SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP Carolinas Premier League

Looks like some positive changes have been made to the CPL. Press release can be found at https://www.carolinaspremierleague.com/

Hopefully all the lowcountry clubs will apply and be accepted. I guess the midlands will be doing the UDL run by SC United. I guess the upstate clubs will have to join that as well or play in the CESA run programming? CPl U13 and up teams will be back in the SCYSA leagues???

Looks like just a requirement that clubs are a registered club with US Club. No idea how onerous that process is (or isn't).

My understanding is that even the top U11 and U12 teams would play in the state leagues (but CPL will still have those divisions as well).

U13 and up looks like back to the state, except for those teams that are playing in other leagues (NPL, etc.).

I hope it works out and doesn't just turn into a mess like old coastal was at times.

Can member clubs still veto the admission of certain applicants?

No. The changes put in place open up the league for any organization that meets the US Club minimum standard.

And member clubs (after a one year introductory season with at least 3 teams - 'per US Club requirement') will receive a voting seat at the table. The league is designed ground up to be open and with shared ownership.
We are very pleased with the new structure and equitable membership and governance policies

Thank you for sharing. These seem like significant improvements for access and equity. Curious as to why the league didn't start up with these policies initially?

You'd have to ask those who authored the original bylaws to get the actual rationale, but I could guess a couple of factors.
Before you ask, I do not know who wrote the original bylaws.

Everyone need understand that the original intent with CPL (and later SCCL-PE extension) was to provide a full flighted club vs. club model across all ages that demands scrutiny at the club level to insure that capacity exists to support some of the original demands, and in this regard is no different than many other US Club based leagues.
In my mind, this was the mistake at local lower level, and as proven, very difficult to represent at every age group/gender for most clubs, particularly at the same level team and why older teams/clubs are returning to SCYS and its team based entry and promotion/relegation.

That being said, the new rewrite (and its authors) had the luxury of redefining criteria to focus on parochial Junior Academy league only and can more easily support team based entry by club (that meets US Club standard) and has no demands to represent at each age group.

A secondary factor with US Club competition is that there is little or no governing rules about recruiting and club behavior policed regionally like there is with SCYS (ethical recruiting rules to stop clubs/coaches jumping with teams to new clubs). So US Club leagues (in my experience) tend to build these 'honor' bound policies and recruiting restrictions at the league level, rather than Statewide like with SCYS.