Saturday, February 04, 2023

US Combined Soccer Leagues 2023

UPDATED February 16, 2024: Final Standings below.

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 2023, the USSF has 101 professional men's teams. After (or during) the 2022 season, California United Strikers, Tucson, Bay Cities, Valley United, and Syracuse Pulse folded. New teams added to Division 4 are Lexington Sporting, One Knox, Club de Lyon, Gold Star Detroit, Savannah Clovers, Austin II, Crown Legacy, Huntsville City, and Los Angeles F.C. 2. St. Louis City is added to Division 3, taking the place of St. Louis City2, which will be in Division 4.

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 2023, only counting games against teams in its division (Division 1, 2, 3 or 4).

Three teams are relegated from Division 1 and three teams promoted from Division 2. Four teams are relegated from Division 2, while the best two of each Division 3 league are promoted. The number of teams moving between Divisions 3 and 4 is determined by the total number of teams in 2024. At least one team is 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 is relegated from Division 2 to Division 3, no matter its place in the table.