“We see no reason we can’t be that size,” boldly remarked National Women’s Soccer League Commissioner Jessica Berman when asked about the possibility of the American women’s league hosting 30 teams at once, just like Major League Soccer. Not at all surprising, to be fair, by 2026, the NWSL will have 16 teams. Compared to when it began 13 years ago with just eight, it’s safe to say that the Berman-led organization is on the right track. And guess what? It seems the league is taking its “Growth seems to be the new normal” mantra quite seriously, as it has just officially taken its first step toward focusing on the youth side of things. Enter the NWSL Combine.
What is the NWSL Combine?
On September 17, 2025, the National Women’s Soccer League released a press release to announce its first-ever Combines, a new initiative aimed at giving players direct exposure to NWSL clubs while widening the pathway to the professional game. This is a three-day planned event that is scheduled for December, just before the 2026 preseason kicks off.
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It will be split into two main categories: the adult Combine (U18–23), which aims to bring together some of the nation’s top college-aged players, and the youth Combine (U13–17), which will showcase rising prospects in a professional evaluation environment. Either group is bound to benefit from this unique platform, helping them take the next big step towards building an NWSL career.
“As the women’s soccer landscape continues to rapidly evolve, a Combine is a strategic platform that will allow us to support NWSL clubs in early talent evaluation and provide players with exposure to a professional environment,” said Director of Youth Development Karla Thompson. “This initiative is about widening the lens of who gets seen and ensuring that talent, wherever it resides, has a continued pathway to our league.”
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Notably, this announcement comes on the heels of a historic move in 2024, when the NWSL, through its new Collective Bargaining Agreement with the NWSL Players Association, became the first U.S. league to eliminate the draft and introduce unrestricted free agency. This move saw the league align itself with international standards of player movement.
So this transformative shift, coupled with the adult and youth Combines, will only function in a way to bridge gaps in player development. The adult Combine, for instance, will serve as what league officials call “a new on-ramp” for college graduates, non-traditional academy players, and those with unconventional career paths to showcase their readiness for the professional level.
Remarkably, programming will include everything from performance testing and competitive match play to face-to-face interactions with NWSL clubs. On the other hand, the youth Combine is bound to bridge the gap that exists in the league’s development system, connecting young talent with the professional environment.
Over three days, participants will undergo training sessions, matches, and off-field educational programs meant to prepare them for the demands of the pro game. And as they successfully aim to combine both the youth and adult pathways into one platform, the NWSL hopes to “expand avenues for player discovery” and enhance scouting.
Simply put, this step surely helps Jessica Berman and Co. to successfully showcase their commitment towards creating a more inclusive and innovative pipeline for women’s soccer in the U.S. In fact, this not only addresses a long-standing issue in the American women’s soccer landscape but also fosters another major development that has long been overlooked.
Talk about hitting the nail on the head!
While hosting a three-day event termed the NWSL Combine is one way to connect both the overlooked youth and adult talent, there’s a permanent solution as well. The answer? Division II league below the existing NWSL. Earlier, it was reported that Jessica Berman had sent an official notice to the US Soccer Federation over sanctioning the creation of a second-tier division. It all came from the announcement of WPSL Pro earlier, which was also touted to serve as a secondary league to the NWSL.
Initially, it was planned as a third-tier competition; organizers later chose to elevate it to fill a missing piece in U.S. Soccer’s pyramid directly below the top flight. So if either the WPSL Pro and NWSL Division II receive approval from the U.S. Soccer Federation, the professional women’s game could expand to nearly 50 teams by 2026. In fact, many believe it could finally deliver the youth pipeline the league has long needed, something Commissioner Jessica Berman has previously hinted was a priority.
“It’s not as if the players aren’t there; they are there,” Berman told ESPN. “They need to be identified, they need to be in the right technical environment, they need to be invested in and developed in an age-appropriate way that allows for them to ultimately graduate into what we need for our teams as we continue to scale, and what the U.S. national team needs as well.”
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And it’s only natural to see how Jessica Berman and Co. successfully managed to make such significant investments, with the NWSL Combine being one of them. After all, the vision to have 50 women’s soccer clubs alone won’t come off without successfully executing ‘ambitious and aggressive’ plans, right?
Either way, share your thoughts regarding the same in the comments below.