The 2020 USL Championship season was the tenth season of the

USL Championship The USL Championship (USLC) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that began its inaugural season in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer) as a Division II league since 2017, p ...

and fourth under Division II sanctioning. This was the second season under the name "USL Championship", having used the name "United Soccer League" through 2018.

Real Monarchs Real Monarchs is a professional soccer club playing in the MLS Next Pro, a third division league of American soccer. The team is owned by, and operates as the reserve team of, the Major League Soccer club Real Salt Lake. While the senior club is ...

were the defending

USL Cup The USL Championship Final is the post-season championship match of the USL Championship, the second tier of professional men's soccer in the United States. The winner is crowned champion in the same manner as in other North American sports lea ...

champions. The 2020 season saw 35 teams participate in two conferences during the regular season. On November 8, 2019,

Ottawa Fury FC Ottawa Fury Football Club was a Canadian professional soccer club based in Ottawa, Ontario. The club competed in the North American Soccer League and USL Championship and played its home games at TD Place Stadium. The Ottawa Fury FC were diss ...

announced that it had suspended operations. The team had received sanctioning from its country's governing body,

Canada Soccer The Canadian Soccer Association (Canada Soccer) is the governing body of soccer in Canada. It is a national organization that oversees the Canadian men's and women's national teams for international play, as well as the respective junior sides ...

, but was denied by U.S. Soccer and the continental governing body of

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football,, ; french: Confédération de football d'Amérique du Nord, d'Amérique centrale et des Caraïbes, . Dutch uses the English name. abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typese ...

. Additionally, the 2020 season is the first season without

Nashville SC Nashville Soccer Club is a Major League Soccer team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The team began play in the league in 2020 as a continuation of the USL club of the same name and plays its home matches at Geodis Park. It is principally owned ...

. The club's identity transferred to a Major League Soccer team that started play in 2020. The season was suspended on March 12 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in North America. On June 4, the league announced a return to play on July 11, 2020. The playoffs began on October 10, and originally scheduled to conclude with the USL Championship Final on November 1. The Final was then cancelled the day before because several

Tampa Bay Rowdies The Tampa Bay Rowdies are an American professional Association football, soccer team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The club was founded in 2008 and first took the pitch in 2010. Since 2017, the Rowdies have been members of the USL Champions ...

players and staff tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The championship would not be awarded.

were the defending USL Championship champions, but failed to qualify for the playoffs.

Changes from 2019

Expansion clubs *

San Diego Loyal SC San Diego Loyal Soccer Club is an American professional soccer team based in San Diego, California. The team was founded by Warren Smith and Landon Donovan. San Diego Loyal made its debut in 2020 as an expansion team in the USL Championship. ...

Rebranded clubs * Bethlehem Steel FC rebranded as Philadelphia Union II * Swope Park Rangers rebranded as

Sporting Kansas City II Sporting Kansas City II is a MLS Next Pro club affiliated with Sporting Kansas City of Major League Soccer. For the 2022 season they will play their home games at Rock Chalk Park at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, as well as Swope ...

* Tulsa Roughnecks FC rebranded as

FC Tulsa FC Tulsa is an American professional soccer team based in Tulsa, Oklahoma which competes in the USL Championship, the second tier of the American soccer pyramid. History The club was founded as Tulsa Roughnecks FC by Jeff and Dale Hubbard, bro ...

Moves *

franchise rights sold to

Miami FC The Miami FC is an American professional soccer team based in Miami, Florida that competes in the USL Championship, the second tier of the American soccer pyramid. The club began play in the North American Soccer League (NASL) in the 2016 se ...

Departing clubs *

Fresno FC Fresno Football Club was an American professional soccer team based in Fresno, California. Founded in 2017, the team was a member of the USL Championship, a second-tier league in the American Soccer Pyramid. Their first game took place on March ...

(ceased operations) *

(moved to

MLS Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

)

Teams

The following teams are playing in the 2020 USL Championship season:

Competition format

The original divisional alignment was announced on December 19, 2019. The regular season and playoff format was announced on January 9, 2020. The season began on March 6 and was scheduled to conclude on October 17. The 2020 USL Cup Playoffs were expected to begin October 21, and conclude with the final match between November 12–16. The top 10 teams were to make the playoffs in each conference with the same format as in 2019.

Group alignment for resumption of play

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a radical remaking of the competition for 2020. When the season resumed on July 11, the teams were competing in small groups of four or five teams with a geographic component, with the top two teams in each group qualifying for the postseason.

Managerial changes

Group tables

Group A

Group A covers Northwestern states including

Northern California Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...

Group B

Group B covers

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

, and

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

Group C

Group C includes the Rocky Mountain states,

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

and

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...

Group D

Group D represents

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

(except El Paso) and

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

Group E

Group E covers the

Midwestern states The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...

Group F

Group F includes the Northeastern states.

Group G

Group G includes the northern part of the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

Group H

Group H includes the southern and southeasternmost states.

Conference tables

Western Conference

Eastern Conference

Results table

Playoffs

Format

The top two teams in each group qualify for the 2020 Championship Playoffs. They began on the weekend of October 10, featuring a single-elimination, 16-team bracket. Under the revised season format, four group winners in each conference earn hosting rights for the Eastern and Western Conference Quarterfinals. Following the opening round, hosting rights will be determined by regular season record. All playoff matches will stream live on ESPN+ except the Championship final on ESPN.

Bracket

Western Conference Quarterfinals

Eastern Conference Quarterfinals

Western Conference Semifinals

Eastern Conference Semifinals

Western Conference Final

Eastern Conference Final

USL Championship Final

The Final was cancelled the day before because several Tampa Bay players and staff tested positive for COVID-19. As a result, Phoenix Rising and Tampa Bay were recognized as conference champions, and the final was not played. League officials considered postponing the game, but this would have required quarantining both teams and giving them time for renewed training. The prospect of waiting three to four weeks to play led league officials to simply cancel the game. They also considered awarding Rising the title since it had more points than Tampa Bay, but balked at doing so because Rising earned three points by forfeit after

San Diego Loyal San Diego Loyal Soccer Club is an American professional Association football, soccer team based in San Diego, California. The team was founded by Warren Smith and Landon Donovan. San Diego Loyal made its debut in 2020 as an expansion team in the ...

walked off the field in protest after Rising's

Junior Flemmings Junior Flemmings (born 16 January 1996) is a Jamaican professional Association football, footballer who plays as a winger (association football), winger and Forward (association football), forward for club Toulouse FC, Toulouse and the Jamaica ...

directed a homophobic slur at Loyal's

Collin Martin Collin Martin (born November 9, 1994) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a midfielder for San Diego Loyal in the USL Championship. He has played for D.C. United and Minnesota United FC in Major League Soccer, and for Rich ...

Average home attendances

Ranked from highest to lowest average attendance. ^† One Tacoma Defiance home match took place closed-door due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Sources: USL Championshi