[beineke]

Eddie Pope was from North Carolina, and he knew that he wanted to go to UNC, a strong academic school where his family could attend all his games. However, he was undecided between playing football and soccer. In the end, his parents paid for his first in-state semester, so that he could wait and decide which sport's scholarship offer to accept. If Pope had been from Texas or Florida or Illinois (or many other states), he would not have had the option -- he would have ended up a football player.

People may point to O'Brien, Beasley, and Donovan and claim that college soccer doesn't matter to the National Team. However, a glance at the current player pool quickly refutes that idea. 29 of the 40 players have collegiate experience (72.5%). Of the remaining 11, 4 were not raised in the United States (Regis, Llamosa, Stewart, and Gutierrez).

Down the road, more players will forgo college. However, there will also be a lot more Eddie Popes. Unless men's college soccer gets support from the big schools, most of them will be lost to the National Team.

[GoHawks4]

There are many threads about college Soccer and Title IX, here so I would hate to bring it up. Illinois has 2 big mens sports: Football and Basketball. We don't even have a Hockey team. I don't understand why year in and year out Michigan State has a great basketball team, great football team and the best hockey team in the country. Texas is mostly for football. I though one of the Florida colleges had a team. Not sure though.

[The Wanderer]

Originally posted by beineke
Eddie Pope was from North Carolina, and he knew that he wanted to go to UNC, a strong academic school where his family could attend all his games. However, he was undecided between playing football and soccer. In the end, his parents paid for his first in-state semester, so that he could wait and decide which sport's scholarship offer to accept. If Pope had been from Texas or Florida or Illinois (or many other states), he would not have had the option -- he would have ended up a football player.

People may point to O'Brien, Beasley, and Donovan and claim that college soccer doesn't matter to the National Team. However, a glance at the current player pool quickly refutes that idea. 29 of the 40 players have collegiate experience (72.5%). Of the remaining 11, 4 were not raised in the United States (Regis, Llamosa, Stewart, and Gutierrez).

Down the road, more players will forgo college. However, there will also be a lot more Eddie Popes. Unless men's college soccer gets support from the big schools, most of them will be lost to the National Team.

In the future 80-90% of the players will be funnelled into a system where they will choose what sport they want to play at much earlier ages. Players such as Pope(who is generally a poor distributor despite his great defensive talent) won't make it because there will be more complete players available. There will be hardly any of this splitting time between sports on our future players' resume.

[anderson]

Originally posted by The Wanderer
In the future 80-90% of the players will be funnelled into a system where they will choose what sport they want to play at much earlier ages. ...

Feel free to just point to another thread or link if it's more efficient than explaining here, but why do you think that will be the case? I'm just asking as someone who thinks that would probably be a very good development, but don't know enough to understand why it would happen. Thanks.

[thacharger]

Originally posted by anderson
Feel free to just point to another thread or link if it's more efficient than explaining here, but why do you think that will be the case? I'm just asking as someone who thinks that would probably be a very good development, but don't know enough to understand why it would happen. Thanks.

I think he is just giving his future idea of American soccer. I dont think it will ever happen becuase American kids are told to play many sports when they are young.

[Eliezar]

Of course preMLS the best soccer players we could find were college soccer players. I'd imagine that within 5 years only about half of the US born players in MLS will have played any college soccer if that. Anybody who goes from 18 to 22 with that little competition experiences a dropoff in ability compared to the pro 18-22 year olds around the world.

[beineke]

Originally posted by GoHawks4
There are many threads about college Soccer and Title IX, here so I would hate to bring it up.

I agree with your comment about Title IX ... hopefully this thread won't take that path. I just want to sound out my opinion about the importance of the college game.

Most American kids will continue to play multiple sports (because it's fun!), and most will (sensibly)prefer a college education to an uncertain future with a professional reserve soccer team. This year, a couple of US players even abandoned top European youth programs to come play in the NCAA. As those decisions strongly indicate, the college game is here to stay. The guys who skip school will (almost always) be a lot worse than Eddie Pope has been.

[beineke]

Originally posted by Eliezar
I'd imagine that within 5 years only about half of the US born players in MLS will have played any college soccer if that. Anybody who goes from 18 to 22 with that little competition experiences a dropoff in ability compared to the pro 18-22 year olds around the world.

Yes, our college players are not in an ideal environment. Still, the great majority of kids will choose college, at least for a couple of years. This season, MLS added only three American-born players who had no collegiate experience (IIRC). None has received significant playing time yet.

[eric_appleby]

Originally posted by Eliezar
Anybody who goes from 18 to 22 with that little competition experiences a dropoff in ability compared to the pro 18-22 year olds around the world.

Right. Usually.

However, the Revo just added a college player, Daoda Kante, who has stepped right in and has been our best defender.

College soccer will continue to play a role, probably dininished from the past.

We're going to have a lot of players coming through different pipelines. Teenagers turning pro with MLS, kids playing in college, others hooking up with clubs in Europe, JOB, Kirovski. It's a numbers game. Eventually, we hit the lottery and find the American Ronaldo or Beckham.

Our problem for decades was that the national team pool came solely from the college ranks.

[The Wanderer]

Originally posted by beineke
The guys who skip school will (almost always) be a lot worse than Eddie Pope has been.

We'll see. The best players we have now are ones who have spent their whole lives playing soccer like Reyna, Mathis and Donovan and not dabbling in other sports. Twellman may be an exception, but I will continue to say that Twellman would have been even better had he not dabbled in baseball.

The kids who play soccer their whole lives from 8-10 through their teenage years are the ones who are going to be the best players.