2000 PDL season

The 2000 USL Premier Development League season was the 6th PDL season. The season began in April 2000 and ended in August 2000.

Chicago Sockers finished the season as national champions, beating Mid-Michigan Bucks 1-0 in the PDL Championship game. Westchester Flames had finished with the best regular season record in the league, winning 15 out of their 18 games, suffering just three losses, and finishing with a +26 goal difference.

Changes from the 1999 Season

Rules

This is the first year that the PDL used ties in the standings, whereas previous seasons employed a shootout.

Name Changes

The following teams changed their name:

The West Michigan Explosion became the West Michigan Edge.

New Teams

10 New teams were added, including 8 expansion teams:

Team Name	Metro Area	Location	Previous Affiliation
Alabama Saints	Birmingham area	Birmingham, AL	returned from hiatus
Boulder Nova	Boulder area	Boulder, CO	expansion
Broward County Wolfpack	Broward County area	Fort Lauderdale, FL	expansion
Dayton Gems	Dayton Area	Dayton, OH	expansion
New Brunswick Brigade	Saint John Area	Saint John, New Brunswick	expansion
North Jersey Imperials	North Jersey area	Paramus, NJ	from D3 Pro League
Palm Beach Pumas	Palm Beach area	Palm Beach, FL	expansion
South Florida Future	Southwest Florida area	Sarasota, FL	returned from hiatus
Tampa Bay Hawks	Tampa Bay Area	Palm Harbor, FL	expansion
Thunder Bay Chill	Thunder Bay Area	Thunder Bay, Ontario	expansion

Folding

Eight teams folded before the season:

Standings

Orange denotes regular season champion and bye into PDL Semifinals.
Blue denotes division champion.
Green denotes clinched playoff spot.

Central Conference

Great Lakes Division

Place	Team	P	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	Bonus	Points
1	Mid-Michigan Bucks	18	14	3	1	64	21	+43	14	71
2	Dayton Gems	18	9	8	1	37	35	+2	7	44
3	West Michigan Edge	18	9	9	0	32	38	-6	7	43
4	Kalamazoo Kingdom	18	9	9	0	37	37	0	7	43
5	Indiana Invaders	18	8	10	0	35	43	-8	5	37
6	Lexington Bluegrass Bandits	18	5	13	0	26	47	-21	5	25

Heartland Division

Place	Team	P	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	Bonus	Points
1	Chicago Sockers	18	13	5	0	45	17	+28	10	62
2	Rockford Raptors	18	9	7	2	38	35	+3	8	46
3	Des Moines Menace	19	10	8	0	63	28	+35	5	45
4	Wisconsin Rebels	18	9	8	1	34	25	+9	6	43
5	Twin Cities Tornado	18	7	9	2	26	33	-7	2	32
6	Thunder Bay Chill	18	4	13	1	20	49	-29	2	19

Provisional Teams

Place	Team	P	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	Bonus	Points
1	Louisiana Outlaws *	12	5	5	2	25	25	0	5	27
2	Alabama Saints *	7	1	4	2	6	14	-8	1	7
3	Central Jersey Riptide *	10	1	9	0	10	31	-21	1	5

Eastern Conference

Northeast Division

Place	Team	P	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	Bonus	Points
1	Westchester Flames	18	15	3	0	47	21	+26	10	70
2	Vermont Voltage	18	11	6	1	37	22	+15	8	53
3	New York Freedom	18	10	7	1	45	24	+21	8	49
4	Brooklyn Knights	18	9	8	1	30	32	-2	4	41
5	North Jersey Imperials	18	7	11	0	38	49	-11	6	34
6	New Brunswick Brigade	18	2	15	1	22	56	-34	1	10

Southeast Division

Place	Team	P	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	Bonus	Points
1	Tampa Bay Hawks	18	12	5	1	52	35	+17	9	58
2	Bradenton Academics	18	11	6	1	43	27	+16	8	53
3	Cocoa Expos	18	11	6	1	38	27	+11	6	51
4	Central Florida Kraze	18	10	6	2	46	34	+12	8	50
5	Palm Beach Pumas	18	8	8	2	39	43	-4	7	41
6	South Florida Future	18	8	10	0	30	43	-13	3	35
7	Broward County Wolfpack	18	4	12	2	36	56	-20	7	25
8	Miami Breakers	18	3	14	1	27	46	-19	5	18

Western Conference

Rocky Mountain Division

Place	Team	P	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	Bonus	Points
1	Colorado Comets	18	12	5	1	51	29	+22	7	56
2	Wichita Jets	18	8	8	2	46	60	-26	7	41
3	Boulder Nova	18	8	9	1	38	32	+6	7	41
4	Kansas City Brass	18	5	11	2	41	56	-15	6	28
5	Colorado Springs Stampede	18	5	11	2	27	46	-19	3	25

Northwest Division

Place	Team	P	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	Bonus	Points
1	Yakima Reds	18	12	5	1	59	29	+30	11	60
2	Spokane Shadow	18	11	4	3	43	36	+6	7	54
3	Seattle Sounders Select	18	11	6	1	33	28	+5	6	51
4	Abbotsford 86ers Select	18	8	9	1	49	44	+5	9	42
5	Cascade Surge	18	5	11	2	34	28	+6	6	28
6	Willamette Valley Firebirds	18	3	15	0	28	71	-43	4	16

Southwest Division

Place	Team	P	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Bonus	Points
1	San Fernando Valley Heroes	18	11	7	57	48	+9	12	56
2	Central Coast Roadrunners	18	11	7	51	39	+12	9	53
3	Nevada Zephyrs	18	7	11	32	43	-11	4	32
4	San Gabriel Valley Highlanders	18	4	14	35	66	-31	4	20

Playoffs

Format

Mid-Michigan won the PDL Regular Season title and a bye to the National Semi-Finals. This moved Dayton up to the Great Lakes Division first place spot and allowed West Michigan into the playoffs, taking the second place spot for the division.

For the Central and Eastern divisions, the top seeds from each division face the second place team from the opposite division. For the Western Conference, the division champion with the most points will play the wild card, while the two remaining division champions play each other.

Conference Playoffs

Central Semifinals			Central Finals

HL1	Chicago Sockers	6
GL2	West Michigan Edge	0
			HL1	Chicago Sockers	1
			GL1	Dayton Gems	0
GL1	Dayton Gems	1
HL2	Rockford Raptors	0

Eastern Semifinals			Eastern Finals

NE1	Westchester Flames	1
SE2	Bradenton Academics	0
			NE1	Westchester Flames	1
			SE1	Tampa Bay Hawks	0
SE1	Tampa Bay Hawks (AET/PSO)	2 (4)
NE2	Vermont Voltage	2 (2)

Western Semifinals			Western Finals

NW	Yakima Reds	2
WC	Spokane Shadow	0
			NW	Yakima Reds	1
			RM	Colorado Comets	0
RM	Colorado Comets	1
SW	San Fernando Valley Heroes	0

PDL Championship

PDL Semifinals

PDL

Mid-Michigan Bucks

Yakima Reds

PDL Finals

PDL

Mid-Michigan Bucks