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The National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) is an American soccer league commonly recognized as being a fourth tier league. It is the successor of the Men's Professional Soccer League, a regional league originally based out of the Western United States, which has now expanded nationwide to encompass teams from 29 states. Although the league is officially affiliated to the United States Adult Soccer Association (USASA), and qualifies for the U.S. Open Cup through USASA channels, the league is generally considered to be at the fourth tier of competition in the United States soccer pyramid, behind Major League Soccer (MLS), the North American Soccer League (NASL), and the United Soccer League (USL), and roughly equal with the USL Premier Development League (PDL).〔 The league's motto is "A National League with a Regional Focus". Some of the clubs are former United Soccer Leagues (USL) clubs. ==Competition format== The National Premier Soccer League's is divided into four separate Regions (Northeast, South, Midwest, and West). Each Region contains three or four conferences with varying number of teams per conference. The four regions generally correspond to the four USASA regions, Northeast (Region I), Midwest (Region II), South (Region III), and West (Region IV) with the exception of teams in New York Western (one team), Pennsylvania West (two teams), and Missouri (only one team). The regular season runs from May to July with the exception of the West Region that has historically started in late March or early April.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=National Premier Soccer League )〕 Most conferences play between ten and twelve games against teams within the conference, though since 2009 some conferences have played as few as eight games and as many as fourteen games. When possible, each conference follows a double round robin format allowing for a balanced schedule. Larger conferences have had unbalanced schedules due to the constraint of scheduling games within the short window. The schedule is designed to allow college students to compete during their summer break. For the playoffs, the formats vary by region and conference with the four region champions facing each other in the National Semifinals and Championship games. The NPSL currently has eight automatic berths in the U.S. Open Cup where they gain eligibility towards the CONCACAF Champions League. The exact qualification format has varied over the years due to some teams passing on their opportunity to enter due to the timing of the tournament, as well as not being able to afford the risk associated with having to potentially absorb travel costs. In recent years the West Region has had a preseason qualifying tournament to determine their qualifying spot(s). To-date 20 different NPSL clubs have qualified for the U.S. Open Cup, and in 2014 two clubs, Brooklyn Italians and Chattanooga FC, made it to the third round (having been seeded in the second round), the farthest any NPSL team has advanced. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「National Premier Soccer League」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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