National Premier Leagues
Competitive Regional (L3) · Boys & Girls
The US Club Soccer team-based tier that ran until 2026 and is now part of National 1.
Overview
The National Premier Leagues ran for fifteen years as a network of US Club Soccer competitions at the competitive-regional level. NPL was never one league with one table: it was a set of affiliated regional leagues under a single brand, whose winners advanced to national playoff events, which is why the name on its own never told you much about the level.
US Club Soccer ranks its own competitions in public, and it placed the NPL below the ECNL Regional League as "the top level of team-based play in the pathway". In the same release it counted nearly 230 clubs promoted out of the NPL into the Regional League or ECNL.
The NPL has finished. The 2026 NPL Finals in July was the last one, and the competition has been folded into the new National 1 League for 2026-27. If a club is still selling "NPL" for this season, that is a stale badge: ask which National 1 conference and district the team will actually play in.
- A route upward its own sanctioning body counted: nearly 230 clubs promoted out of the NPL into the ECNL Regional League or ECNL
- Its teams carry over into National 1, which sits in the same place on the ladder
- The competition has ended; the 2026 Finals was the last
- One brand over many separate regional leagues, so "NPL" alone never told you the level
Who plays here
700 clubs we catalogue play in NPL. Open one to see every league its teams actually enter, not just this one.
1974 Newark FCPre-ProfessionalNewark, CA
7 Elite Soccer AcademyTravel / SelectSalt Lake City, UT
7UnitedscTravel / SelectIL
AC BreaNational EliteCA
AC Delray Inc.Competitive RegionalFL
AC MarinNational ElitePetaluma, CA
Aggies Football ClubTravel / SelectNorth Logan, UTAjax UnitedPre-ProfessionalModesto, CA
Albany Berkeley Soccer LeagueTravel / SelectAlbany Berkeley, CA
Albertson SUSAPre-ProfessionalCentral Islip, NY
Albion Hurricanes FCPre-ProfessionalTX
ALBION SC Central ValleyNational EliteCACollege commitments
3,091 college commitments from 150 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
Regional
College exposure (our read)
Moderate
Cost level (our read)
Moderate
Governing body
US Club Soccer
Founded
2011
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 | NPL This league | USL Academy | ECNL RL |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gender | Boys & Girls | Boys & Girls | Boys & Girls |
| Ages | U13-U19 | U13–U19 | U13-U19 |
| Clubs in directory | 700 clubs | 213 clubs | 408 clubs |
| HS soccer ok? | Yes | — | Yes |
| Footprint | Regional | National | Regional |
| What it is | The US Club Soccer team-based tier that ran until 2026 and is now part of National 1. | A national youth league run by the United Soccer Leagues, made up of USL pro-club academies and affiliated youth clubs. | The tier directly beneath ECNL, with a promotion pathway up. |
Pathway from here
This is the rung where the route upward is written down. US Club Soccer counts nearly 230 clubs promoted out of the NPL into the ECNL Regional League or ECNL, and seven of the ten clubs joining ECNL Boys for 2026-27 came up from the Regional League. That movement happens at club level. A player moves by trying out.
- ECNL RLECNL Regional LeagueL2–L3
The tier directly beneath ECNL, with a promotion pathway up.
- USYS NLUSYS National LeagueL3
The US Youth Soccer national pyramid, which held its last competition in July 2026.
- N1National 1 LeagueL3
The new top team-based league, merging NPL and the USYS National League from 2026-27.
Which NPL clubs are inside your drive time?
Put in your ZIP and the finder shows the National Premier Leagues 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.