The National Women’s Soccer League is expected to start its 2027 season in February, nearly a month earlier than previous years, sources within the league who have reviewed a tentative calendar told The Athletic. In the draft schedule footprint, preseason begins in early January, with playoffs running through the weekend before Thanksgiving.The shift comes as the league works around one of women’s soccer’s most congested international calendars in recent years.The 2027 Women’s World Cup is scheduled to take place in Brazil from June 24 to July 25, while multiple FIFA international windows for World Cup qualifying are set between November this year and April.Based on the draft outline, the next NWSL regular season will begin on Feb. 11, the earliest start in league history, and conclude at the end of October, multiple sources familiar with the matter told The Athletic on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships.The NWSL declined to comment.The Challenge Cup, which has recently been a one-off game between the previous year’s NWSL champion and regular-season Shield winner, is expected to return to a preseason format after the 2026 version was held midseason, though one source said the exact timing of the match was still being finalized.The 2026 NWSL calendar was announced on July 2, 2025. At the time, the Challenge Cup was set to be played on Feb. 21, which would have made it the earliest start of competition for the NWSL in a calendar year. However, the date was later moved to June 26 and used by the league as a way to return from its pause for the early rounds of the men’s World Cup played largely in the United States.Gotham FC won the 2026 Challenge Cup, held in Columbus, Ohio, ending the league’s men’s World Cup break. (Jason Mowry / Getty Images)Each of the 16 teams will play 15 regular-season home games. The schedule currently includes four midweek matches, divided between two home and two away per club. The weeklong break mandated by the league’s collective bargaining agreement would begin in early June. The league will then move into an almost two-month pause for the World Cup, with NWSL games resuming on July 30.