Did a little research on just how many college teams are in the USA. i checked out some websites and crunched some numbers. Some of the websites are outdated, and i had to count some of the listings by hand. There are a handful of colleges from Canada and Puerto Rico in these organizations too. So it's a rough estimate. NCAA Div. 1 195 NCAA Div. 2 171 NCAA Div. 3 383 NAIA 205 NCCAA 83 USCAA 23 That's roughly 1060 4-year colleges. As for community colleges and junior colleges (2-year schools): NJCAA Div. 1 115 NJCAA Div. 3 74 NWAACC 19 CCLC 64 That's 272 jucos playing men's soccer. And more than 1300 schools total. That's a lot of 18-25 year old guys in the college soccer system.
There is some duplication between some schools that are in the NCAA, NAIA and NCCAA. It's possible to be of the NCCAA and also either the NCAA or NAIA. For example Nyack College is a NCAA D3 school and NCAA school.
I didn't catch that. Thanks. So, knock it down to only 1250 or so soccer programs. Much easier for pro scouts to follow that many colleges. However, i'm sure that there is NO duplication in the NAIA and NCAA listings, unless a school is switching organizations.
The NCAA's website has up to date listings for all sports, men's and women's, broken down by school name, conference, and region. Here's the men's NCAA D-I soccer listing alphabetically... http://web1.ncaa.org/ssLists/sportByInst.do?sport=MSO&division=1 By Conference... http://web1.ncaa.org/ssLists/sportByConf.do?sport=MSO&division=1 And by Region... http://web1.ncaa.org/ssLists/sportByRegion.do?sport=MSO&division=1
Even at a 1250 schools, that's over 25,000 players. And a goodly number of those get scholarships of one variety or another. It's these non-professional opportunities that make professional player development in the US significantly different than any other country.
Yeah, but not better in terms of development. 80 games in 4 years (if you are a starter and 90 minute player) vs. 400 games in 4 years for a european player aged 18-25. You can count the small minority of players that actually are relatively better in their senior year than when they came in as freshmen.
That wasn't my point. It had to do with the motivation of players who play at higher levels, and why professional player development faces more challenges in the US than anywhere else.
Dsocc is not saying college is better than academy for development BS has threaded the difference in European pro academy vs college for pro development and no one will say college is better. However college is all we have for now. College soccer may not be the best for the 1% that will become pros but it is a great experience for many of the other 99% Any college sport can be a great focus for students. It gives them a peer group with goals and hopeful a coach who can be a parent away from home to keep them from losing focus of academics with keg parties everywhere. Plus with team sports hopefully our kids will learn to become leaders and team players
First of, thanks for making the effort of going through and counting all of the programs. I think that's a lot of good information there. I think it also shows that there is a lot of opportunities for youth soccer players after high school. Even with the increased development program for MLS, and the oppourtunties there is really only a small percentage of players that will go into these programs. Also, there will always be some players that will go to college and develop later. But I would imagine that over time this will become smaller. But for the near future it will still be a viable route. There is two level of schools the NCCAA, Division 1 and 2. Pretty much all of the Divison 2 are memembers of just the NCCAA. However, most of the members of the members of Division 1 are also members of the NCCAA and either the NCAA or NAIA. I'm a volunteer coach at a NAIA school and we are also a member of the NCCAA and have taken part in both organizations post season tournaments. Here is a list of some schools that are in both; Hope International, Warner Pacific College, Judson College, Cedarville University, Mid American Nazarene. Thanks again for putting the list together.
College soccer might not be the best development environment, but that statement seems a bit extreme.
That's correct. There are about 25 men's programs at the NCCAA DII level, and I would say maybe 6-7 either have a second affiliation or are in the process of getting one. The popular choice is to also be affiliated with NCAA Div 3.
Those are impressive numbers. I hadn't give much thought to the subject before, but I'm sure I would have guessed the number of schools to be fewer than that.