Top Stories
The League FC Publishes First Region's Schedule
- SCHEDULE: Upstart The League For Clubs on Thursday released the schedule for its first region - the West Region - which will be the first to kick off the new league's season. message.
- KICK-OFF: Schedule formerly marks the start of the upstart preprofessional league announced in 2024, which has quickly added teams and regions nationwide.
NISA Nation Promotes Club in Southwest Region
EPSL Expands to Include Another Connecticut Club
- EXPANSION: The Eastern Premier Soccer League has announced the addition of Guanabara Soccer Club, of Connecticut, for the 2025 Season.
- NEW CONFERENCE: Based in Bridgeport, Conn., the club will play in the regional preprofessional league's Constitution Conference
News Features
2025 U.S. Open Cup: Updates & Scores
- ONGOING CUP COVERAGE: Details of the format, schedule, and teams of this year's tournament updated here.
- CHECK BACK: We will update with scores, new matchups, and any other news about the greatest U.S. sports tournament.
Referee Abuse Policy Changes This Year
- POLICY CHANGE: U.S. Soccer's new Referee Abuse Prevention policy goes into effect March 1, meaning leagues and clubs have to incorporate the changes.
- LEAGUES PREPARE: We talked to some leagues to see how they are preparing for the changes.
- NEW SANCTIONS: The new policy increases penalties for non-physical offenses and physical offenses.
- REPORTING: The policy also appears to help boost reporting of referee abuse incidents.
- REFEREE SHORTAGE Referee administrators say that abuse is the number one reason why referees do not recertify.
The U.S. Pyramid & Men's Preprofessionals
The Pyramid & What We Include as Men's Preprofessionals
- THREE DIVISIONS: U.S. Soccer only formally represents three divisions, which are all professional leagues. Major League Soccer is the top division (first division). USL has proposed another first division to start in 2026, but those were just announced and are developing. There is no promotion or relegation between divisions in the U.S.
- FOURTH DIVISION: Below the third division is the unofficial "Fourth Division." It is not formally recognized by U.S. Soccer but is generally accepted to include the national & multistate "semipro" and "preprofessional" / "pro-development" leagues, with some of the more notable regional and metro leagues generally included.
- LEAGUES: On this graphic, the leagues with icons on the fourth level are the main national leagues we cover in this preprofessional section. Although the full list is below.
- OTHER LEAGUES: Below the fourth division, are the local metro area and statewide amateur leagues, and other adult leagues. But there is no division designation. For our purposes, we designate these leagues as the "Open Division" due to the U.S. Open Cup designation. See our pyramid description on the "Open Division" page for more info on those leagues.
Preprofessional Leagues We Cover
United Premier Soccer League
- LARGEST LEAGUE: The UPSL is the largest amateur league in the U.S., with hundreds of teams nationwide, more than 10,000 players, several divisions (including men's, women's, and youth), and a senior-level men's division that annually holds two separate seasons and national championships.
- GOVERNING BODY: The league also happens to be its own governing body as a direct "national affiliate" of U.S. Soccer.
United Premier Soccer League
- NATIONWIDE LEAGUE: The National Premier Soccer League has been operating since 2003 and is one of the most competitive and largest spring/summer preprofessional leagues.
- REGIONS: A mainstay of preprofessional soccer in the U.S., the NPSL has teams across the nation and is the top preprofessional league sanctioned by the U.S. Adult Soccer Association, designated as a "Tier One" league.
USL League Two
- SEASON: The USL's League Two is an established nationwide league that operates in the late spring - early July. Teams exist in conferences nationwide.
- PATHWAY: USL League Two is part of the broader USL family of leagues. It presents a pathway for players to go from the amateur League Two to professional divisions in the USL Championship league and USL League One.
The League For Clubs
- NEW LEAGUE: The League For Clubs is a new league on the national scene. This spring / summer will be its first season.
- EXPANSION: Introduced on July 31, 2024, the first-year league has announced teams for 2025 on the West Coast, Texas, parts of the Great Plains, the Great Lakes, the Gulf of Mexico, the South, and the upper part of the Atlantic Coast.
United Premier Soccer League
- NATIONAL LEAGUE: NISA Nation is a national men's league that started in 2021 and has teams and regions nationwide .
- PATHWAY: NISA Nation is affiliated with NISA, a third-division professional league. The affiliation presents players a possible pathway from amateur to professional.
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The Soccer Press is the digital and published anchor of Soccer Press Media, a network of information sources dedicated to all aspects of soccer in the United States, both professional and amateur.
At Soccer Press Media, we aim to deliver fair and factual holistic paper-of-record type, big picture daily news coverage of soccer from all levels and forms of the sport in the U.S. through digital, audio, and print media.
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