{"id":3175,"date":"2017-01-09T22:44:55","date_gmt":"2017-01-10T03:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsoccer.com\/?p=3175"},"modified":"2017-01-09T22:44:55","modified_gmt":"2017-01-10T03:44:55","slug":"usl-2017-conferences-alignment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2017\/01\/09\/usl-2017-conferences-alignment\/","title":{"rendered":"USL 2017 Conference Alignment Provides Balance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rather than bask in the glory of its newly-earned Division II status<\/a>, the United Soccer League got to work\u00a0planning its 2017 season. It took the first planning step on Monday by announcing its\u00a0realigned conference\u00a0structure. The league has swollen to 30\u00a0teams as a result of\u00a0a business plan emphasizing\u00a0aggressive expansion and geographic coverage. Last season the\u00a0slightly imbalanced league featured 15 teams in the Western Conference, but only 14 in the East. This year the USL\u00a0features an equal number of teams in each conference, but some of the names have changed.<\/p>\n

USL 2017 Conference Alignment Provides Balance<\/h2>\n

The USL’s strong\u00a0Eastern Conference produced the top three point-earning teams in the 2016 season and the champion New York Red Bulls II<\/a>. This\u00a0conference adds three new teams for 2017. The Tampa Bay Rowdies and Ottawa Fury FC, two refugees from the NASL, jump leagues to\u00a0play their first season in the USL. They are joined by Saint Louis FC, who moves from the USL’s Western Conference to the East. Saint Louis FC is the USL affiliate of the MLS’ Chicago Fire.<\/p>\n

The Eastern conference drops two teams from last year.\u00a0FC Montr\u00e9al was dissolved after the 2016 season. Parent MLS side Montr\u00e9al impact will instead affiliate with the Ottawa Fury<\/a>. The Wilmington Hammerheads have dropped out of the USL and will field a 2017 side in the PDL<\/a> (Premier Development League). Overall, the East adds one team for a total of 15.<\/p>\n

The Western Conference adds one expansion team in Reno 1868 FC. The team, whose name pays tribute to the year Reno was founded, is\u00a0an affiliate of MLS’ San Jose Earthquakes. Reno 1868 will take the Western Conference slot that Saint Louis FC vacated, keeping\u00a0the West at 15 total teams.<\/p>\n

The 2017 USL season will feature a slightly longer calendar with each team playing 32 games rather than 30. 28 games will be played in home and away fixtures against each conference opponent, with the remaining four games being contested between local rivals. The USL regular season begins on March 24th and the full season schedule is expected to be released soon.<\/p>\n

2017 USL Conference Alignment<\/h3>\n

Eastern Conference<\/h4>\n

Bethlehem Steel FC
\nCharleston Battery
\nCharlotte Independence
\nFC Cincinnati
\nHarrisburg City Islanders
\nLouisville City FC
\nNew York Red Bulls II
\nOrlando City B
\nOttawa Fury FC
\nPittsburgh Riverhounds
\nRichmond Kickers
\nRochester Rhinos
\nSaint Louis FC
\nTampa Bay Rowdies
\nToronto FC II<\/p>\n

Western Conference<\/h4>\n

Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC
\nLA Galaxy II
\nOKC Energy FC
\nOrange County Blues FC
\nPhoenix Rising FC
\nPortland Timbers 2
\nReal Monarchs SLC
\nReno 1868 FC
\nRio Grande Valley FC
\nSacramento Republic FC
\nSan Antonio FC
\nSeattle Sounders FC 2
\nSwope Park Rangers
\nTulsa Roughnecks FC
\nVancouver Whitecaps FC 2<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rather than bask in the glory of its newly-earned Division II status, the United Soccer League got to work\u00a0planning its 2017 season. It took the first planning step on Monday by announcing its\u00a0realigned conference\u00a0structure. The league has swollen to 30\u00a0teams as a result of\u00a0a business plan emphasizing\u00a0aggressive expansion and geographic coverage. Last season the\u00a0slightly imbalanced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1653,"featured_media":331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,26],"tags":[40,341,759,37,627,61,287],"class_list":["post-3175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-usl","tag-nasl","tag-ottawa-fury","tag-reno-1868","tag-san-jose-earthquakes","tag-tampa-bay-rowdies","tag-usl","tag-wilmington-hammerheads"],"modified_by":"Joe Hojnacki","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1653"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}