‘Tis the season for collegiate directors and team managers to register for the upcoming school year’s competitions. With the ending of Playfly and NACE’s partnership, there are now four major collegiate esports leagues competing for school participation.
With so many options, it can be difficult to understand the pros and cons of all the leagues. This guide will demystify the selection process by breaking down what every league has to offer.
This article will only focus on the four biggest collegiate esports leagues, so other offerings such as EGF will not be covered.
We’re also not going to be covering NECC’s newly announced Project I in this article. That league is only available for Division I schools, and the focus here is to cover leagues available to all schools regardless of size or NCAA status.
To clarify, CEN is in no way endorsing any of these four leagues, or any other collegiate league. Each organization provides a unique experience that each school will have to take into account to determine what works best for them.
Understanding Each League’s Competitive Tiers
Entering teams into NACE is relatively simple. For each title, you will likely enter your top squad into Varsity Premier, while entering secondary or reserve teams into Varsity Plus.
While this is not required, since every member school has the option to send their top team to Varsity Premier, they likely will to ensure they’re competing at the highest level of competition.
Varsity Premier is limited to one team per title. Meanwhile, Varsity Plus is open to multiple teams, ensuring competitive opportunities for those on second and even third-string teams.
Playfly College Esports works similarly to the former NACE Starleague competition. The Varsity and Open Premier Divisions only allow one team per title. In contrast, the Varsity and Open Plus Divisions allow for multiple teams per title.
Schools can compete in any combination of Varsity or Open Divisions, but individual students will be limited to one or the other per title. “For example, a League of Legends Varsity player cannot play in Open Divisions for that same game title. But their school can have League of Legends teams composed of different players in both tiers of Division.”
Ultimately, whether a team elects to compete in Varsity or Open will depend on cost and whether they meet the qualifications, which are expanded on more in the next section.
For both ECAC and NECC, there is only one pay tier to compete, meaning that all paying members are eligible for the same competitions.
ECAC has multiple divisions per title, such as the Super Elite, Elite, and Initiates Divisions. While the exact divisions will vary per title, all member schools can theoretically compete in any division. Teams are divided among the tiers based entirely on their skill level.
For smaller titles, ECAC places all competing teams in the same division. This keeps smaller titles from being to fragmented among the smaller pool of teams.
Finally, all teams competing in the NECC will enter into the same competition. From there, teams will be divided among a vast amount of divisions, as high as 9 or 10 for some larger titles, based on their skill.
Membership Fee Comparison
Arguably the most important factor for many programs with limited budgets is pricing. There are many key distinctions involved in pricing between leagues, so let’s look at each league individually.
NACE has the most simplified pricing. At $3,250 per year, NACE is the most expensive of the four major collegiate esports leagues. This price pays for all students from the affiliated school for the entire year.
NECC gives schools the option to pay on either a yearly basis for $1300, or just the semester for $800. Schools also have the option of paying on a per-game basis, costing $650 for the year or $450 for the semester. This option likely only makes sense if you’re interested in only entering one game, as adding a second brings the cost about equal to paying for all seven titles.
However, NECC just released a statement stating that Bye Blue Light will be covering $250 off membership dues for the upcoming academic year per school.
The pricing for Playfly depends on whether you’re competing in the Varsity or Open Division. As we’ve previously reported on, only varsity esports programs that meet key requirements are eligible to compete in Varsity.
The Varsity Division costs schools $2,000 per year, or $1,500 per year if they’re willing to pay for two years (invoiced in July 2025). For the Open Division, the only way to pay is on a per semester basis per-student. The Open Premier Division costs $75 per student, and the Open Standard Division costs $40 per student. The Open memberships give students access to all Open competitions for all titles of their respective tier. Early bird pricing (20% off) is available until September 3rd.
For reference, a team with seven students would cost $525 for the semester. Depending on how many players are needed per title and how many substitutes schools choose to field, the price can alter dramatically.
Membership with ECAC will cost a school $1,600 per year. Schools also have the option to compete in just one title for $500. For only $800 a year, though, schools can compete in non-core ECAC titles. Core titles include Rocket League, Overwatch 2, League of Legends, Valorant, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Schedule Comparison
The biggest difference in scheduling is that NACE and Playfly run their schedule Monday through Thursday. In contrast, NECC and ECAC run the entire school week, from Monday to Friday.
As a result of their shorter week, NACE and Playfly run into more scheduling conflicts with the other leagues compared to NECC and ECAC. Playfly runs into the most conflicts, as nearly all of their major titles run in conflict with at least one other league.
While the conflicts between leagues won’t impact many schools only competing with one organization, those looking to compete in the same title across multiple leagues should take careful note of the various scheduling conflicts.
Games Offered Comparison
As can be obviously seen, ECAC offers by far the most titles out of everyone. At a staggering 21 games, they nearly double Playfly, offering the second most games at 11. NECC offers slightly less at seven, with NACE only offering six games.
Some of the additional titles offered with an ECAC membership include Sim Racing, Teamfight Tactics, various sports titles, various FGC titles, and more.
Among the major esports titles, NECC is the only league that does not feature Call of Duty within its membership. Likewise, NACE is the only league to not offer both Counter-Strike 2 or Rainbow Six: Siege. Neither NECC nor NACE offer Fortnite.
This list is partially incomplete, though, since NECC announced a variety of tournaments for other game titles throughout the year. These tournaments feature titles ranging from Teamfight Tactics to EA Sports College Football 25 to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
These tournaments are not included with an NECC membership. Schools can purchase a full year pass for $750. They can also purchase a 12 tournament pass for $400, or pay per tournament. The price per tournament depends on the number of players competing, so make sure to verify the number of players competing before signing up.
Collegiate League Partnerships
Some of the major collegiate esports leagues have beneficial partnerships with other leagues. Those leagues tend to focus on only one title, and it allows collegiate leagues to expand their offerings.
NECC has partnered with Collegiate CoD and Collegiate Halo. While membership with NECC isn’t required to join either of these leagues, NECC members will receive a discount when signing up for Collegiate CoD.
Playfly is partnered with eNascar College iRacing Series, PUBG Mobile Campus Championship, and Collegiate Chess League. Membership with Playfly is not required for any of these leagues.
Finally, ECAC has partnerships with iRacing and Collegiate Corestrike League (Omega Strikers). Once again, membership with ECAC is not required to compete in these leagues, instead ECAC is providing prizing for them.
ECAC and NECC also have a partnership with CLOL, where their teams compete in qualifiers to make it to the National Playoffs. Last year, NECC received three bids for playoffs while ECAC received one.
Even though schools can compete in all of these partnered leagues without membership to a given organization, there are more implicit benefits. Being familiar with the staff overseeing these events, as well as contacts that can provide assistance can be incredibly useful.
Additionally, some of these partnered leagues use the same bracket managers as their partnered collegiate league. This can make it easier to manage all of a school’s teams in one interface with a consistent leadership team to answer any questions.
Other Benefits Offered
As of time of August 1st, it appears that all four leagues are planning on hosting at least one major in-person LAN event during the school year. While those plans aren’t fully public for all leagues, there should be LAN competition in some capacity offered to all leagues.
This may mean a partnership once again between ECAC and CECC where ECAC schools can qualify for CECC’s yearly LAN event, which is happening in Arlington in May 2025.
Playfly is the only league that publicizes an amount for scholarship prizing, with a purported over $150,000 on offer between their Varsity and Open Divisions. They also advertise travel stipends for all participating teams in their LAN events.
Playfly also advertises free merch drops for registered players across all competitions.
In a blog post, NECC publicized some sort of prizing on offer. This announcement was part of NECC’s justification for increasing membership costs from the previous year.
How To Register For Each League
All four of the major collegiate esports leagues have already opened registration for the upcoming year. Additionally, three of them close registration during the first week of September.
Those interested in registering for ECAC should register here and have until September 16th to do so. Questions regarding ECAC’s registration, can be asked in their Discord server.
NACE is the earliest to close registration, as Varsity registration closes on September 2nd. Those interested in registering for Plus have until September 16th. Both Varsity and Plus should sign up here. Questions for their team can be asked in their Discord server
Those interested in NACE, though, should note the requirements for entry. The full list can be found here, but one of the major elements is member institutions must have an esports lab/arena space for competitors. Playfly also has that requirement for their Varsity Division.
Registration for NECC closes on September 4th, and can be found here. It’s worth noting that registration for Counter-Strike 2 is not live yet and will be announced separately. To keep up to date or ask any questions about their registration, you can visit their Discord server.
Finally, Playfly registration can be found here. You can find their full Competition Menu here. There are three different due dates for registration depending on the Division. Varsity Premier registration closes on September 3rd, Open Premier registration closes on September 9th, and Open and Varsity Plus closes on September 16th. Questions about their registration process can be asked in their Discord server.
Each League Has Their Own Tradeoffs
The wide selection of available collegiate esports leagues means intense competition between leagues to recruit schools. This means, theoretically, that leagues are incentivized to keep prices competitive in the hopes of gaining a stable roster of competing schools.
The downside, though, is that it’s hard to tell which schools are competing in which leagues before the season starts. If your League of Legends team wants to compete against top schools like Maryville, SLU, and Winthrop, it can be a guessing game as to which leagues those teams will compete in.
Ultimately, all of these leagues are run by caring and devoted staff. They all feature variations of an Advisory Committee to give esports directors input into the league’s direction.
Shaun Byrne, Esports Director at St. Clair College, gave a presentation about the issue of managing which collegiate leagues to join. He ended it by saying “There are more factors than you may have considered to make the proper league choices for your program.”
There is no unilaterally best collegiate league on offer. It’s up to each school to make the comparison for themselves to determine what works best for their program.
