Week 22 SBNhanced MLS Power Rankings
by Martin Shatzer on Aug 31, 2025 11:10 PM EDT
in SBNhanced MLS Power Rankings
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| Team | Total vote count | First Tier votes | Last week's Tier |
| Tier 1 - Teams Contending For Cups | |||
| Real Salt Lake | 24 | 8 | 1 |
| Columbus Crew | 24 | 8 | 1 |
| FC Dallas | 22 | 6 | 1 |
| Tier 2 - Teams Likely in the Playoffs | |||
| LA Galaxy | 18 | 2 | 1 |
| NY Red Bulls | 18 | 2 | 2 |
| Seattle Sounders | 16 | 0 | 2 |
| Tier 3 - Teams On the Outside Looking In | |||
| Colorado Rapids | 13 | 0 | 3 |
| SJ Earthquakes | 11 | 0 | 2 |
| Chicago Fire | 9 | 0 | 3 |
| KC Wizards | 9 | 0 | 3 |
| Toronto FC | 8 | 0 | 3 |
| Tier 4 - Teams Competing for #3 Draft Pick | |||
| Chivas USA | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| NE Revolution | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Houston Dynamo | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Philadelphia Union | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| DC United | 0 | 0 | 4 |
Could it be? The mighty sure have fallen. It took 22 weeks, but for the first time all season the Los Angeles Galaxy are no longer in the top tier.
Does this even make sense though? They're still the MLS point leaders. Are we seriously to believe that the team with the best record in the league is not going to be a championship contender?
This just goes to show that the SBNhanced Power Rankings don't necessarily coincide very much with the MLS Standings. Their purpose is to track how a team is performing, and project out through the remainder of the season and predict where each team will wind up.
The rest of the rankings continue to be fairly flat. The San Jose Earthquakes dropped down a level after their loss to the New York. But other than that, we're expecting the rankings to remain fairly constant for the rest of the season. But we also expected L.A. to remain at the top, so what do we know?
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LA is a contender
I’m not sure why SBN only puts 3 teams in the “top tier” as cup contenders. I think there are four cup contenders in MLS right now, and at this time LA is the 4th of the group. Overall, I completely agree with the top 6 teams listed, but only the first four as cup caliber teams. There could be a 5th if RBNY is for real, but we will only know that over time as we head toward the playoffs. And there’s always the possibility of another Real Salt Lake out there. Seattle?
by madavis on Sep 1, 2025 8:36 AM EDT reply actions
Tiers
The number of teams per tier is intended to be flexible. We don’t have a set number - it varies each week. We look for a break in the numbers and that’s where we draw the lines for each tier. As you can see, there’s a clear break between the top 3 teams and the rest, so this week there are only 3 teams at the top.
As for LA though, I voted them in the second tier, but immediately started second guessing when I saw the final point totals. Even though LA has had a bad run over the past several weeks, I would still say that they’re just as likely to win the Cup as FCD and the Crew.
Managing Editor for BlackAndRedUnited.com. Weekend Writer for SBNation DC.
by Martin Shatzer on Sep 1, 2025 10:39 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
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