone are critically focused to do anything they can to avoid that fate, as it's certainly seen as something that will severely impact, if not essentially eliminate a team.

But - keep in mind that NPL (and now N1L) isn't the top of the pyramid, so all of these teams, whether NPL1,2,3, etc., are always at risk of losing their best players every season, as they get opportunities not only with RL, but with ECNL and MLS clubs. It's not like if the teams weren't relegated, they would be that much better at retaining players - by definition, they are already at the bottom of the bracket. What it does do is make sure that teams that simply aren't competing well at this level are no longer able to do so the following season, and they can find the right competition level some rungs down.
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Just to be clear - most of the US soccer pyramid is REC - just expensive paid rec. Kept in place by gatekeepers including a ranking app that you rush to defend anytime any other poster puts anything up about ti.

Original post you were replying to was discussing Socal not Norcal. You said this - "It's not a new thing with this new league - it's always been in place. " - I'm doubting that is actually true and you are speculating - unless you have a way to go track back and see what happens (you don't - leagues wipe their standings every year)
 
RandomSoccerFan said:
Just to be clear - you're not speculating on something that might happen in the future due to a recent change. You're making assumptions on what has actually happened over the past few years. I can't assume to know how well all teams fare when they are relegated, but in the older ages teams tend to fall apart pretty quickly when they've peaked and are dropping back down (as top players leave). I know some of our coaches of teams that are at risk of being in the relegation zone are critically focused to do anything they can to avoid that fate, as it's certainly seen as something that will severely impact, if not essentially eliminate a team.

But - keep in mind that NPL (and now N1L) isn't the top of the pyramid, so all of these teams, whether NPL1,2,3, etc., are always at risk of losing their best players every season, as they get opportunities not only with RL, but with ECNL and MLS clubs. It's not like if the teams weren't relegated, they would be that much better at retaining players - by definition, they are already at the bottom of the bracket. What it does do is make sure that teams that simply aren't competing well at this level are no longer able to do so the following season, and they can find the right competition level some rungs down.
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Losing best players when a team gets relegated allows talents to concentrate elsewhere. It’s better than the current anti-competitive system where clubs with certain fake pathways are able to retain players year after year with coaches who run their teams like their little fiefdom and hide behind the banner of “development”. It’s time to bring back promotion and relegation in youth soccer.
 
shankbone said:
Just to be clear - most of the US soccer pyramid is REC - just expensive paid rec. Kept in place by gatekeepers including a ranking app that you rush to defend anytime any other poster puts anything up about ti.

Original post you were replying to was discussing Socal not Norcal. You said this - "It's not a new thing with this new league - it's always been in place. " - I'm doubting that is actually true and you are speculating - unless you have a way to go track back and see what happens (you don't - leagues wipe their standings every year)
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I'm not sure why you're being argumentative. We seem to agree on most points here. Most of US Soccer pyramid can certainly be considered rec. If the top 3% was considered "Elite" and the rest was kids playing for fun, seems fine to me. (Instead of falsely labelling 75% of it "elite" at the moment).

The ranking app does a fantastic job of pointing out the objective reality of how strong a team is, regardless of name, league, or anything else. Even if most aren't "Elite", there still is a very wide gap in skill set across all teams. Having people to be able to identify other teams of similar levels, and giving people a more transparent way to identify and judge where teams tend to sit in the ecosystem - takes a ton of power away from many of those who would prefer that parents (customers) would have no option other than inherently trusting their coach/club to "fairly assess" talent.

This thread started with talking just about SoCal and its implementation of National 1 League, but it digressed many pages ago to discussion about the new league in general. Just to be clear, that change of focus seems to often happen on forums. NPL in Norcal has had pro/rel for several years now. That's not speculation - it's firm reality. It's been in place since one of my kids was still in the u-littles, all the way through his NPL journey and beyond. The mechanics of how it has worked changed in the 23-24 season, the 25-26 season for RL, and now again for the 26-27 season with N1L. N1L continuing to have pro/rel isn't a new experiment.

Screenshot 2026-05-13 224504.png
 
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