Another thing the mid Atlantic GA did this year which we appreciated. Instead of having teams from NJ/PA travel to and from VA for the north vs south games, they held the games in the middle at a neutral field north of Baltimore. Brought all the mid Atlantic teams together the same weekend. Cut down everyone’s travel and had many college coaches. I hope this neutral field becomes a thing for next year too

Agree that mid atlantic will split but NC/VA and MD/North to align with HS which they will do to compete with ECNL

In all likelihood GA’s mid atlantic will split into two states and conferences with 8 teams each. There is already a north south concept in the conference so it would be an easy split. There are enough GA teams now to have a conference just for virginia and maryland.

Ballers prefer to skip HS soccer it is just bad level

Thanks, super helpful!

Anonymous wrote:I know it’s early and announcements are still being made, but do we have any idea of the divisions that local teams will be in?
Just thinking about travel and logistics.

NVA thread said GA would be Virginia and NC teams. Did NVA say that last night?

Is that true for GA2/Aspire?

Both those leagues can still play high school, correct?

How about MLS2? It’s own league now? Same second teams as MLSNext? So north to NJ/New York?

They can still play high school? Is it a predominantly Fall or Spring schedule?

GA doesn't take a break like ECNL does for HS, they play games throughout, they don't tell their kids they cannot play HS soccer.

MLS doesn't allow their kids to play HS, not sure how that will play out with tier 2.

GA parent here so responding with my best guess as to what will happen as I have seen what has happened as this area has gone from 2 GA clubs down to as little as just 1 and now its looking like 5 maybe.



This is how the conferences are divided, I highly doubt they're going to realign and bring in NC into the picture for the Mid-Atlantic. I believe at one point MA had 12 teams, this season there are 14 teams, if all plays out like people have been speculating with McLean and NVA then MA would be at 16 teams barring anymore additions.

In terms of how the travel is, it really isn't so bad. GA divides the MA conference into two divisions, the north and south, winners of each division get to the playoffs. For league play teams play everybody within their division twice and outside of their division only once. To make travel easier, the home and away scheduling for teams outside of the division changes each year to keep things fair and you don't have to plan long travel weekends for league play more than once. Example of this would be that last year MA south teams had to travel to Pittsburgh to play Beadling and Century over a weekend, while Jersey teams like SJEB had to drive south, this year is the opposite having to spend a weekend in NJ to play the likes of REAL and SJEB.

Really not sure about how Aspire will work, they've said that they will want to keep those leagues pretty regional so my best guess is maybe they won't have to travel to face north division opponents. Furthest north division opponent I think are in the Baltimore area. People are getting to see what GA did with becoming a full member of US Soccer means for them. This plan basically allows them to give the support/voice to the federation and them to tier out below them under a single umbrella for girls. US Soccer > GA > Aspire > DPL > DPL OPEN. Really great that they're doing this and for soccer fans, seeing that the bottom tier isn't gate kept is amazing. I'm not an ECNL parent but I don't see anywhere in that pyramid that has an open gateway to it.

I know it’s early and announcements are still being made, but do we have any idea of the divisions that local teams will be in?
Just thinking about travel and logistics.

NVA thread said GA would be Virginia and NC teams. Did NVA say that last night?

Is that true for GA2/Aspire?

Both those leagues can still play high school, correct?

How about MLS2? It’s own league now? Same second teams as MLSNext? So north to NJ/New York?

They can still play high school? Is it a predominantly Fall or Spring schedule?