AP Power Rankings: Week One

They're back! It's the return of the AP Power Rankings! Thank you to Matt Boullt and Jake Mercer for becoming Patrons of AP to help bring these Power Rankings back.

Here I will attempt to rank the top amateur teams in the country from various amateur men's leagues around the country. First, some ground rules.

1. Teams must have played 3 games to be eligible for the AP Power Rankings
2. Only teams from USASA Leagues are eligible 
3. Offensive and/or Defensive consistency go a long way in the Power Rankings
4. Only 5 teams will be ranked each week until more divisions have started play

After the recent USASA overhaul of league sanctioning, I've had to make some changes to how this is done. Currently, I will be ranking the top 10 teams of the UPSL and NPSL separately. Still trying to figure out how to rank the old elite league teams, but since that section of the USASA website is no more, I don't remember who all those leagues are. I am open to suggestions for how to do regional and state Power Rankings moving forward.

Now, the west coast based teams of the UPSL and NPSL have already kicked off due to their phenomenal weather. So the rankings will be very west coast heavy. Because of that, the rankings are starting with only five teams until more teams are playing. Once these west coast divisions have finished playing, they will be rolled out of the rankings, and at the end of the year, I will choose the top UPSL and NPSL teams for 2018! This part may be opened up to fan voting, we'll see. Since the UPSL has promotion and relegation in a couple of parts of the country, I will only be including UPSL from the top division.

This year, the winners will receive a unique trophy: a section of log with their logo and team name wood burned into said log by me, announcing them as the number 1 team of 2018!

Kind of like this picture below of the Skagway Shield from Alaska, but probably not as good looking.

Regardless, it'll be a cool piece of hardware for a team to add to their trophy collection. Hopefully. Fingers crossed.

Now, onto Week One of the AP Power Rankings!

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1. Coyotes FC: Pts:19 GF:33 GA:8 GD:25
2. California United: Pts:18 GF:29 GA:2 GD: 27
3. Lowcountry United: Pts:18 GF:19 GA:7 GD:12
4. California Victory: Pts:16 GF:32 GA:13 GD:19
5. LA Wolves: Pts:16 GF:20 GA:3 GD:17

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1. El Farolito: Pts:14 GF:15 GA:7 GD:8
2. CD Aguiluchos: Pts:14 GF:10 GA:4 GD: 6
3. ASC San Diego: Pts:13 GF:15 GA:7 GD:8
4. Orange County FC: Pts:12 GF:12 GA:5 GD:7
5. FC Golden State: Pts:11 GF:11 GA:10 GD:1

Now I do have some people asking about doing Power Rankings for high level local and regional leagues, like the Bay State Soccer League or Gulf Coast Premier League. Currently, I don't think I'll have the time to do that much, but if anyone reading this is willing to tackle doing regional and local league power rankings, please reach out me and we'll find a way to make it happen.

Otherwise, feedback and input is always appreciated to make sure this is getting done as well as possible, so sound off in the comments and in your retweets and lets work together to make this special!