Press Release: THIRTEEN NCAA MEN'S SOCCER TEAMS TO PARTICIPATE IN EXPANDED 2019 SPRING COLLEGE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM Dual-Division Competition Will Be Played According to U.S. Soccer Technical Standards CHICAGO (Feb. 22, 2019)-Thirteen top NCAA men's soccer programs will compete in the second annual College Development Program that is designed to further player development opportunities in Zone 3 (players age 18 and older). Boston College, Clemson, Connecticut, Duke, Georgetown, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Providence, Rutgers, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest will participate across two divisions in this year's program. The program will run from March 2-April 26. "I'm excited about the continued relationship between U.S. Soccer and the college game through the Spring College Program" said U.S. Soccer YNT Technical Director Tab Ramos. "The Spring College Program was a tremendous success in its inaugural run last year, as we were able to identify new Youth National Team prospects and follow others we were already tracking. The college program is an important part of Zone 3 development and having top programs participate under international standards makes their integration into our National Teams and the professional game easier." Initiated last year as a collaboration between U.S. Soccer and six NCAA men's soccer programs, the college teams will run this year's event as an approved U.S. Soccer competition, following the Federation's technical framework of best practices for elite youth development. The games will operate similar a U.S. Soccer Development Academy match: featuring traditional timekeeping, a maximum gameday roster of 18 players and three substitution moments with no re-entry. "The growth of the Spring College Program in its second year is a testament to the leaders of these institutions for their work and effort to create the optimal environments for players," said YNT Director Jared Micklos. "It's beneficial to have more players 17 and older participating in standards-based competition. We are proud to support the college game and these institutions in the evolution of the pathway for players transitioning from youth to college." The event also provides an additional opportunity for U.S. Soccer scouts to identify potential players for the Youth National Teams and senior Men's National Team. U.S. Soccer Talent Identification network scouts will attend select games. Schools will receive a full analytic report of each match from Opta, U.S. Soccer's official data supplier. This year's thirteen participating teams will be split into North and South Divisions. Boston College, Connecticut, Providence, Rutgers and Syracuse will comprise the North Division, while the South Division will be split into two groups: Georgetown, Pitt, Virginia and Virginia Tech in one, and Clemson, Duke, North Carolina and Wake Forest in the other. Last year, North Carolina took home the inaugural Spring College Program title in a competition that featured six top teams from across the Southeast. The South Division teams will play each member of their group once from March 2 to April 6, followed by playoffs on April 13. The top team in each group will face-off, as well as the runner-up, third-placed, and fourth-placed teams in each group. Each team in the five-school North Division will play each other once from March 23 to April 26, and the team with the most points will be crowned as Division champion. 2019 Spring College Program Schedule All times ET North Division March 23 Boston College vs. Syracuse - TBA March 30 Providence vs. Rutgers - 1:00 p.m. Boston College vs. Connecticut - TBA April 6 Rutgers vs. Boston College - 1:00 p.m. Connecticut vs. Syracuse - 2:00 p.m. April 9 Connecticut vs. Providence - 7:30 p.m. April 13 Syracuse vs. Providence - 1:00 p.m. April 14 Rutgers vs. Connecticut - 1:00 p.m. April 20 Syracuse vs. Rutgers - 2:30 p.m. April 26 Providence vs. Boston College - 8:00 p.m. South Division - Group 1 March 2 North Carolina vs. Duke - 12:00 p.m. Wake Forest vs. Clemson - 3:00 p.m. March 30 Clemson vs. North Carolina - 3:00 p.m. Duke vs. Wake Forest - 4:00 p.m. April 6 Duke vs. Clemson - 1:00 p.m. North Carolina vs. Wake Forest - TBA South Division - Group 2 March 2 Virginia vs. Virginia Tech - March 2, 1:00 p.m. March 23 Pitt vs. Georgetown - March 23, 3:00 p.m. March 30 Virginia vs. Georgetown - 1:00 p.m. Virginia Tech vs. Pitt - 1:00 p.m. April 6 Pitt vs. Virginia - 12:00 p.m. Georgetown vs. Virginia Tech - 1:00 p.m. South Division Playoffs - April 13 at Wake Forest 1st Place Group 1 vs. 1st Place Group 2 2nd Place Group 1 vs. 2nd Place Group 2 3rd Place Group 1 vs. 3rd Place Group 2 4th Place Group 1 vs. 4th Place Group 2
I'm still the pessimist, this isn't really anything special. It's just a regular spring season. It's still meaningless. They've applied some different rules (which can be applied during ANY non-championship season event). They've got a special name to it. Rosters are still small, so an 18-man roster isn't special (some schools have 15 right now). If you paint your house a different color, is it a new house?
I actually got to sit in last year at the coaches round-table with the USSF coaching directors the day before the final triple-header. I think there is a lot of value. But I think it's behind the scenes. I do think there is some groundwork going on that hopefully will lead to some substantive changes (one-way substitutions, for instance) in the long run. Most of the round-table was about sharing best practices, and it was pretty astonishing as you could tell a lot of closely held information was freely shared amongst the teams staffs. The real takeaway for me is how serious USSF is about coaching development. About setting standards and making sure coaching levels and certifications are meaningful. Maybe the NCAA game itself isn't the big beneficiary in the end, but the college spring season is probably a good place to experiment with as I doubt you're going to get a bunch of pay to play club teams and coaches to participate in this sort of exercise especially if it means sharing information with their competitors. photos https://isiphotos.photoshelter.com/...ril-20-2018/G0000ewFnDk6ZtuA/C0000C.zQRrAa1HU
exactly - many teams struggle to get 18 players. If that were not the case, it wouldn't have happened.
USSF can't see beyond their own noses. NCAA rules that are better than LOTG (timekeeping, substitutions, etc) are to be thrown out in favor of what? Tradition?
To add to the USSF College Development Program, Columbus Crew are doing their own, "Columbus Crew Spring College League." They have several "local" college programs doing a similarly structured program to the USSF one. Eight teams total, two pools of 4 teams. Top two teams in each pool will compete at the finals at Crew Stadium. Gold Group: Bowling Green Cleveland State Dayton Purdue Fort Wayne Black Group: Cincinnati Marshall Northern Kentucky Ohio State
I dropped by the Prov/Rutgers match 2nd H. Lot of inexperience on Providence side giving up a goal with .05 remaining to tie at two. Went right to shootout (Prov W) but higher standard IDK? Probably a better 4 opponents than usual spring friendlies.
The whole impetus behind this isn't making these particular games a "higher standard of play", but to work on coaching education. Not necessarily making these coaches better, but working on best practices. This is the beginning of something that is designed to bear fruit down the road. Don't miss the forest for the trees, as it were.
What I like about it are the match-ups. The D1 college closest to me are playing two community colleges and a D11 school. If SLU were playing say IU, I would be tempted to go and watch. I have no interest watching them play two community colleges.
And three D1 schools. BTW, they played a JUCO and the D2 school on the same day, just like they played the D1 school and the other JUCO on the same day and will again this weekend.
Bowling Green v. Ohio State for the championship of the inaugural Columbus Crew Spring College League.
Some interesting college soccer info... http://scholarshipstats.com/soccer.html also... http://scholarshipstats.com/ncaalimits.html Why the @#$% does Lacrosse get 12.6 men's scholarships and soccer only gets 9.9. That's BS. With the importance that parents in the USA place on education, soccer in the USA isn't going to take a true step forward unit schools are allowed to offer full scholarships for a 23 man roster.
Meh, Those limits are on paper only. Few schools fully fund up to the limit as it stands. Even top, championship winning programs don't fully fund the 9.9 scholarships. What's the point of having more if they're not used. You want change, get schools to publicize how many athletic scholarships in each sport they actually fully fund each year.
From the Syracuse website and twitter account, it reports that the Orangemen went 6-0 in the spring, and from the tweet below 'Cuse seem to be claiming the championship of the "North Division." (There seemingly are no North Division playoffs, nor any playoffs between any team from the North Division and any team from the South Division.) SU Men's SoccerVerified account @CuseMSOC 3:44 PM - 20 Apr 2019