Re: NCAA Legislative Council Passes New Rule on Amateurism and Academies Beauty is it really does both--increase the NCAA's capacity to provide development to rank and file pros, and increase MLS's flexibility to professionalize the special ones--where most other solutions would have pit one against the other.
Re: NCAA Legislative Council Passes New Rule on Amateurism and Academies what has to be done, and what's the most realistic path to having NCAA adopt FIFA rules and regs?
Re: NCAA Legislative Council Passes New Rule on Amateurism and Academies Kill all of the administrators and half of the coaches in college soccer.
Re: NCAA Legislative Council Passes New Rule on Amateurism and Academies Hopefully, if it works as adopted, it allows an MLS team to sign a player, but keep him in the academy (or use him in games there when feasible) to help his development while tying him to the first team long term.
Re: NCAA Legislative Council Passes New Rule on Amateurism and Academies Do you mean MLS sign a player to a contract? If so it would have nothing to do with the new NCAA rule. He would then be a professional and ineligible for NCAA. What I think this rule does is allow youth players who may or may not be good enough to be a professional to hedge his bets. It will allow that player to play, train, and development in an intensive professional environment vs professional players and not be ineligible for the NCAA. In my mind he becomes the best player possible and if that's good enough to be offered a professional contract so be it, if not he goes to college and plays college soccer.
Re: NCAA Legislative Council Passes New Rule on Amateurism and Academies what is the current situation with MLS academy players by way of pre-contracts? if i am not mistake in europe academy players are on pre-contracts/youth contracts that give the team exclusivity to their rights, compensation if they are "sold" on before they turn professional and of course do not provide salary or monetary compensation but lay out what services (room, board, education, etc) will be provided FOR the player in exachange for the "pre-rights" so to speak. with MLS academies getting more and more serious, some even residential (Vancouver) is this on the horizon for MLS? i would hate to think that MLS teams would invest all of this money and time into developing youth only to see the very best of the best head off to europe or mexico for free. i am also interested if/when MLS plans on allowing each academy team to have a certain number of 'non-territorial' players. obviously each team has an exclusive territory that cannot be violated, and rightfully so but if some MLS teams head towards a more residentail (full or partial) system wouldn't it be good for them to be able to attract and train at least a handful of players from developing nations (S America and Africa)? not to mention it will also help players in the area of the country(ies) not in any team's territory still be able to be part of the MLS professional development pipeline.
Re: NCAA Legislative Council Passes New Rule on Amateurism and Academies Here's my best-case scenario for the result of this rule: MLS teams establish affiliates in the PDL as the top of their academy systems, and farm/reserve teams in USL-2. Teams would sign those players they choose to retain from their academy to five-year amateur/PDL contracts when they turn 18. The MLS team would retain the rights to the players that they develop in those academies for their PDL teams which would allow those who choose to to play college soccer as well. If/when a player warrants a spot on the reserve/farm team in USL-2 (which would also include younger pros, vets on injury rehab, etc.), he can still play college soccer until he is wanted by the MLS team and offered a pro contract, and then decide if he wants to abandon the remainder of his college eligibility to sign it. If not, he can still play college soccer, the MLS team still retains his rights until he is 23, and can decide what they want to do with him until then. If he blossoms into a huge talent, and the foreign clubs come calling, they can sell him; one such sale could finance the entire youth set-up for years. Short of that, they can transfer/trade him to other MLS teams, or release him if it looks like he's not going to pan out. Once he turns 23, and has not been offered a pro contract, he can choose to enter the MLS SuperDuperDraft, along with those recent college graduates who are not already the property of MLS teams (similar to how the NHL retains the rights to college players), or not. That would be, IMHO, the very best way to develop American soccer players, and strengthen MLS teams relatively cheaply, while still keeping college as a viable option for those who choose to hedge their pro-dream bets.
Re: NCAA Legislative Council Passes New Rule on Amateurism and Academies No, he has a point. If DC United wanted to sign Andy Najar to a contract, it professionalizes Najar either way, it's true. But the difference is that under the old rules, if they did that and then played Najar in the Academy, it professionalized every player he played with. Under these rules, Najar would remain the only pro. Therefore there would be little real penalty to doing that (since both the club and the player were already OK with professionalizing him). My best guess is that compensation is still verboten. DC United lost two players recently, Samir Badr and Lester Dewee, to Europe recently and did not receive any. It appears to me they're gonna have to solve this by signing their good prospects before this can happen. (Badr is not a huge loss this way. DCU wasn't going to be playing two home-grown goalkeepers no matter how you slice it. Dewee I'm not as familiar with.) Each MLS club is allowed a given number (two, I think) of 'non-local' affiliates. I don't know what the details would be about if they are out of country. I have been thinking that regardless of the compensation issues, a re-organization of the minor leagues might be in order. Right now, beneath MLS, there are two divisions where everyone gets paid. Then there's one division where almost nobody is. Seems to be a graduated scale of pro-Am teams is more what's called for.
Re: NCAA Legislative Council Passes New Rule on Amateurism and Academies Re: signing a player to a pro contract and still playing him with the youth team. It looks like the Red Bulls have already done it:
Re: NCAA Legislative Council Passes New Rule on Amateurism and Academies Ah, that's awesome. Now, instead of throwing Agudelo on the U-18 team, expand the rosters, put Agudelo on the Reserve Team, and fill the holes in the reserve team lineup with promising U18 players instead of Joe the local over-30 league all-star.
Re: NCAA Legislative Council Passes New Rule on Amateurism and Academies Wait, how is this legal? A kid from the Seattle area (who will be playing for the Sounders Academy team in the upcoming season) was suspended a DA game for participating in a scrimmage with the full Sounders against a regional college team.
Re: NCAA Legislative Council Passes New Rule on Amateurism and Academies I don't understand how the two situations are analogous. Agudelo is currently a member of the Red Bulls. There would have been an NCAA rule (which DA games don't have anything to do with) that the other players on that same team would have been considered pros because Agudelo played with them (well, they would have had to forfeit a game of eligibility in college, anyway), but the point of this thread is that this rule is likely to be changed.
Re: NCAA Legislative Council Passes New Rule on Amateurism and Academies That could be the result of some DA rule. Not sure why, but they may have their own policies. It is weird that Agudelo is allowed to do that. Maybe there has been some handshake agreement to allow it with the understanding that this rule is going to change soon.
Re: NCAA Legislative Council Passes New Rule on Amateurism and Academies Forgive my ignorance, but what's DA?
I assume that stood for Development Academy (which is not abbreviated the same way by everyone. Sometimes you see DA, sometimes DAP, sometimes USSFDA, etc.) I wasn't quite sure of the situation that poster was describing, but it sounded like a player was suspended by the development academy for one development academy game for playing with the Sounders senior team in a scrimmage even though he was not a member of their development academy team yet. How this would relate to situations like Agudelo I can't fathom. Could be they're just taking the gamble because the down side isn't that high. After all, if it's the same as the basketball rule, the penalty here for the other guys would be forfeiting one game of eligibility out of their four years, which is not that big a deal, and not going to affect anyone's recruiting status. It's only when you begin doing it 'institutionally' rather than in isolated spots that it would become a problem.
Re: NCAA Legislative Council Passes New Rule on Amateurism and Academies The lost eligibility does add up quickly, though. Agudelo played two games last weekend, and there are six more games in the next month with the post-season to follow. If the Red Bulls are taking a gamble here, the stakes could be a lot more than just one game.
Re: NCAA Legislative Council Passes New Rule on Amateurism and Academies Plus, the NCAA can just choose their penalty if they like. Consistency is not their strong suit.
Re: NCAA Legislative Council Passes New Rule on Amateurism and Academies While the MLS teams can't get transfer fees for academy players, they should be eligible for the FIFA-mandated "training compensation" and "solidarity contribution" payments.
Re: NCAA Legislative Council Passes New Rule on Amateurism and Academies It's not quite as cut and dry. The player in question plays for WPFC which is the club that is folding into the Sounders Academy team. So, yes, he is not technically on the Sounders yet but WPFC is going to cease to exist after this year. The DA knows that, anyone in Seattle soccer knows that. Regardless, the issue is amateurism vs. professional, not who they currently play for. Also, are you really saying there is limited downside to every kid on the Red Bulls having to sit out a game if they choose to go to college? That seems ridiculously wrong/scummy, no?
Re: NCAA Legislative Council Passes New Rule on Amateurism and Academies That's an issue with DA rules. I don't know if it's valid or if it isn't, but it's the DA who suspended him for a DA game. If it had been the NCAA suspending him for a college game, then we'd be talking about the same thing. It would be pretty scummy if they didn't tell the players what was up. If the players were informed, then it's just a calculated risk (the players who worry about their eligibility could sit out that game).
Re: NCAA Legislative Council Passes New Rule on Amateurism and Academies I completely agree on the first point. It's just sad to see a kid getting punished for, essentially, being good.
Re: NCAA Legislative Council Passes New Rule on Amateurism and Academies MLS really needs to sign their academy players to contracts.
Re: NCAA Legislative Council Passes New Rule on Amateurism and Academies Sorry I didn't see this until Archer linked it this morning ... The rules identified as NCAA are actually the NCAA Division I rules. The NCAA Division II rules on professionalism are looser. Up through the end of the first year after high school graduation (technically, when the player's class would normally graduate), someone can be fully professional and still then come to NCAA Division II without penalty. The "grace period" used to just extend through the summer after HS, but amendments this winter extend it to a full year, meaning someone could be a professional to roughly age 19, then go to a D2 and be immediately eligible. However, the new rule makes the regulations AFTER that year much tighter, in that if they stayed out of college for a second year, even playing in a local rec league would trigger losing a year of eligibility. Obviously, the most of those coming out of the academy would prefer to go to D1 schools. But at least the option is there.
Origin of NCAA Time/Sub Rules Can anyone explain the history/rationale behind the NCAA rules governing substitutions and game clock. What is getting in the way of changing the rules to bring them in alignment with FIFA rules? I take it most coaches are soccer lovers - so clearly I don't imagine the coaches are getting in the way. So what body or guiding principle needs to change? I'm happy with these incremental changes - over the kind of transformation that gets everyone excited. Not that I wouldn't support both - but practically shouldn't it be easy to just have refs keep the time on the field - and for players to not have unlimited substitutions?