The 1996 USISL Premier League season was its second. The season began in April 1996 and ended in August 1996. Central Coast Roadrunners won the championship, defeating the San Francisco Bay Seals 3–2. Spokane Shadow won the regular season title, winning 14 games to 2 losses.

Changes from 1995 season

Name changes

New teams

12 teams were added for the season.

Teams leaving

Five teams folded after the 1995 season:

Standings

Central Conference

Northern Division

Southern Division

Eastern Conference

Northern Division

Southern Division

Western Conference

Northern Division

Southern Division

Playoffs

Format

Central Coast received a bye to the PDL Semifinals as the defending champion. ''The top four teams from every division except the Southwest earn playoff spots. With Central Coast already receiving a bye, the top two teams from the Southwest Division will play each other, however if Central Coast is in the top two, then the third place team receives a playoff spot. The Division winners would then face each other in the Conference finals.''

Divisional brackets

Central Conference Playoffs

Eastern Conference Playoffs

Western Conference Playoffs

Premier Six Tournament

Six teams entered the Premier Six Tournament in Cocoa, Florida the weekend of August 16–18. Each of the five division playoff champions qualified for the tournament, along with the host Cocoa Expos. The teams were seeded in this order, based on their regular season points: The Central Coast Roadrunners played the bottom two seeds (Jackson and Mid-Michigan). The San Francisco Seals played the #4 and #6 seeds (Omaha and Mid-Michigan). The Cocoa Expos played and #4 and #5 seeds (Omaha and Jackson).

Qualification to the finals

In order to determine the two teams to qualify for the finals, the league used the following point system during the Premier Six Tournament:

Friday

Saturday

Final

Honors