Methodology & Disclaimer
Method last changed: August 1, 2026 (men's college rating bands recalibrated). Ratings last computed: 2 September 2026. Two dates, both correct — the policy below changes rarely, the numbers change twice a day.
Ranked XI is the national table of American soccer: every club from MLS to the grassroots, men's and women's, ranked on one scale. This page is the whole policy on one screen: how the ratings are built, what each basis label means, what the project is not, and where every source comes from.
How the ratings are built
League results feed a weekly Elo rating per club. Cup competitions — U.S. Open Cup qualifying, the National Amateur Cup — are where leagues actually meet, and roughly 600 cross-league Cup results from the last five editions calibrate the gaps between levels. Every rating labels its basis on the page where it appears: real results, real standings, an independent results model, or an illustrative placeholder until that league's feed connects. Fixtures and results are never invented.
What "independent results model" means. It is the most common basis label on the site, so it deserves its own definition. The wins and losses underneath these ratings are real — every scored game a team played that season — but the rating math was run by an independent third party (primarily Massey Ratings) rather than by our own Elo engine. We take that independent ordering, check its coverage against our club list, and map it onto the national scale using the calibrated bands described below. It is one step less direct than match-by-match Elo we compute ourselves, which is exactly why it carries its own label instead of borrowing real results.
College is placed, not measured. Varsity teams never play in the Open Cup, so no real cross-league results anchor them. College layers use independent Massey ratings (season snapshots) for order within each division, mapped onto the national scale in calibrated bands. Men's bands top out just below the professional USL Championship floor — a top college side rates like a strong USL League One / League Two team, whose summer rosters are largely these same players (recalibrated Aug 2026; earlier snapshots ran higher). Women's college bands sit deliberately higher: college is the women's game's primary development tier, so the top D1 programs rate just below the NWSL floor.
The four basis labels
Every rating on Ranked XI carries one of these four labels, on the page where it appears. The label is the honest part: it says how directly the number was measured.
| Label | What the number is built from | How direct |
|---|---|---|
| Real results | Elo walked match-by-match over every scored fixture the club played this season. | Most direct — we compute it from the games. |
| Real standings | The division publishes a table but not usable match results, so the rating is fitted to points and goal difference. | Direct, but one step removed from the individual games. |
| Independent results model | Real games, but the rating math was run by a third party (primarily Massey Ratings) and mapped onto our scale. | Real evidence, someone else's arithmetic. |
| Illustrative | No usable feed is connected for this competition yet. | Not a measurement. It demonstrates the product and says so. |
Disclaimer
Ranked XI is an independent project by Jeremy Kientz. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any league, club, or federation shown. Club and league names and crests belong to their owners and appear for identification only. Anything tagged Illustrative demonstrates the product, not the club. Match probabilities are statistical estimates for entertainment and analysis — not betting advice; Ranked XI takes no wagers and no commissions. Youth clubs are organization listings only, carry no ratings or player data, and we never publish personal information about minors.
How Ranked XI compares
Club Coefficient scores men's clubs by multi-year honors and league strength. Ranked XI puts men's and women's, college included, on one current Elo-style scale, and labels whether each rating is real results, real standings, an independent model, or illustrative.
ESPN, MLSSoccer, FotMob, Sofascore and Transfermarkt all rank clubs inside a league. Wikipedia explains the American league system as a diagram. None of them answer the question this site exists for: where does a given club sit against every other club in the country, on one number, with the basis of that number stated. That table is at the US soccer pyramid, ranked.
Sources & attribution
Rosters, player profiles, trophy histories, photos, and many crests are adapted from Wikipedia and Wikidata, used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license (some material CC BY-SA 3.0). Standings and club data come from what leagues publish on their own sites and public feeds (NPSL/Squadi, UPSL). Match model inputs include American Soccer Analysis. Geocoding by OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). If we've mis-credited something, one email fixes it.
Privacy
No tracking cookies, no analytics identifiers, no advertising pixels. Favorites and follows live in your browser's storage and are sent to us only if you choose to save your XI to an email address, which is optional and off by default. If you join the list or send a request through a form, we store what you submit — your name, contact details, and the request — so we can reply and let you know when things ship. That list is never sold or shared, and one email to [email protected] removes you. The full policy lives at rankedxi.com/privacy. Corrections and removal requests: Terms, Privacy & Notices.
Common questions
- What is Ranked XI?
- Ranked XI is the national table of American soccer: every club from MLS to the grassroots, men's and women's, ranked on one scale.
- How are the ratings built?
- League results feed a weekly Elo rating per club. Cup competitions — U.S. Open Cup qualifying and the National Amateur Cup — are where leagues actually meet, and roughly 600 cross-league Cup results from the last five editions calibrate the gaps between levels.
- What does "independent results model" mean?
- The wins and losses underneath the rating are real, but the rating math was run by an independent third party (primarily Massey Ratings) rather than by our own Elo engine. We take that ordering, check its coverage against our club list, and map it onto the national scale using calibrated bands. It carries its own label instead of borrowing "real results".
- Are the match probabilities betting advice?
- No. Probabilities are statistical estimates for entertainment and analysis. Ranked XI takes no wagers and no commissions on anything.
- Do you publish data about minors?
- No. Youth clubs are organization listings only, carry no ratings or player data, and we never publish personal information about minors.
- Is Ranked XI affiliated with MLS or U.S. Soccer?
- No. Ranked XI is an independent project by Jeremy Kientz. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any league, club, or federation shown.