The Cup will now name a top team in the U-16/17, U-18/19 and wild cards in the palyeofffs with the older group in 2 tiers. The 13th year of the boy's program is to begin shortly, and these changes are intended to bring more meaningful games. It now allows for one to take a title in the knockout tourney as the 2 tiered one for the older group affords more games for teams facing like leveled teams. These innovations are intended to get more relavant games and better player development. US Soccer Sporting DIrector commented, "Adding the DA Cup and restructuring the regular season ensures that we continue to create an environment that maximizes player development." All teams from U-15 up will partake in this new Cup. It will cover 3 stages, Fall group, Winter group and of course their regular season. The 32 teams moving on in the U-16/17 & U-18/19 then go to 8 groups of 4 teams in the Winter Cup at Bradenton FL coinciding with the Winter Showcase event. The remaining DA Cup teams, have 3 games for 3rd place in the final DA Cup rankings to set the wildcard for the playoffs. Group winners advance to the Spring Cup Championship, at one location to get to the Cup champions. Those who suffer defeat will keep on playing to get that coveted wild card spot. The oldest group was split for better competitiveness and new geographic groups created. Automatic spots in the playoffs are set via regular season standings as the wild cards round out the 32 teams of the playoffs. At the U-18/19 level, whichever tier makes no never mind have the chance to make the Playoffs and go for the national title. Tiers are set by performance history, player production, market and input by US Soccer technical staff to keep the games as evenly matched as is possible. Following the season this new innovation will be evaluated. The DA is lead by the ideal of more training sessions and few yet more meaningful competitions.