Friday, February 16, 2024

US Combined Soccer Leagues 2024

UPDATED November 30, 2024: Final Standings are 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 2024, the USSF has 103 professional men's teams. After the 2023 season, Rio Grande Valley, San Diego Loyal, Albion San Diego, City Union and Gold Star Detroit folded. New teams added to Division 4 are Rhode Island, Spokane Velocity, Arizona Monsoon, Capo, Georgia Lions, Irvine Zeta and Carolina Core.

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 current standings:

Since a wonderful home-and-away round robin won't actually happen in each league above, I will substitute that with ranking the teams by points-per-game, including each team's league and cup games played in 2024, 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 is determined by the total number of teams in 2025. 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.

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