Summary

Coming into the new season with a new home and a new name, the Flint City Bucks will try to return to the top of the Great Lakes Division after seeing their run of four consecutive division titles broken a year ago. With a large presence in the top 100 list, Chicago FC United can put pressure on the Bucks as they hope for a playoff berth after moving to the Great Lakes from the Heartland, and there’ll be the fascinating undercurrent of both the Cincinnati and Dayton Dutch Lions squaring off in the same division for the first time.

Summary

After a dominant regular season that saw the side drop points in one game, the Des Moines Menace will be disappointed to have not gone further in the playoffs last year and will be hoping for redemption this time around. Their main rivals figure to be Kaw Valley FC, which was on the bubble last year before failing to make the playoffs by just three points, and the Thunder Bay Chill, whose fifth-place finish illustrated the competitiveness of the division as a whole as it sat only four points out of a playoff spot.