How Youth Soccer Is Organized in Texas
Texas is split between two state associations, and its leagues stack from national conferences down to local play. Here is how North Texas and South Texas fit together.
By MyLeagueRankings ·
Youth soccer in Texas is organized in two halves. US Youth Soccer has two state associations here, North Texas Soccer and South Texas Youth Soccer, and most leagues, cups and conferences follow that line. On top of that sit the national and regional leagues, which place Texas clubs into conferences of their own.
If you are new to club soccer in Texas, the fastest way to make sense of it is to ask two questions about any team: which half of the state does it play in, and which level is its league?
Two associations, one state
North Texas Soccer is based in Frisco and covers the Dallas and Fort Worth area. South Texas Youth Soccer describes its territory as running from El Paso to Beaumont and from Temple to Brownsville, which takes in Houston, Austin and San Antonio. Each association registers players, sanctions leagues and runs its own state cups.
You will see the split everywhere:
- Regional leagues run a North Texas conference and a separate South Texas one.
- State Cup and Presidents Cup are held twice, once in each association.
- El Paso belongs to South Texas Youth Soccer, but in the National 1 League it shares a district with New Mexico.
Our pyramid pages list Texas leagues under North Texas and South Texas for this reason.
The levels in Texas
Texas has every youth level of the US soccer pyramid. These are the names you will run into at each one.
| Level | What you will see in Texas |
|---|---|
| National leagues | The ECNL Texas conference (boys and girls), MLS NEXT, Girls Academy |
| Regional leagues | ECNL Regional League conferences (Texas, North Texas, STXCL), Pre-ECNL, three National 1 League South districts |
| State and local leagues | STXCL Eastern and Western conferences, Eastern District Players League, CTX Premier League, Plano Premier Invitational League, North Texas Regional Premier League |
| Recreational | Local association and in-house leagues |
National leagues
Texas clubs in the ECNL play in the Texas conference. MLS NEXT, whose members include the academies of MLS clubs, and the Girls Academy also have Texas member clubs. Clubs are admitted to these leagues; teams do not win their way in. See the national youth leagues explained.
Regional leagues
The ECNL Regional League is where the two halves become visible. It runs a North Texas conference and, in South Texas, a conference named STXCL (the South Texas Champions League), along with a Texas conference. Pre-ECNL uses the North Texas and STXCL names for younger teams.
The National 1 League, which started in 2026-27 and combines US Youth Soccer's National League with US Club Soccer's NPL, divides the country into eight conferences and each conference into numbered districts. Three districts of the South conference cover Texas:
- South District 2, operated by the Texas Club Soccer League, covers North Texas and part of Oklahoma.
- South District 3, operated by the South Texas Champions League, covers South Texas.
- South District 4, operated by the El Paso Premier League, covers West Texas, El Paso and New Mexico.
State and local leagues
Below the regional leagues are the leagues most competitive Texas teams play in. In South Texas, STXCL runs Eastern and Western conferences, and you will also see the Eastern District Players League and, in Central Texas, the CTX Premier League. In North Texas you will see names such as the Plano Premier Invitational League and the North Texas Regional Premier League.
These leagues are organized into divisions and brackets by age and strength, and this is the level where teams move up and down on results.
Cups in Texas
Each association runs its own State Cup and Presidents Cup, so North Texas and South Texas each crown their own winners. A State Cup champion advances to the US Youth Soccer National Championships. A Presidents Cup champion advances to a regional qualifier, and its winners go on to the National Presidents Cup. South Texas also runs two further spring cups below those, the Directors Cup and the South Texas Cup. Leagues can run cups of their own as well, alongside the regular season.
Weekend tournaments are a separate thing again. They are stand-alone events with group games and a bracket, and they do not change a team's league standing. The differences are covered in how cup pathways work.
After youth soccer
Texas also has a large adult game. The UPSL, a national adult league, has Texas teams, and cities run amateur leagues with many divisions, among them the Austin Men's Soccer Association, the Austin Community Soccer Association and the Houston Football Association. See where college and amateur leagues fit.
How to place a Texas team
- Find the half. A team in the Dallas and Fort Worth area plays in North Texas competitions. Houston, Austin, San Antonio and El Paso teams play in South Texas ones.
- Find the league level. The league name usually tells you: ECNL, ECNL RL, National 1 League, or a state or local league.
- Find the flight. Inside a league, teams are grouped by age and sex, and often by strength. That group is where standings and rankings are kept.
- Compare inside the flight. A ranking compares teams that play each other. It does not tell you how a North Texas team would do against a South Texas team that it has never met.
Look up Texas leagues and teams
Start at the pyramid for leagues by level and state, browse all leagues, or go straight to a team with team search. Each flight page shows the standings and our power ranking, which is explained in how rankings are calculated.
