National Academy League
National Elite (L2) · Boys & Girls
A national academy league run by 3STEP Soccer, and an MLS NEXT Academy Division operator.
Overview
The National Academy League is operated by 3STEP Soccer and ran its first season in 2023-24. It works through regional academy league partners rather than one national table, with partners in the Mid-America, Mid-Atlantic, North, Florida and Northeast regions plus separate U11 and U12 partner leagues.
In September 2025 MLS NEXT selected the NAL to operate part of its new Academy Division, which is what places it on this rung. Clubs commonly field a NAL team alongside a top team in another platform, so ask which competition the specific team enters.
The league publishes no sanctioning body and no age or gender range of its own, so treat those as club questions rather than league facts.
- Selected by MLS NEXT to operate part of its Academy Division from 2025-26
- Regional partner leagues, so the travel stays closer to home than a national table
- It publishes no sanctioning body, age range or gender scope
- A short record: its first season was 2023-24
Who plays here
186 clubs we catalogue play in NAL. Open one to see every league its teams actually enter, not just this one.
Albertson SUSAPre-ProfessionalCentral Islip, NY
Alliance ElevenTravel / SelectBargersville, IN
Asphalt GreenNational EliteNew York, NY
Atlantic United SB/LGN SCCompetitive RegionalNYAtletico de Madrid Academia MiamiNational EliteDoral, FL
Augusta ArsenalNational EliteMartinez, GA
Azzurri Storm SoccerNational EliteNaples, FL
Baltimore CelticPre-ProfessionalBaltimore, MD
Bavarian United SCPre-ProfessionalWI
Bayside FCPre-ProfessionalProvidence, RIBeadling SCPre-ProfessionalPA
Bethesda SCPre-ProfessionalMDCollege commitments
2,135 college commitments from 51 New York and New Jersey member clubs, taken from public commitment lists. Those two states are the only ones these counts cover.
These counts cover this league’s New York and New Jersey member clubs only. “Unverified” means the school matched but the program level did not. No league publishes college placement by youth league, so read this as one slice of two states rather than a scoreboard. We never print a current youth player’s name.
Rules
What this league asks before your kid can register: the ages it runs, whether they can still play the high school season, and who sanctions it. The college-exposure and cost lines are our read of the league, not a figure the league publishes.
HS soccer policy
Players can also play high school soccer
Age groups
U13-U19
Geographic footprint
National
College exposure (our read)
Moderate
Cost level (our read)
High
Founded
2023
The other leagues at this level
Leagues on the same rung of the ladder, so you can hold a club’s pitch against what the alternatives actually ask of a family.
| Factor | NAL This league | MLS NEXT Academy | DPL |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gender | Boys & Girls | Boys | Girls |
| Ages | U13-U19 | U13–U17 | U13–U19 |
| Clubs in directory | 186 clubs | 277 clubs | 197 clubs |
| HS soccer ok? | Yes | No | — |
| Footprint | National | National | National |
| What it is | A national academy league run by 3STEP Soccer, and an MLS NEXT Academy Division operator. | The second tier of MLS NEXT — clubs developing toward Homegrown promotion. | A national girls youth league, the competitive tier below the Girls Academy. |
Pathway from here
Clubs at this level play national or multi-state schedules and sell their events on college-coach attendance, which is a figure each league publishes about itself. Clubs also move between here and level 1 most springs, so the badge a club carries this season may not be the one it carries next.
The national events at this level are where college coaches watch, and each league publishes its own attendance figures for them. A coach at an event watches players who are on the pitch, so the question that decides your kid’s exposure is the roster size at their age group and where the coach puts them in it.
Which NAL clubs are inside your drive time?
Put in your ZIP and the finder shows the National Academy League clubs near you alongside everything else at that level. Or tell us about your kid and we’ll rank them with the reasoning spelled out.