US MNT fails to qualify for 2018 World Cup

I understand where you are coming from and do not disagree with you.

Today college soccer has virtually zero impact on the US Nats. No doubt. That does not mean that this will always be the case. It will almost certainly always be the case, but it does not have to be this way.

I merely think that college soccer could address the 18-22 year old development gap (as demonstrated by Herivaux) pointed out by many coaches as college soccer has a head start on that age range already and it will not cost MLS or MLS team owners any money. Other ideas that address this age range will potentially cost MLS more money and carry an equal likelihood of success without being available to as many players.

If college soccer could ever become to MLS what NCAA basketball is to the NBA, then the typical US born player at age 17 would be a much different animal than he is today. That would mean that a lot would be different at the even younger ranks. Imagine a Pitino-esque NCAA soccer coach "recruiting" a bunch of one and done high school stars that he knows will jump right from college to a pro league after one year of college?

I do not think that the number of players on the USMNT with college experience (or on a top tier European team) is the best or only way to measure the impact of NCAA soccer on the USMNT. College soccer could do a lot more for the USMNT without such direct results.

One other thing that I like about the NCAA soccer idea is that it addresses the soccer footprint in a way that will be difficult for academies to catch up to. I wonder though, does there need to be 350 soccer academies (similar number of NCAA D1 basketball programs)? Would anything change if MLS removed the geographic rules that govern academy attendance? How much will non MLS teams contribute to the number of academies?

In general, this fantasy of NCAA soccer becoming much more important to pro/USMNT soccer is not a hill I would want to die on, but I think it could help, at least indirectly, a great deal.

I realize that I have not commented on NCAA football as I did in my original post. Perhaps NCAA football is less appropriate for this fantasy example, but I also cannot help but wonder where football will be in the future and if one day there will be a void where football is today?

 

That is the key point to your argument. The vast majority of those colleges look locally for talent, which basically covers the entire US. This is something that MLS clubs won't do, or more realistically, won't allocate the resources to do.

 

I saw an article mentioning David Wagner as a possible new coach. To me that is the best name I have seen so far. Very interesting candidate