2000 PDL season explained

Competition:USL Premier Development League
Season:2000
Winners:Chicago Sockers
Prevseason:1999
Nextseason:2001

The 2000 USL Premier Development League season was the 6th PDL season. The season began in April 2000 and ended in August 2000.

Chicago Sockers finished the season as national champions, beating Mid-Michigan Bucks 1–0 in the PDL Championship game. Westchester Flames had finished with the best regular season record in the league, winning 15 out of their 18 games, suffering just three losses, and finishing with a +26 goal difference.

Changes from the 1999 season

Rules

This is the first year that the PDL used ties in the standings, whereas previous seasons employed a shootout.

Name changes

The following teams changed their name:

New teams

10 New teams were added, including 8 expansion teams:

Team NameMetro AreaLocationPrevious Affiliation
Alabama SaintsBirmingham areaBirmingham, ALreturned from hiatus
Boulder NovaBoulder areaBoulder, COexpansion
Broward County WolfpackBroward County areaFort Lauderdale, FLexpansion
Dayton GemsDayton AreaDayton, OHexpansion
New Brunswick BrigadeNew Brunswick areaNew Brunswick, NJexpansion
North Jersey ImperialsNorth Jersey areaParamus, NJfrom D3 Pro League
Palm Beach PumasPalm Beach areaPalm Beach, FLexpansion
South Florida FutureSouthwest Florida areaSarasota, FLreturned from hiatus
Tampa Bay HawksTampa Bay AreaPalm Harbor, FLexpansion
Thunder Bay ChillThunder Bay AreaThunder Bay, Ontarioexpansion

Folding

Eight teams folded before the season:

Standings

Legend
Division champion
Team qualified for playoff berth
Regular season champion and bye into PDL Semifinals.

Central Conference

Great Lakes Division

Heartland Division

Provisional Teams

Eastern Conference

Northeast Division

Southeast Division

Western Conference

Rocky Mountain Division

Northwest Division

Southwest Division

Playoffs

Format

Mid-Michigan won the PDL Regular Season title and a bye to the National Semi-Finals. This moved Dayton up to the Great Lakes Division first place spot and allowed West Michigan into the playoffs, taking the second place spot for the division.

For the Central and Eastern divisions, the top seeds from each division face the second place team from the opposite division. For the Western Conference, the division champion with the most points will play the wild card, while the two remaining division champions play each other.

PDL championship

[1]

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Notes and References

  1. https://www.rsssf.org/usadave/usisl.html United Soccer Leagues (RSSSF)