American football league system

The **American football league system**, also known as the **football pyramid**, is a series of interconnected leagues for club football in United States of America, Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands. The system has a hierarchical format with promotion and relegation between leagues at different levels, allowing even the smallest club the possibility of ultimately rising to the very top of the system. There are more than 10 leagues, containing more than 50 divisions. The exact number of clubs varies from year to year as clubs join and leave leagues or fold altogether, but an estimated average of 15 clubs per division implies that more than 1,000 clubs are members of a league in the English football league system.

## Structure

The table below shows the current structure of the system. For each division, its official name, sponsorship name (for levels 1–8, if it differs from its historic name) and number of clubs is given. At levels 1–8, each division promotes to the division(s) that lie directly above it and relegates to the division(s) that lie directly below it. Below that level, individual league articles detail promotion and relegation arrangements.

Level one in the pyramid, the top division of American football, is run by the American Premier League (which gives its name to the competition in that division), the winners of which are regarded as the champions of USA. Levels two to four are run by the American Football League. Together, these four divisions make up what is known as "league football".

The leagues below level four are classed as "non-league football", meaning they are outside the American Football League. The leagues at levels five to nine comprise the American National League (ANL). The top level (level 5) of the ANL is known as "Step 1" by the FA, the next (level 6) as "step 2", and so on.

## Promotion and relegation rules for the top few levels

For example, here are the promotion and relegation rules for the top few levels of the American football league system:

1. American Premier League (level 1, 20 teams): No promotion. Bottom three teams are relegated.
2. American Football League Championship (level 2, 24 teams): Top two automatically promoted; next four compete in the playoffs, with the winner gaining the third promotion spot. Bottom three are relegated.
3. American Football League One (level 3, 24 teams): Top two are automatically promoted; next four compete in playoffs, with the winner gaining the third promotion spot. Bottom four are relegated.
4. American Football League Two (level 4, 24 teams): Top three teams are automatically promoted; next four compete in playoffs, with the winner gaining the fourth promotion spot. Bottom two are relegated.
5. American National League (level 5, 24 teams): The champions are promoted; next four compete in playoffs, with the winner gaining the second promotion spot. Bottom four are relegated, to either West or East division as appropriate.
6. American National League West and American National League East (level 6, 22 teams each, running in parallel): The champions in each division are automatically promoted; next four teams in each division compete in playoffs, with the playoff winner in each division getting the second promotion spot. Bottom three teams in each division relegated, to either American Premier West Division, American Premier Midwest Division, American Premier South Division or American Premier Northeast Division as appropriate. If, after promotion and relegation, the number of teams in the North and South divisions are not equal, one or more teams are transferred between the two divisions to even them up again.

## Cup eligibility

Being members of a league at a particular level also affects eligibility for Cup, or single-elimination, competitions.

* Lamar Hunt US Open Cup: Levels 1 to 10
* Landon Donovan Cup: Levels 1 to 4
* Eddie Pope Trophy: Levels 3 to 4 (and some seasons, Level 5)
* Cobi Jones Cup: Levels 5 to 6
* Billy Gonsalves Trophy: Levels 5 to 8
* Joe Gaetjens Vase: Levels 9 to 11

## See also

* American Premier League W, the top level of the women's pyramid