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Dan Floyd's avatar

This is spot on. It could (should) easily be avoided by just stating it up front. Part of the issue is that I don't think they're up to speed for how many people do care. Hey USL, it's a lot...

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Christpoher Wilson's avatar

100%. It's been an unbelievable era of growth for USL2 post COVID. But this is also a 30-year-old league, and they need to start acting like they're a 30-year-old league that's the second biggest fully sanctioned league in the country. One that could easily take the crown next year.

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BillyB90's avatar

Peoria City soccer season ticket holder here. I agree with you, completely. Thank you for this rant.

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Bring Back WNY Flash's avatar

Pretty crazy announcement in WPSL playoffs too. Niagara 1812 is hosting the East Region playoffs as the representative of the Great Lakes Conference. Niagara 1812 is the FIFTH place team in the conference, second in their division.

It does appear that this is due to everyone else above them opting out, but finding this out now is crazy. (Columbus Eagles, the conference top seed, commented about opting out here, I haven't checked the other three but I would assume similar https://www.facebook.com/ColumbusEaglesFC/posts/pfbid07kZmN1kZju2AsCs3ogiiWujoNU7Ye2uQ9qyzdyyaNUiC8wBXcmWL8C66CYSbRkeAl)

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Christpoher Wilson's avatar

WPSL playoffs are really weird. I remember last year like 6 or 7 non division or conference champions represented their division or conference in playoffs. It's due to a lot of teams not having the money to travel to or host the regional playoffs. This year the number seems really high though. The Desert, Mountain (split into Rockies and Wasatch Divisions), and Sunshine Conferences don't have a representative in the playoff at all. Meanwhile, the Great River Division, Lake Erie Division, Metropolitan Conference, Commonwealth Division, Peachtree Division, Pioneer Division, Land of Lakes Division, Pac North Conference, and maybe SoCal Conference all didn't have their champions represent them in playoffs. So, half of the divisions/conferences in WPSL (16 conference, 8 of which split into divisions, so 8 conferences and 16 divisions for a total of 24 playoff teams, this is creating a weird wording here), aren't being represented by their champion.

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tmeyer70's avatar

Thanks for your coverage of this.

So the organization that can’t transparently and openly message something simple like this can be trusted to pull off a new DI league and implement pro/rel. Sure.

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Christpoher Wilson's avatar

This and TBU/ACSC last year in USLW definitely has me worried.

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