US Combined Soccer Leagues 2022

UPDATED March 13, 2023: Final Standings below, updated based on teams in 2023.

Just suppose that many years ago, the US Soccer Federation required all professional teams to play in the same league system. Just suppose that they decided to divide teams vertically into Division 1, Division 2, etc. Just suppose that, each year, they promoted the best teams from Division 2 and relegated the worst teams from Division 1.

And here's the big leap. Just suppose that we didn't have any more teams playing than what we actually have.

In 2022, the USSF has 97 professional men's teams. After the 2021 season, Austin Bold, New Amsterdam, and OKC Energy folded. New teams added to Division 4 are Charlotte FC, Monterey Bay, Central Valley Fuego, Northern Colorado Hailstorm, Bay Cities, Flower City Union, Syracuse Pulse, Valley United, Rochester New York, St. Louis City, and the B teams for Chicago Fire, Cincinnati, Colorado Rapids, Columbus Crew, Houston Dynamo, Minnesota United, New York City, Orlando City, Philadelphia Union, Portland Timbers, San Jose Earthquakes, and Vancouver Whitecaps.

Here is a map of the teams. Click the rectangle tab thing in the upper left to get to the list where you can deselect the separate divisions.

Here are the final standings:

Since a wonderful home-and-away round robin didn't actually happen in each league above, I substituted that with ranking the teams by points-per-game, including each team's league and cup games played in 2022, only counting games against teams in its division (Division 1, 2, 3 or 4).

Three teams will be relegated from Division 1 and three teams promoted from Division 2. Four teams will be relegated from Division 2, while the best two of each Division 3 league will be promoted. The number of teams moving between Divisions 3 and 4 will be determined by the total number of teams in 2023. At least one team will be relegated from each Division 3 league.

B teams must be in a division below their A teams (unless both are in Division 4), so if an A team is relegated from Division 1 to Division 2, then the B team will be relegated from Division 2 to Division 3, no matter its place in the table.