NISA Nation
NISA Nation is a semi-professional men's soccer league in the United States. The league is below the professional leagues in the soccer league system">association football">soccer league system and began play in 2021. NISA Nation is affiliated with the former third tier professional league National Independent Soccer Association.
History
On August 25, 2021, Atlantic City FC was announced as the first club of the newly formed league. Two weeks later, NISA Nation announced they had six teams for their inaugural season and they would play a 10-game schedule in the Northeast Region. This inaugural region included the leagues first promoted team, Steel Pulse FC from the Eastern Premier Soccer League. In October 2021, NISA Nation announced the start of a second region. The Southwest Region was started with four teams, each team playing six games in a round robin format. New Jersey Alliance FC beat New Amsterdam FC II 4–0 to secure the first regional championship for the Northeast Region. In early January 2022, FC Golden State Force claimed the first Southwest Region championship.On January 6, 2022, it was announced that NISA Nation earned from the United States Adult Soccer Association the USASA provisional national league license, a license that gave recognition to the league and that opens the way to U.S. Open Cup spots directly from the league. The Florida Region was announced in the Spring of 2022, with five teams facing each other three times in the Orlando area. In addition to the Florida Region, NISA Nation announced that the Northeast Region's spring season would consist of eight clubs playing 10 games a piece. The defending champions New Jersey Alliance FC, returned to defend their title during the spring season. In May 2022, the Pacific Region was announced with four teams, playing a 12-game schedule. This brought the league to 23 teams for the Spring of 2022. Each region crowned a champion for the 2022 NISA Nation season. The four champions were Club De Lyon, New Jersey Alliance FC, Battleborn FC, and Capo FC.
NISA Nation announced in early 2023 that the Southwest region would return for play in the spring with six clubs, including three previous clubs and three new clubs: AS Los Angeles, SC Union Maricopa, and Olympiacos CA. In early 2023, NISA Nation announced the addition of the Pacific Division for the spring, with five teams committed and ten teams planned. In July 2023, NISA Nation announced the formation of the Texas Region for fall 2023. For the fall of 2023, NISA Nation ran three regional leagues; Pacific, Southwest, and Texas Regions.