u/Substantial-Ruin7943

Ratings are through October 4th, 2026.

Click here for a guide on my ranking model

Click here for the entire season weekly ranking history

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Commentary:

Lexington moves into second after absolutely overwhelming a 10 man El Paso. 35–5 in shots, 11–1 in shots on target, and 5.19–0.26 in xG. Four straight wins now with 16 goals scored. They still have the best last-five performance rating in the league by a considerable margin.

Miami deserves some attention. Wins over Jacksonville and Tampa Bay make it four straight victories, and they climb from 21st to 19th. The 4–1 Jacksonville win was much closer statistically, with Jacksonville actually leading 2.67–1.93 in xG. Tampa Bay stays first but barely.

Detroit moves into fourth after beating Brooklyn 3–1 and Birmingham 1–0. The Birmingham win fits their season pretty well: limited attacking volume, very little allowed, and another clean sheet. They continue to have the highest adjusted defensive rating in the league.

Sacramento slips to fifth despite taking four points against Las Vegas and Tulsa, leaving just 0.06 rating points between them and Detroit.

Was on vacation last week.

Ratings are through September 20th 2026.

Click here for a guide on my ranking model

Click here for the entire season weekly ranking history

https://preview.redd.it/wrzozvo9kyqh1.png?width=537&format=png&auto=webp&s=8f89d13a359643f3946e7329a7a6d23d4320aa3f

Commentary:

Lexington has been on fire these last two games. Granted that fire may have been spread from the dumpster that is Orange County. They've dominated their last two games and really boosted their overall season stats resulting in the huge jump. 3rd thru 11th is very tightly packed so not too surprised to see that jump.

El Paso has now won eight straight. They’re still only seventh because the model considers the entire season, but their recent performance is catching up with the results. Not every win has been as comfortable as the score suggests. The 3–1 win at Phoenix came despite losing the xG battle. They’ve also had genuinely dominant performances against Loudoun and Pittsburgh. Their defense remains middle of the pack.

Hartford is quietly putting together a good run with three wins and two draws. They’re still 12th, but their recent performance is comfortably above their season average.

Tampa Bay still has a substantial lead at the top, although their last-five performance is below their season average.

That’s the other side of a full-season model, Lexington can climb quickly with two huge performances, while Tampa Bay’s work over the rest of the season still gives them plenty of breathing room.

Ratings are through September 6th 2026.

Click here for a guide on my ranking model

Rank	Team	Rating	Previous Rating 8.31.2026	Change in Rank
1	Tampa Bay Rowdies	72.77	71.86	-
2	Charleston Battery	62.17	64.15	-
3	Detroit City FC	60.79	60.15	-
4	Rhode Island FC	58.70	59.94	-
5	Louisville City FC	57.93	57.59	+ 1
6	Sacramento Republic FC	57.32	57.17	+ 1
7	El Paso Locomotive FC	56.67	56.64	+ 1
8	FC Tulsa	56.44	58.07	- 3
9	Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC	56.36	55.29	-
10	Indy Eleven	53.04	52.17	+ 2
11	New Mexico United	52.93	53.04	- 1
12	Lexington SC	51.70	52.63	- 1
13	Phoenix Rising FC	51.43	50.55	-
14	Hartford Athletic	50.63	49.78	-
15	San Antonio FC	46.60	45.65	+ 2
16	Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC	45.59	48.00	- 1
17	Orange County SC	44.98	45.75	- 1
18	Las Vegas Lights FC	44.59	44.49	-
19	Oakland Roots SC	42.53	42.49	-
20	Loudoun United FC	40.81	41.86	-
20	Birmingham Legion	40.81	40.55	+ 1
22	Miami FC	37.03	35.75	-
23	Brooklyn FC	34.73	35.44	-
24	Monterey Bay FC	32.85	32.79	-
25	SC Jacksonville	22.96	20.88	-

I am presenting my statistical rankings for the USL Championship.

These are as of August 24, 2026.

What these rankings are.

The goal was to create a comparable power ranking that reflects how well teams are actually playing.

The model was designed to evaluate team strength based on game-by-game performance.

It looks at the full season to date and incorporates a range of offensive, defensive, and efficiency metrics. It also uses certain prior-season league-wide statistics as baselines, rather than carrying over individual team performance from the previous year.

What these rankings are not.

This is not a results table.

Wins, losses, and total points matter, but they are only part of the model. A strong team losing a match will not necessarily cause a major drop in its rating if the underlying performance was still good. Likewise, a team can win without receiving a large boost if the performance itself was relatively poor.

I wanted the model to focus more on what a team appears capable of producing going forward rather than simply rewarding the teams that have lost the fewest games. Because of that, there will inevitably be cases where the rankings differ substantially from the standings.

My biases.

I am a Louisville City supporter.

The rankings themselves are generated statistically, so I am not manually moving teams up or down. That said, there is still potential model-design bias in deciding which statistics matter and how heavily they should be weighted.

I incorporated prior season data in order to hopefully avoid this and instead reward team playstyles that statistically and historically do well in this league.

Rank	Team	Score
1	Tampa Bay Rowdies	77.30
2	Charleston Battery	73.90
3	Rhode Island FC	65.80
4	Detroit City FC	65.20
5	Louisville City FC	62.30
6	Sacramento Republic	60.50
7	FC Tulsa	59.60
8	El Paso Locomotive	59.20
9	New Mexico United	58.50
10	Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC	58.00
11	Lexington SC	57.40
12	Indy Eleven	54.80
13	Phoenix Rising SC	53.80
14	Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC	51.90
15	Orange County SC	50.60
16	San Antonio FC	50.40
17	Las Vegas Lights	46.80
18	Oakland Roots	45.20
19	Hartford Athletic	44.90
20	Birmingham Legion FC	43.80
21	Loudoun United FC	42.70
22	Miami FC	37.50
23	Brooklyn FC	34.10
24	Monterey Bay FC	33.00
25	SC Jacksonville	20.40

The Scoring.

Scores are presented on a 0–100 scale.

A score of 0 represents about as poor a statistical season as the model can produce, while 100 represents a theoretically perfect season. In practice, teams rarely approach either extreme.

For some historical context, Antigua Barracuda FC produced the lowest score of 8.54, while the highest score I have recorded is 2019 Phoenix Rising FC at 89.2.

The scale is intended to make performances comparable across seasons, so a 50 in one season should represent approximately the same level of overall performance as a 50 in another, even if the league environment changes.