Author: Scott Adamson

North Carolina FC jumps from NASL to USL

By Scott Adamson
Adamsonmedia.com

The United Soccer League continues to spread like wildfire.

And with its most recent expansion, the North American Soccer League was burned in the process.

On Thursday the USL announced that North Carolina FC will join Fresno FC, Las Vegas Lights FC, Nashville SC and a new franchise owned and operated by Major League Soccer’s Atlanta United FC in 2018.

In the case of North Carolina, however, the club is moving over from the NASL. That league is hoping for relief from the courts that will allow it to retain second division status: as of now, the USL will be the only Division II league in North America in 2018.

The United States Soccer Federation has denied the NASL DII status, due in part to its small footprint in the United States and Canada. It fielded only eight teams last season while the USL had 30.

“Today we are thrilled to announce the addition of another successful club to the USL,” USL CEO Alec Papadakis said in a statement. “We were very impressed with the level of sophistication of the operations and the ownership of North Carolina FC, led by their visionary owner and chairman Steve Malik. Steve brings a wealth of business experience to the league and has strong local community support.

“This is a first-class club with premier facilities, in a desirable market with a strong base of support – all the qualities that make a club successful in the USL.”

The NASL released a terse statement after the move was made official.

“The NASL confirms that North Carolina FC has withdrawn from the league. The NASL is proud to have supported professional soccer in North Carolina for five years prior to Steve Malik’s acquisition of the club at the end of the 2015 season. North Carolina FC’s departure from NASL represents the damage caused by the U.S. Soccer Federation’s decision to revoke NASL’s Division II sanctioning for the 2018 Season. The NASL remains committed to pursuing its legal claims to ensure that the future of its players, fans, and clubs remains bright.”

North Carolina FC just completed its 11th season in Cary, N.C. and was christened the Carolina RailHawks when it began play in 2006 – as a member of the USL. The team jumped to the fledgling NASL in 2010.

Last season while playing at 10,000-seat Sahlen’s Stadium at WakeMed Soccer Park, it ranked among the top 15 in attendance outside of MLS.

“We are excited to be joining the USL effective immediately,” Malik said. “The USL has seen tremendous growth, not only in new markets and franchises, but in the quality of play and fan awareness. We look forward to contributing to that growth in years to come.”

How about some ‘December Madness’ in the FBS?

With each passing Tuesday, the College Football Playoff picture moves closer to being fully drawn.

Out of Left Field is written by Scott Adamson. It appears weekly and sometimes more frequently if he gets up in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl

I still think there should be a much bigger canvas.

While the Bowl Alliance was an improvement over the Bowl Coalition, and the Bowl Championship Series was better than both, the CFP is supposed to cure all of the Football Bowl Subdivision’s ills because it’s a PLAYOFF!

The party line can be found on the CFP website: “The College Football Playoff preserves the excitement and significance of college football’s unique regular season where every game counts.”

Actually, every game already counts, otherwise scores would not be kept and leagues wouldn’t have standings.

But yes, it is fun to have semifinals and a championship. If the season ended today, Alabama and Miami would meet in the Sugar Bowl and Clemson would play Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl, with the winners tangling in Atlanta in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game on Jan. 8.

However, that’s more like an invitational than a playoff.

If you want a real postseason tournament, you need to have all the FBS conference champions represented.

And before you argue that an expanded playoff would be too much for the student-athletes, please tell that to the Football Championship Subdivision, which has already seen its tourney grow from 16 teams to 24.

NCAA Division II actually has a 28-team field, and Division III features 32 schools.

But I won’t be greedy: I’ll go with a 16-team FBS field, which I think would work out fine.

There are 10 conferences, so the champions of those leagues would automatically earn a bid. The other six teams would receive at-large berths, which would be up to the playoff committee to decide.

This tournament would put an end to the Power 5 and Group of 5 dynamic, which – in reality – only creates two divisions within the FBS. Because let’s be honest: the College Football Playoff was designed solely for the blue blood leagues, despite what can be found on the CFP website:

“Every FBS team has equal access to the College Football Playoff based on its performance. No team automatically qualifies.”

You can change “FBS” to just “BS” in the first sentence.

The odds against a Group of 5 team making a four-team playoff are astronomical, so the best a “mid-major” can hope for is making a New Year’s 6 bowl.

What concessions would have to be made to accommodate an expanded postseason?

Only one, really.

The 12-game schedule teams currently play would need to be trimmed back to 11. That way, the schools that advance to the national championship game will play 16 games.

That’s a lot, but only one more than the current CFP finalists participate in.

Also, this would preserve the conference championship games in all leagues, which would serve as play-in contests for the tourney.

So, using the current standings in the 10 conferences as a guideline to populate our automatic qualifiers, the field would feature Miami (ACC), UCF (American Athletic), Oklahoma (Big 12), Wisconsin (Big Ten), Florida Atlantic (Conference USA), Toledo (Mid-American), Boise State (Mountain West), Washington State (Pac-12), Alabama (SEC), and Troy (Sun Belt).

That leaves six wildcard spots to fill, and the selection committee would figure out who those teams were, along with seeding the 16-team bracket.*

* Don’t get your drawers in a bunch if I didn’t list your team as a potential league champion. Again, just guidelines based on current records. I still haven’t found enough plutonium to generate the 1.21 gigawatts needed to power my DeLorean into the future, therefore I don’t know all 10 of the 2017 titlists.

And for those who think it’s ridiculous to put, say, the Sun Belt champion in the playoff, why?

One of the beauties of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is seeing the little guys go dancing, even if most of them don’t get to dance for very long. Plus, upsets can and will happen.

The first round would see No. 1 vs. No. 16, No. 2 vs. No. 15, etc., and be played at the site of the higher seed. That format would also be used in the quarterfinals, but then the semis could be set up as they are now – played in existing bowls around New Year’s Day.

But what about the other bowls?

You can still have them.

With 16 teams out of 130 making the playoffs, that still leaves plenty of room for classics such as the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl, Famous Idaho Potato Bowl and Dollar General Bowl.

Those who think bowl tradition is still a thing can still have their thing, while a more legitimate national championship tournament would bring the FBS in line with the rest of NCAA football.

Will a 16-team tournament ever happen?

I hope so.

CFP officials won’t admit it, but they’re already chomping at the bit to expand the field to eight teams. If and when they do, they’ll tell you a quarterfinal-semifinal-final format is the best way to determine a champion in big-time college football.

Yet once they realize how much more money 16 teams can put in their coffers, they’ll claim a four-round tourney is the greatest thing since the forward pass.

Just wait and see.

Atlanta United FC adds USL team for 2018

By Scott Adamson
Adamsonmedia.com

Atlanta United FC became the biggest success story in Major League Soccer history this year, with an average attendance of 48,000 per game and a quality team that made the playoffs in its first year of existence.

On Tuesday, the organization took another step forward in building its brand.

The United Soccer League, which has designs on becoming one of the premiere second division soccer circuits in the world, announced that it will field a team in 2018 owned and operated by Atlanta United.

The club will play at Coolray Field in Gannett, Ga., which is home of the Gwinnett Braves International League baseball team. Seating capacity for soccer will be 10,427.

“Atlanta United’s organization has quickly proven itself among the leaders in Major League Soccer, and we are delighted to welcome them to our world-class ownership groups that make up the USL,” USL CEO Alec Papadakis said in a statement. “The caliber of organization that has been assembled by Arthur Blank and his team has raised the bar for professional soccer in the United States, and their addition to our league is another step toward the USL’s goal of becoming one of the best Division II professional soccer leagues in the world, on par with the English Championship, Liga Adelante and 2. Bundesliga.”

The team’s name and logo will be released in the coming months.

All MLS franchises except Minnesota are affiliated with USL teams, with four (LA Galaxy II, New York Red Bulls II, Portland Timbers II and Seattle Sounders FC II) bearing the name of their parent club.

Atlanta already has a strong academy system, and in 2017 benefitted from a working relationship with the USL’s Charleston Battery.

“This is a great opportunity for our club’s long-term success to be able to bridge the gap between our best in class academy and our First Team,” Atlanta United President Darren Eales said. “Establishing a top-level academy was the first priority for our club, and while our staff has done a marvelous job in identifying and developing young players, the next step has always been to create the pathway for the 18-to-19-year-old player who needs to continue his development before competing for a starting position at the MLS level.

“We’ll now have the capability to develop players in our system from the time they’re 12 years-old until the minute they reach the First Team.”

Louisville wins USL title

Cameron Lancaster’s goal broke a scoreless draw in the 88th minute to give Louisville City FC a 1-0 victory over Swope Park Rangers in the 2017 USL Cup on Monday. The season finale was played in front of a sellout crowd of 14,456 at Slugger Field in Louisville; it was the second highest-attended USL Cup in the league’s history.

Speedy Williams crossed the ball into the center of the penalty area and Lancaster headed the ball into the right corner of the net for the game winner.

Goalkeeper Greg Ranjitsingh earned the clean sheet for the victors.