I'm sure names will trickle out between Project 40 (IFKYK), homegrown, players declaring for the draft, signing in lower divisions and looking abroad, college soccer will again see a lot of underclassmen leave with eligibility remaining. (And eligibility seems to be going longer and longer since the Covid season. How many 5th and even 6th year players will there be next year?) So far, the only player I've heard leaving early is Duke Fr. GK Julian Eyestone. The source for that is... Julian Eyestone, so I don't know how reliable it is. https://www.dukechronicle.com/artic...yestone-professional-career-dallas-goalkeeper He's an 06 who graduated a year early to play a season of college soccer but as a US YNT player and a product of FC Dallas' famed academy, he will have a lot of pro options once he turns 18. With MLS now allowing sophomores and juniors to declare for the draft sans a GA deal, I expect we'll see some more news soon. At their recent combine, held at the College Cup, they invited several underclassmen.
Players entering this year's draft are eligible to play college ball without penalty. But the rights will be held by the MLS team. In last year's draft, there were many players that were on the draftable list but were able to play. 2 players were actually drafted last year (Charlie Sharp WMU, GK from Penn) and returned in 2023.
Here's the explanatory blurb on Georgetown's website: "New for this year, the SuperDraft was expanded to include college players who are collegiate sophomores and above, Generation Adidas players, any former college player who departed college with remaining eligibility since the conclusion of the college season approximately one (1) year prior to the SuperDraft, and other players specifically made available by the League. Drafted players with collegiate eligibility remaining can opt to return to school in the fall. Any drafted player who opts to return to college in the fall of 2024 or turns professional will not be draft-eligible in the future." Georgetown had six players drafted, three seniors, a junior, and two sophomores. https://guhoyas.com/news/2023/12/19...ix-hoyas-selected-in-2024-mls-superdraft.aspx
Marshall will lose Matthew Bell (Soph/Jamacia), he was taken 16th overall by Real Salt Lake. After not been given a Generation Adidas contract last year and not liking his draft analysis then, Bell returned to Marshall long before the draft last year. He parlayed that into being the 16th pick in the draft.
Maybe. He can ascertain that he wants to return for another year (or two). My understanding and the MLS "rules" are quite fluid is that he has just a few days in January to make that decision.
They way Grassie has been recruiting tells me Bell most likely isn't coming back. I would love for him to, it would just add one more dangerous scorer for next year. Grassie went out and got the AAC player of the year Memphis transfer Lineker Rodrigues dos Santos along with UW Greenbay transfer Rohin Kapila and UC Riverside transfer Aleksandar Vuković. Along with Adrian Mahoney (Jamacian U17/Toronto FC). These players were all committed to Grassie under two weeks of Marshall's season being over. Mahoney is the 1st player to sign with Grassie at Marshall that is with an MLS Academy, either a signed pro contract or a futures contract. I would like to see Grassie make inroads to get more MLS Academy kids. It's just extremely difficult when you aren't a blue blood.
Maybe so but he has always been referenced from the South Kent School in South Kent CT. Grassie had some success with South Kent. But haven't had anyone come since Silva, they had a coaching change and I don't know what kind of relationship they have with Grassie now.
recruiting has nothing to do with who is coming back and who is not, no matter what you go out and try to get better players then you already have it doesnt matter how good the players on your team are. high level MLS players and american families wont go to marshall, they see it as a step down. The high academic institutions that play in the best conferences will always get the best american kids because of prestige and name, no matter the product on the field. Michigan has been a joke for years and still get top recruits yet cant win. Georgetown, Indiana, Stanford have done the best job of recruiting majority american kids and still being very successful. Other programs yo-yo with americans and internationals
he should stay one more year and he will be a GA pick, im not really sure why he wasnt this year. He was fantastic all year
Boye was offered a GA deal, but declined it. He also had interest from abroad, but Phoenix Rising offered more money, a better chance (in his estimation) at immediate playing time, and more flexibility on the back-end to leave for bigger and better things than MLS. He also got to select his team, unlike in MLS where the team that drafted him would have held his rights. It's a gamble that others have taken and lost, but he bet on himself.
I like seeing USL clubs outbidding MLS for underclassmen. Shows ambition and gives kids more options.
So by my count, besides the two GA kids - Maryland's Kimani Stewart-Baynes and UVA's Stephen Annor Gyamfi (both freshmen), 32 players in their second or third years of college were taken in the SuperDraft (7 in the first round, 8 in the second and 17 in the third) and 6 redshirt juniors in their 4th year of college were taken. Another player who had played at UNC and turned pro in USL last year was also taken. (Even most of the seniors could take, or have taken, a "Covid year" of extra eligibility granted by the NCAA, though very few of the ones serious about pro soccer will use it. With the exception of some redshirt seniors next year, this will be the last class to have the Covid Year available.) All told, of the 87 players taken, 41 were "underclassmen" in that they have/had at least one non-Covid year of college eligibility left. It will be interesting to see how many of them return to school - MLS teams keep their draft rights for two seasons - and how many of them sign this winter or leave early. Also interesting to see how many will leave for MLSNext Pro deals, how many will sign in USL or abroad and how many will get actual MLS contracts. Regardless, it has the potential to be a LOT more underclassmen leaving early than in year's past.
I wonder if soccer players can get any NIL money. That has certainly changed to formula in basketball and football for those college superstars who are not getting big money from entering the pro ranks since they'd be taking a pay cut in some cases. Doubtful, but still a possibility to put some things together to keep a kid in school.
I know attractive female athletes in non-revenue sports have gotten NIL deals, especially if they have a big social media following. I would guess it would be do-able for top players at bigger programs that aren't in big media markets with lots of pro competition or too much comp from football and hoops players. So, SMU, Stanford, FIU, UCLA, Denver, Georgetown, etc... No. But Clemson, Marshall, Creighton or Utah Valley? Maybe. But if you're a local business, does a men's soccer player help you move product? That's the bottom line.
You don't have to be at a big name DI, or even in DI, or even playing much at a DIII, to generate a lot of income in NIL. This is a story about a DIII basketball player at Claremont-McKenna who secured 80 NIL deals and is quitting the sport to work on it full-time. https://www.si.com/fannation/name-i...l-player-shows-whats-possible-in-nil-michael9 What's different in soccer is the school's collective won't just outright pay you. The money is there, though, for players who want to hustle.
I had no idea any non-DI students were getting anything out of NIL (though that kid seems suited in a way that most aren't to self-promotion as an expert of sorts on some how-tos for his sport, ...). Good for him.
I paid my wife's favorite player to make a video wishing her happy anniversary. She was shocked and really enjoyed the unique gift.
I read the first couple words of this above and thought it was going to go completely a different way. I'm grateful for you @JoeSoccerFan that it didn't!