UPSL is a semi-professional soccer league, while NISA has both fully professional and amateur divisions.
About UPSL
UPSL is the largest national league under the United States Soccer Federation. It currently has over 400 teams spread all around the country.
As a fourth-division league, UPSL is considered semi-professional. Teams are allowed to pay players, although whether UPSL players get paid varies.
About NISA
The National Independent Soccer Association has two tiers.
First, it has a third-division professional league. There are currently nine teams spread across several Eastern states and California. This meets US Soccer sanctioning requirements that professional soccer leagues need to have teams in each of the Eastern, Central, and Pacific time zones.
NISA also operates the NISA Nation amateur league. The league is primarily operating in California after expansion attempts in the northeast and Florida.
The ultimate goal of NISA is to offer promotion and relegation between its professional division and NISA Nation. It is also attempting to reach agreements with various regional amateur leagues to offer promotion and relegation between those leagues and NISA Nation.
Comparing UPSL and NISA
The United Premier Soccer League is a much larger and more established organization. The league currently seems happy to operate as a national fourth-division league and is doing that very well.
NISA has much bigger goals including yet another push to bring promotion and relegation to the United States. The main problem for NISA is that it’s a late entrant in everything it’s trying to do.
NISA sits on the same level as USL League One. While it’s technically easier to enter NISA, USL League One is a larger league that allows more regional scheduling and reduced travel costs. NISA has already lost teams to USL League One and USL Championship.
As an amateur league, NISA National is far behind UPSL and even the National Premier Soccer League. The main thing it has to offer over other national amateur leagues is the potential to become a professional club. However, most UPSL clubs don’t have the financial backing to meet even third-division professional standards.
Similarly, NISA doesn’t have much to offer the regional leagues or their teams. Those leagues are doing well in their niche, and while teams may have dreams of climbing the soccer pyramid, it’s not realistic financially. If a team had the financial backing, it could directly enter the United Soccer League or NISA.
In short, there’s really no comparison between UPSL and NISA Nation as national leagues. If you have an ownership group looking to go pro, NISA’s D3 league could be worth a look, but USL1 is probably a more stable option.
