This week’s episode of Divers and Cheats focused its discussion on the NASL, USL and MLS, and it created more buzz on social media than any of our previous three shows.

The change in tact by the NASL since 2012 is striking. The mission statement of the league in the 2012 media guide included the following passage:

“The NASL serving as the region’s second division does not have a system of relegation and promotion with the first division (MLS) or third division (USL PRO), nor is there an official working relationship between MLS and NASL. However, in addition the Montreal Impact, a number of recent men’s second division clubs have gone on to compete in MLS after successfully building a team and fan base at the NASL level.”

This was the official stand and policy of NASL when I began with the league and continued through the first several seasons of the existence of the newly-reconstituted second division. However, the rhetoric from NASL began to change soon after the New York Cosmos entered the league. The term “second division” was dropped from the league’s official boilerplate language at the bottom of press releases, while references to players that had successfully competed at the NASL level and moved on to MLS were dropped from the league’s website and official communications.

Bill Peterson, the NASL Commissioner who was hired in November 2012 just months after the Cosmos joined the league, and many team owners began to articulate a different vision for the pyramid in North America. This vision conflicted with the above mission statement and put NASL directly into the realm of competing with MLS. At the same time, MLS reached an agreement with the third division USL to house reserve teams for MLS clubs as well as including an intricate set of player loans and affiliations between clubs in both leagues.

The move by NASL away from cooperation with MLS has had ramifications for the league allowing USL to expand into second-tier markets aggressively that could have easily ended up in NASL. However, USL’s revitalization, as I pointed out on the Divers and Cheats show, is probably more due to the competition and increased lower divisions standards advocated by and adhered to by NASL than anything USL initiated on their own.

Certainly MLS has a model of soccer ownership and competition that does not appeal to a great number of soccer fans, perhaps even the majority of said fans in North America. This does leave a door open for NASL, but as discussed on the show the league has far too many question marks right now to be seen as a viable alternative to MLS at the top-tier level in this region.

Listen to Divers and Cheats every Thursday evening live on Rabble.tv. Each week, Kartik tackles a different controversial topic.