A little bit of this. A little bit of that.

I thought about going with a Michelle Branch photo here to really drive home the title,
but maybe it's just me that has that song stuck in my head today.

So this is when I would usually run my monthly Power Rankings, but the USL had their midseason media availability with the presidents of USL League One and USL Championship and it would be a disservice to you, my readers, if I didn't bring you the key discussion points from that press conference. 

(Wait, you'd rather have power rankings? But... but I already wrote up a recap of the press conference. There are quotes and everything. Sorry. Also, this won't be the only time I apologize in this post.)

Before we get to what they did talk about, here are some topics that they avoided because I can only assume they were trying to downplay their importance and didn't want the media spotlight on such pressing issues.

There was no discussion of why Spokane Velocity remains the only USL1 team to have its full name used on the mobile standings page on their website. Not even a hint of addressing this issue that has bothered me for weeks on end with no one at the league even attempting to explain what is going on. Will it be fixed? Is it a coded message? No one knows. Did I ask about it? No I did not because I'd like to be invited back to these kinds of things in the future. 

And that's obviously a question for the tech people and not the League President. 

And no one but me cares. 

Also avoided was the topic of allowing players who score their first professional goal to have the ball taken out of play and given to them as a memento of their accomplishment much like baseball players get when they record their first Major League hit. They just pretended like that wasn't a pressing issue that needed to be talked about. Come on, it would be a cool thing to do and a nice keepsake for players. Surely this can be done. 

Tormenta, if you're reading this, take the lead and do it. Shame the other clubs into following suit. If nothing else, think of the content you can create and post by showing the locker room after someone's first professional goal and the team celebrating that achievement. A free idea for you. But act fast before someone like Greenville steals it.

So what did they talk about? There was a lot of talk about the Jagermeister Cup and how that's going. The reduced travel and regionalization of the teams into the three groups seems to have been well received and the hope is it could foster additional rivalries by playing teams that are relatively close by. The format and structure being used this season isn't necessarily going to be used next year. (Mostly likely it'll change). 

"It may be that we have to adapt the Cup slightly," said Lee O'Neill, president of League One. "What we said  right from the start, when we were developing this Cup competition, is it's two or three years, as we developed through and what it might look like changing year upon year."

My uninformed guess is that the Cup will look different next year. What that looks like, I really couldn't say. I do recall that when it was first started, there was hopes that other leagues would be a part of it, but of course I didn't think about that until after the press conference so I didn't ask. My bad on that, guys. Sorry. (I told you there was another apology coming.)

That answer from O'Neill was in response to a larger look at League One expanding to as many as 20 teams next year. He wasn't ready to give a number as to how many teams the league will have in 2025, only that they're working closely with the expansion clubs as they prepare to join the league. 

The two presidents are pleased with the television numbers the leagues have seen from their games on CBS and CBSSportsNetwork so far this year. National games are picked in collaboration with the league and the networks and they try to prioritize what would look best and create the best show and atmosphere. They mentioned that some teams may not be in a place right now to be showcased on a national stage just yet, but in a year or two with stadium completion or enhancements they could be ready. 

Then there was obviously talk about Promotion/Relegation and while the two men didn't break any news by announcing it was happening or that it was a dead idea, they did say they continue to look at.

"We are doing more work behind the scenes about what it could look like and some of the rules and regulations around it," O'Neill said. "So we're not quite there yet, but we're definitely doing a lot more work around that topic and it's great. We're in communication with the clubs and we continue moving forward with the clubs and those conversations." 

Jeremy Alumbaugh, presidnet of USL Championship, said the focus last year at this time was on the borad concept and not quite as much focus on the details of how it would work. "We're now drilling much deeper into specific areas," he said. As for me, I'm just waiting for The Athletic to break their next story on Promotion/Relegation to find out what's going on there. 

One thing I did notice rereading the transcript was O'Neill's use of the word "yet" in his response. "We're not quite there yet." Does that mean anything? I mean, it sounds like the goal is to get to Promotion/Relegation as "yet" implies at some point in the future they'll be there. Like when you were a kid in the back seat on a long road trip and you bugged your parents by repeatedly asking/whining "Are we there yet?" The "yet" implies you're going to be there eventually. (Parents, the correct answer is "Yes, we're here, but we're driving around for a while longer just to make you suffer.")

Granted, it's also likely that I'm just reading too much into one word in an off-the-cuff answer to a question, but it's a question they had to know was coming. There are people better sourced than me, writers at The Athletic for example, who will hopefully write something more to break down where the USL is when it comes to implementing promotion/relegation. For now, I'm gong to hope that one word, "yet," means something. 

We'll get back to the fun stuff next Wednesday with Power Rankings. On Friday we'll have a preview of of Charlotte (sneak peak: They're pretty good) and we'll be back on Monday with a recap.