MLS NEXT Fest 2024: 400-plus teams and first-ever Generation adidas Cup qualifiers

MLS NEXT Fest, the premier winter showcase event in North American youth soccer, will kick off on Friday, December 6 at the Empire Polo Ground in Indio, Calif. and run through Wednesday, December 11.

More than 400 of the best youth soccer teams will compete at the fourth-annual edition of the competition, featuring nearly 630 matches and over 7,000 players. MLS NEXT Fest provides an opportunity for top talent within the program to be evaluated by college, national team, and professional scouts.

For the first time in the event’s history, MLS NEXT Fest will feature an opportunity for MLS NEXT Elite Academies to qualify for the 2025 Generation adidas Cup. Sixteen teams in both the U16 and U19 age groups will compete in a single-elimination tournament where the winner will earn a spot in the illustrious Generation adidas Cup. The 16 teams in each age group earned a spot in the qualifying tournament by finishing the fall in the top two of their division’s power rankings. The power rankings were compiled through an analytical formula that considered strength of schedule and points earned, among other factors and were published weekly on MLS NEXT’s social media accounts.

“Introducing the Generation adidas Cup qualifiers to one of the top showcase events in North America will make this the most anticipated MLS NEXT Fest in our program’s history,” said MLS NEXT General Manager Kyle Albrecht. “We look forward to highlighting the best young talent in our program with more than 400 teams and hundreds of scouts attending this week’s event in California.”

The MLS NEXT Fest Showcase will have teams in four different age groups (U15, U16, U17, and U19) playing three games in four days. Matches are scheduled based on division, past event competition, and standings from the MLS NEXT regular season, allowing clubs to play a variety of teams from across the country. Players participating in MLS NEXT Fest are also eligible to be selected for MLS NEXT Fest Best Of matches, which consists of three games across the U15, U16, and U17 age groups from Dec. 8-9 in which top players compete against one another in front of evaluators.

Additionally, MLS NEXT will also feature two ‘Uncommitted Matches’ on December 8, which will provide a unique opportunity for college coaches to evaluate some of the top players in the U19 age group who have not yet made their collegiate decisions. The two Uncommitted Matches will be held in an East vs. West format, with 22 players per team.

For the full schedule of MLS NEXT Fest matches, please click HERE.

On-site at MLS NEXT Fest will be five members of the second cohort of MLS Innovation Lab companies to test their pioneering concepts during the event. The new cohort is poised to enhance MLS’s key priority areas of fan engagement, on-field player performance, and media technology. The five companies testing their solutions will be OLIVER Sports, Soccerment, Lubu Technologies, EDGE Sound Research, and Wicket. More information about each is available HERE.

TOCA Football (TOCA), the official soccer training partner of MLS, will also be activating at MLS NEXT Fest. TOCA provides players of all ages and skill levels the necessary soccer skills to develop their first touch, passing and shooting accuracy, movements, speed of play, and more through repetition and interactive training challenges. At MLS NEXT Fest, TOCA will offer players and fans an opportunity to test their training products and climb a dynamic leaderboard with prizes given to the top performer each day.

More than 200 colleges will be in attendance at MLS NEXT Fest, with a full list available here:

• American University
• Amherst College
• Army West Point
• Augsburg University
• Babson College
• Boston University
• Bowdoin College
• Bowling Green State University
• Bradley University
• Brown University
• Bryant University
• Bucknell University
• Cal Poly University
• Cal State University of San Bernardino
• California Baptist University
• California Lutheran University
• California State University Dominguez Hills
• California State University East Bay
• California State University, Los Angeles
• Canisius
• Carnegie Mellon University
• Case Western Reserve University
• Central Connecticut
• Chapman University
• Chicago State University
• Claremont-Mudd-Scripps
• Clemson University
• Cleveland State University
• Coastal Carolina University
• Colby College
• Colgate University
• College of Charleston
• College of the Holy Cross
• Colorado College
• Colorado Mesa University
• Colorado school of mines
• Columbia University
• Cornell College
• Cornell University
• CSUN
• Dartmouth College
• Davidson College
• Denison University
• DePaul University
• DePauw University
• Drexel University
• Duke University
• Earlham College
• Emerson College
• Emory University
• Fairfield University
• Franklln & Marshall College
• Fresno Pacific University
• Furman University
• George Washington University
• Georgetown University
• Goucher College
• Gustavus Adolphus College
• Hampden-Sydney College
• Harvard University
• Haverford College
• Hawai'i Pacific University
• High Point University
• Hobart College
• Holy Cross
• Hope College
• Illinois College
• Indiana University
• Ithaca College
• IU Indianapolis
• John Carroll University
• Johns Hopkins University
• Juniata College
• Kansas Wesleyan University
• Kenyon College
• Lehigh University
• Lewis University
• Lincoln University
• LMU
• Loyola University Chicago
• Macalester College
• Marist College
• Marquette University
• Maryland
• Merrimack College
• Metropolitan State University of Denver
• Michigan State University
• Middlebury College
• Mohave College
• Navy
• NC State University
• New York University
• North Carolina State University
• North Central College
• Northeastern University
• Northern Illinois University
• Northwest Nazarene University
• Northwestern University
• Northwood University
• Occidental
• Ohio Northern University
• Ohio Wesleyan University
• Old Dominion University
• Oregon State University
• Penn State Harrisburg
• Penn State University
• Princeton University
• Providence College
• Randolph College
• RIT
• Rockhurst University
• Rowan University
• Rutgers University
• Sacramento State
• Sacred Heart University
• Saint Louis University
• Saint Mary's College of California
• San Diego State University
• Santa Clara University
• Sarah Lawrence College
• Seattle University
• SFSU
• Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
• Southern Methodist University
• Southwestern University
• Stanford University
• Stonehill College
• Suffolk University
• Swarthmore College
• Syracuse University
• Temple University
• Ohio State University
• University of Chicago
• Tufts University
• UC Irvine
• UCSD
• UIC
• UMass Lowell
• UMBC
• UMHB
• UNCG
• UNCW
• University of Akron
• University of California Berkeley
• University of California Los Angeles
• University of California Riverside
• University of California, Santa Barbara
• University of Connecticut
• University of Dayton
• University of Evansville
• University of Hawaii at Hilo
• University of Louisville
• University of Nebraska - Omaha
• University of North Carolina at Greensboro
• University of North Florida
• University of Notre Dame
• University of Pennsylvania
• University of Pittsburgh
• University of Portland
• University of Redlands
• University of Rochester
• University of San Francisco
• University of Southern Indiana
• University of St. Thomas
• University of Texas at Dallas
• University of the Pacific
• University of Tulsa
• University of Virginia
• University of Wisconsin Eau Claire
• University of Wisconsin Green Bay
• UNLV
• US Air Force Academy
• Utah Tech University
• Utah Valley University
• Utica University
• Vassar College
• William & Mary
• Wabash college
• Wake Forest University
• Washington University in St. Louis
• Webster University
• Western Washington University
• Westmont College
• Wheaton College (IL)
• Whitworth University
• Williams College
• Wright State University
• Xavier University
• Yale University
• York College (PA)