Let me preface this by saying that UConn men's soccer has one of the strongest foundations and traditions in college soccer and a pretty loyal following. I doubt they are going anywhere anytime soon. At the same time... https://www.apnews.com/5bf6e16950ec4de89117c206fff8786a When an athletic department has a $40 million deficit, school's two "revenue" sports are losing money, as is the signature program that is the women's basketball program, and the AD says "sometimes there’s inevitabilities," about dropping sports, well, most of us around here know what that means. Does that mean if UConn drops a couple of sports to balance its books that it puts men's soccer on the chopping block? Not automatically. As I started with, UConn soccer has a strong base of support in the community. At the same time, UConn has 10 male varsity sports, two of which, hoops and football, ain't goin' anywhere. And Title IX means a men's program will be chopped before a women's program is or, at best, along with a women's program. That leaves men's soccer competing with ice hockey, baseball, cross country, track, tennis, swimming and golf to get to survive if the school opts to cut programs. So at a minimum, there's a 12.5 (1/8) percent chance UConn men's soccer gets eliminated. Again, odds are if the school drops a sport, I suspect the soccer community will be more galvanized in Connecticut than, say, the golf or cross country programs. But, we said that about New Mexico, too. Now, we don't know what the ledger looks like. (At least I don't.) Which of those eight programs loses the most money. If, say, tennis isn't much of a money loser, and, ice hockey is losing more money, than even though ice hockey is more popular as a spectator sport, odds are its hockey that's dropped. Regardless, none of this is good news for UConn or, for that matter, college soccer. Hopefully no program gets axed and if they do, then hopefully the men's soccer community can come together to keep the program at UConn alive and flourishing. But it also serves as yet another reminder that college soccer is basically a welfare program and exists only as long as the school chooses to stomach the losses and sees enough of a non-financial return to justify the cost. It's a fragile existence. And if a program like UConn, which has won national titles and Hermann Trophies and sent players to MLS and Europe and various national teams, is looking over its shoulder, imagine what's going on at less-successful men's soccer programs.
Since he predicts that it is on-line education that will bankrupt all those colleges, perhaps the survivors can organize 11v11 online soccer games, something like those popular multi-player combat simulation games.
Already a thing-https://www.higheredjobs.com/admin/details.cfm?JobCode=176893359&Title=Head%20Coach%2C%20eSports
Delightful. E-everything seems to be the way things are going. My second son (who actually played meat-world D1 soccer) works for a company that sells online tickets to sporting and other events. To top it off, he manages a group of people who all work from home.
e-Sports is the next big thing. All pro clubs in Europe are creating e-sport teams, who defend their colors. I heard that the market's worth is already some billions $. Will the NCAA launch an e-Sport Division 1? On the other hand if U-Conn mens' soccer shuts down, after UNM's, it will be a big blow to college soccer's image. When we started to investigate college soccer with my sons, U-Conn were attracting our attention as a top team. And mot mentioning discovering the look of their impressive mascot.
2017 UConn had the highest NCAA D1 Mens Soccer attendance. http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/m_soccer_RB/2018/2017attend.pdf When are the 2018 numbers released?
College presidents and boards here are looking at the euro higher ed model as well (no sponsored sports). Clubs in all sports outside of college.
I saw this sign on the NCAA site, "All 2018 attendance updates are postponed due to the government shutdown. We apologize for any inconvenience". Not true.
Well pun not intended. Let me be clearer. When we started to search college soccer, we immediately found TDS as one of the first source of information especially their rankings. These are very graphic with the teams' mascots well displayed. And some of these stroke our rookies' eyes (we were really new to the US universe of… universities). UConn husky was one we noticed, alongside Coastal Carolina, Lousiville, Butler... And seriously it made a mark in our memory, When I remember our first steps, the TDS ranking list always pops up as one of the souvenirs. Hence the value of well crafted brand logos impregnating naive minds. But I am not here to lecture the forum's community about the marketing basics applied to college sports : the forum members are too wise for this
Would it not be a huge cultural change….? For us in the old Europe, the sport culture in the universities is a unique feature of US. How could it disappear? And how would people will feel it? No apprehension?
They may be living in red ink but expensive building projects for 2019 are underway. My guess is that "stadiums" come from private funding but their other fiscal problems will have to be addressed with cuts. Contributors are probably told they will provide UConn with the top field in the country. It would be odd to talk of dropping the sport at the same time.
Only way college sports survive is if it becomes "professional" ie sponsors...Only 5-10 schools athletic depts operate in the black out of thousands of schools. Uconn would be wearing "coca-cola" on uniforms etc...Football is a dying sport as well in the states, concussions, moms not letting kids play etc...Cultures change quickly...
You guys are acting all "doom and gloom" with this. Issues have existed with college sports for years, they aren't going anywhere anytime soon. Sure, some programs will be cut, then others will be added. It's somewhat cyclical. People have been saying NAIA will be engulfed by NCAA and become D4 for 20+ years. It's gone nowhere. Colleges needs students. Students want athletics. Nothing is changing there. If cultures change quickly, that hasn't hit US interscholastic OR intercollegiate athletics. Heck, NJCAA just announced they are adding DII men's and women's soccer. It's really the only time they've made a change like this in nearly TWO DECADES! Things just do not change much or quickly in college athletics.
While my colleagues work daily to make college soccer better, it’s important to recognize that it’s still doing a pretty damn good job helping players progress to their dreams! 9 of 11 starters on this @ussoccer_mnt went to college for at least 2 years🤔 https://t.co/mXoVDZ80xR— Sasho Cirovski (@SashoCirovski) January 28, 2019
Sasho reaches here and there, can't fault him at times though. He's got his pedestal he wants to keep standing and shouting from. I had a long chat with someone about the year-round calendar this weekend. I'm not sure where all they've had studies/evaluations done. I've seen a presentation. But, IMO, if they want to truly gain some ground on it, they need to address these three items and show how much MORE valuable it'd be: Financial -- what are the numbers behind the change, must be positive OR there won't be incentive to change Academic -- show there is less class missed, more focus in the classroom, and all studies show athletes perform better in the classroom when in season Physical -- must show that the congestion in the fall is harmful to the health and well-being of the student-athlete, a year-round schedule change will impact the physical side more positively. No one in NCAA that has power to change anything cares about "development." Period. That's not what NCAA exists for -- even though we all know how much they love when NFL and NBA gets their pros from the college game. Without truly addressing those three items, no administrator will truly care. And, I'd leave them in that order too.
Continuing the comments on the state of college soccer, player development, financial concerns, and other issues, one thing for sure is that at least some programs still have better facilities than some of the MLS, and I'd say a lot of the USL pro, programs. Along those lines, this example from OSU: Ever wondered what the life of a student-athlete is really like?Go behind the scenes with @OhioStateMSOC & see a day in the life with the team at the state-of-the-art Schumaker Complex 🏋️♂️⚽#GoBucks pic.twitter.com/FPS3w1bPvv— FirstPoint USA (@firstpointusa) January 29, 2019
While college soccer is right to puff its chest out over this, especially as more and more talent skips NCAA ball and teams increasingly poo-poo the draft, it also needs to be noted that this was basically a C-team. When the games start to matter - Gold Cup, qualifiers, perhaps Nations League, and (God willing) the World Cup - the team is gonna be mostly players who skipped college with a handful of players who left early and maybe one or two four-year college players. Make a roster for the Gold Cup. A realistic one. And then have fun and speculate about 2022. See how much college soccer representation you have on those teams. There's a huge difference between January friendlies and WC qualifiers and the Gold Cup and the World Cup.
Hate to say it, but Klinsmann had it right. Find those playing high level professional soccer anywhere in the world with an ounce of american blood and sign them. Most P5 colleges have some of the best facilities and resources in the world (pro or amateur), but playing 40 games a year will not develop WC talent. Sorry.