USYS and US Club Soccer recenly announced a collaboration to enhance and refine the competitive league pathways available to teams for the 2026-2027 season.
The top two competitive leagues in the new competition pyramid are the ECNL and the ECNL-RL Leagues.
The third level league competition beginning in the 26-27 season is the National 1 league.The National 1 league replaces the Great Lakes Alliance NPL and Premier leagues in which a number of our teams have competed over the last few years.
Information about each of the these leagues along with state and locally based leagues in the USYS/US Club Soccer competitive pathway are listed below.
For the 2026-2027 season we will have Ohio Galaxies FC teams competing in each of these platforms. League placement for each team will be based on the best competitive fit for the players on our teams.
ECNL-RL - US Club Soccer
The ECNL and ECNL-RL leagues are the top two competitive leagues in the newly revised USYS/US Club competition pyramid. The leagues are club based which means participating clubs field a team in each age group u13-u19. Based on league performance teams qualify for post season competition. Our Ohio Galaxies FC girls elite teams compete in the ECNL-RL Ohio Valley Conference and our boys elite teams compete in the ECNL-RL Great Lakes Alliance Conference.
National 1 League
The National 1 league is the third level league competition in the competitive pyramid. The league is team based and replaces the US Club Soccer NPL league and the USYS National League. The league is comprised of 8 conferences further broken down into distrcts which are geographically designed to reduce travel and improve competition. Based on league performance teams qualify for post season competition. Our Ohio Galaxies FC teams participating in this league will compete in the Midwest 2 district against teams from Southern Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.
Buckeye Premier League
The Buckeye Premier League managed by the USYS Ohio Soccer Association is in the fourth level of competition in the competitive league pyramid. The league primarily supports teams in southern Ohio and northern Kentucky with multiple levels of competitive play organized and based on competition level or local competiton.
Cardinal Premier League
The Cardinal Premier is a club member based league in the fourth level of competition in the competitive league pyramid. The league based in Southern Ohio offers team based competition at mulitple competitive levels for players in all age groups. The league offers a home and away league format managed by the particpipating clubs.