1996 USISL Premier League season
The 1996 USISL Premier League season was its second. The season began in April 1996 and ended in August 1996.
Central Coast Roadrunners won the championship, defeating the San Francisco Bay Seals 3–2. Spokane Shadow won the regular season title, winning 14 games to 2 losses.
12 teams were added for the season.
Five teams folded after the 1995 season:
Blue denotes team has won their division.
Green denotes team has won playoff spot.
Orange denotes team gets bye into semifinals as defending champion.
* Detroit, Kalamazoo, Lexington, and Michigan were all penalized 3 points.
** Grand Rapids did not have a home stadium this year, and played only road games.
* Sioux City was penalized 6 points.
The game between Sioux City and Wichita was postponed and could not be resecheduled before end of the season. The game was cancelled because it had no effect on the playoffs.
* Nashville was penalized 6 points. Jackson was penalized 3 points.
* Cocoa, Florida, and Orlando were all penalized 3 points.
* Colorado Springs and Spokane were both penalized 3 points.
* Central Coast and San Diego were both penalaized 3 points
Central Coast received a bye to the PDL Semifinals as the defending champion.
The top four teams from every division except the Southwest earn playoff spots. With Central Coast already receiving a bye, the top two teams from the Southwest Division will play each other, however if Central Coast is in the top two, then the third place team receives a playoff spot. The Division winners would then face each other in the Conference finals.
Six teams entered the Premier Six Tournament in Cocoa, Florida the weekend of August 16–18. Each of the five division playoff champions qualified for the tournament, along with the host Cocoa Expos. The teams were seeded in this order, based on their regular season points:
The Central Coast Roadrunners played the bottom two seeds (Jackson and Mid-Michigan). The San Francisco Seals played the #4 and #6 seeds (Omaha and Mid-Michigan). The Cocoa Expos played and #4 and #5 seeds (Omaha and Jackson).
In order to determine the two teams to qualify for the finals, the league used the following point system during the Premier Six Tournament:
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