TAMPA, Fla. – The USL Championship today announced its schedule for the 2025 season, the league’s 15th season of the modern era, which kicks off on Saturday, March 8, and concludes on Saturday, Oct. 25, with every team in action on the final day in pursuit of a place in the 2025 USL Championship Playoffs. 

The 2025 USL Championship regular season will see the league split into Eastern and Western Conferences with 12 teams in each conference (see below for conference alignment). Each club will play its conference opponents in a home-and-home series for 22 games and then play eight matches against the opposing conference – four home, four away – to make up the 30-game regular season schedule. 

The recently announced expansion of the USL Jägermeister Cup will make up the remaining four matches in each club’s schedule, with group play beginning on April 25 and concluding on July 26, with dedicated Jägermeister Cup weekends featured in the last week of each month. The USL Jägermeister Cup includes all 38 professional men’s clubs competing in a World Cup-style tournament throughout the regular season with the Jägermeister Cup Final taking place on Saturday, Oct. 11. 

The 2025 season will welcome Lexington Sporting Club to the USL Championship after the side competed in USL League One the previous two seasons. The club’s recently completed 7,500-seat soccer-specific stadium will make its USL Championship debut on opening weekend as Lexington plays host to Hartford Athletic on March 8.  

Rhode Island FC’s brand-new 10,500-seat Stadium at Tidewater Landing will also make its debut when the 2024 Eastern Conference title winner hosts San Antonio FC for an interconference clash May 3. 

The 2025 USL Championship season will be the second in the league’s four-year broadcast agreement with CBS Sports following a league-record USL Championship Final broadcast that earned 431,000 viewers on the CBS Television Network. More details on the 2025 national broadcast schedule will be announced in the coming weeks.  

The early season marquee matches include:   

• March 8: Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC will begin its defense of the 2024 USL Championship title on the road against El Paso Locomotive FC. 
• March 15: The Charleston Battery will seek to avenge their loss in the 2024 Eastern Conference Final to Rhode Island FC in a highly anticipated rematch at Patriots Point.  
• May 1: Lynn Family Stadium will be rocking when Louisville City FC hosts in-state rival Lexington SC in the first league contest between the two sides, serving as an appetizer for Kentucky Derby weekend. 

VIEW IN FULL: The 2025 USL Championship Schedule

READ MORE: 21 Matches to Circle in 2025

The season concludes with a full slate of 12 games on Saturday, Oct. 25 with some blockbuster interconference matches as New Mexico United hosts Rhode Island FC, Orange County SC hosts Indy Eleven, and Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC faces off against Phoenix Rising FC. Additionally, a fierce Copa Tejas match between San Antonio FC and El Paso Locomotive will cap the evening in what promises to be an intriguing final night in the race for the 2025 USL Championship Playoffs.

2025 USL CHAMPIONSHIP CONFERENCE ALIGNMENT

2025 USL CHAMPIONSHIP Playoffs

At the conclusion of the regular season, the top eight teams in each conference will qualify for the 2025 USL Championship Playoffs which will kick off on the weekend of Nov. 1-3, 2025.   

The USL Championship Playoffs will remain a single-elimination and fixed bracket format. The postseason will conclude with the 2025 USL Championship Final on the CBS Television Network between Nov. 21 and Nov. 23, 2025, with more details to be announced.