MLS NEXT and ECNL age groups
MLS NEXT and ECNL age labels can describe birth-year groups, school-year groups, or combined older groups. LeagueTables keeps those labels tied to league, conference, and team pages.
Age labels
Youth soccer competitions group teams by birth year, school year, or age-band labels. MLS NEXT pages often use labels such as U13, U14, U15, U16, U17, or U19. ECNL pages often use birth-year labels with a gender prefix, such as B2010 for boys or G2011 for girls. Older ECNL groups may combine years, such as G2008/2007, when the source competition uses a combined group.
Families often arrive with one label in mind. One parent may know "U15," while another may know "B2010." LeagueTables keeps the source label instead of forcing every league into one format. The league source controls the season's age-group structure and eligibility rules.
2026-27 age-group change
For the 2025-26 season, most covered youth soccer pages still follow the current source labels. Beginning with the 2026-27 season, US Youth Soccer, AYSO, and US Club Soccer have announced an age-group formation cycle running from August 1 to July 31 instead of January 1 to December 31. The change is meant to better align many players with school-grade peers and reduce the trapped-player problem.
That means a future U15, U16, or U17 page may represent an August-to-July age window rather than one calendar birth year. Players born from August through December may appear in a younger age-group label than they would have under calendar-year grouping, while players born from January through July may remain with the older part of that school-year group.
MLS NEXT appears to use a split approach for 2026-27. MLS NEXT Academy Division pages are expected to move to school-year age groups, while the Allstate Homegrown Division is expected to continue using birth-year age groups. ECNL is sanctioned by US Club Soccer, so ECNL age labels may also change as the 2026-27 source data moves to the new age-group formation cycle.
LeagueTables does not decide age eligibility. It preserves the labels and competition slices used by the public source data. During the transition, check the league or club source when an age label affects tryouts, roster placement, travel, recruiting, or advancement.
Age-group pages
Age groups sit between league pages and conference pages. Choose the league, open the age group, then select the conference. This follows the public schedule structure and keeps each standings table tied to one competition slice. A team can appear in one age group for one league and under another label elsewhere, especially when source names include age suffixes.
LeagueTables cleans some repeated team-name text for display. A source name may include an ECNL age suffix that clutters the table. The page can show the cleaner club name while the route still comes from the original source data. The cleanup changes readability, not team identity.
What parents should check
If you use a table for travel planning, tournament planning, tryouts, or a club decision, confirm the age group with the league or club. Youth soccer calendars include league matches, showcase matches, playoff events, finals, and separate competitions. Some events sit outside the standings table even when they use the same team and age label.
Use LeagueTables to find the league, age group, conference, and team page. Check the league or club when a kickoff, venue, roster, or advancement rule matters. Public data helps you find the right page faster; the league still makes the ruling.