According to a recent Favian Renkel tweet, Don Garber is exploring the possibility of further MLS expansion. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, as there are still a lot of major cities without a major team. Places like New Orleans, Indianapolis, Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Antonio, and Baltimore are just a few of the potential host cities that have sufficient population to warrant an MLS team. 

However, Garber’s recent quote got me thinking: how big could MLS get? With such a big country, travel is an obvious issue, and that’s not even including Canada, which has some cities under consideration.

That’s when it hit me. MLS, if it were to expand to, let's say, 36 teams, should make a third conference.

Before you grab your pitchforks, let me lay out some reasoning. Adopting three conferences would allow for the creation of a central conference, similar to how MLB operates. Unlike our baseball counterparts, though, we wouldn’t split six divisions into two conferences. Instead, there would be three conferences with 12 teams apiece. You play each team twice, then select five teams from each of the other two conferences for a total of 34 games. 

Each conference would play an internal playoff to decide the winner, and then the three conference winners would play each other once, and if a game finishes tied, both teams go to penalties, and whoever wins gets an extra point added on to the point each team gets for tying. 

The resulting winner of the group stage is that year’s MLS Cup champion. The Supporters Shield Winner would be found the same way it always is, and just like that, MLS has created a solution to the problem of constant expansion.

The Scottish top flight plays with 12 teams, and although it’s by far not one of the best leagues in Europe, it has incredible fan bases, and teams in Scotland can hold their own internationally. Having these smaller conferences could also lead to the further development of regional rivalries like the ones we see in England.

I’d love to hear from you guys when it comes to this. Should MLS change things up and go towards a three-conference style? Maybe you prefer a baseball system, and in that case, I’d love to hear why!