2022 National Independent Soccer Association season

The 2022 NISA season is the fourth season of the National Independent Soccer Association's third-division soccer competition. After three years of split seasons, NISA switched to a full season format, with a single table and a playoff competition to determine the 2022 champion.

Teams

Six of the teams that participated in the 2021 Fall season returned, and were joined by four expansion clubs: Bay Cities FC, Flower City Union, Syracuse Pulse, and Valley United FC. From the existing 2021 teams, San Diego 1904 FC were rebranded to Albion San Diego, after merging with the youth club with the same name, while Chicago House AC, New Amsterdam FC and Stumptown AC will be on hiatus for 2022, and current title holders Detroit City FC moved to USL Championship.

Stadiums and locations

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Albion San Diego	San Diego, California	Canyon Crest Academy Stadium	5,000
Bay Cities FC	Redwood City, California	Terremere Field	3,500
California United Strikers FC	Irvine, California	Championship Soccer Stadium	5,000
Chattanooga FC	Chattanooga, Tennessee	Finley Stadium	20,668
Flower City Union	Rochester, New York	Marina Auto Stadium	13,768
Los Angeles Force	Whittier, California	Various
Maryland Bobcats FC	Boyds, Maryland	Maryland SoccerPlex	4,000
Michigan Stars FC	Washington, Michigan	Romeo High School	4,000
Syracuse Pulse	Syracuse, New York	Lazer Stadium	2,000
Valley United FC	Mesa, Arizona	Bell Bank Park	5,000

Personnel and sponsorship

Team

Head coach

Captain

Kit manufacturer

Shirt sponsor

Albion San Diego

sortname|Jeff|Korytoski

Regular season

The season started on March 26, and will see each team play 26 games over 30 weeks: four times against each opponent in the same division and two times against each opponent in the opposite division.

Standings (August 27–October 15)

Due to Bay Cities FC's withdrawal from this season, NISA has revised the 2022 schedule and table with the eight remaining clubs. As a result, this standings had been condensed into a single table format and used an average-points per game total.

Playoffs

The playoffs began on October 21, and featured the top six teams from the regular season. The top two teams from the regular season table received a bye into the league semifinals. Teams finishing third through sixth played in the quarterfinals, with the winners being re-seeded before playing in the next round. The 2022 Final took place on November 6. All postseason games were broadcast online on Eleven Sports.
Originally, the East and West division winners would have been assigned the top two seeds and received byes to the semifinals. The second place teams in each division were to be seeded 3 and 4, while the third place finishers would be seeded 5 and 6. Following the restructuring of the table on August 27, the division aspect was dropped.

NISA Independent Cup

The NISA Independent Cup will start on June 25. It features nine of the ten NISA clubs, with California United Strikers FC opting not to participate the tournament. They will be joined by 27 invited amateur teams and divided geographically into nine regions of four clubs each. Each region will play a single round robin tournament between three amateur teams using a 10-point system. The winner of that round-robin will play against the NISA teams for the regional championship. Like last year, there will be no interregional play or national champion.

Participating Clubs

Nine NISA teams play in nine regions respectively, as California United Strikers FC did not participate. Midwest, New England and South Central region replaced with Empire, Northeast and SoCal region due to lack of NISA teams.