NCAA rule change proposal that could be HUGE for MLS player development

Finally!

 

This rule change could help the game here a lot. College players could have a more meaningful PDL playing experience because the player mix would improve. PDL teams can field more competitive teams, helping them draw larger attendance. MLS teams will benefit from the PDL player development, and also maybe a new venue (PDL) for the academy/reserve players to play in.

 

If that is true how is it that Chicago Fire as well as Portland timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps have teams? Certainly the players from Chicago have been allowed to return to their NCAA schools without loosing elegibility.

Also this move seems like a huge shot in the arm to the USL since they would be looking at getting another 14 or so teams in the PDL once this rule changes. I don't know how lucrative the PDL is for the league but I can't imagine having stable organizations like MLS involved could hurt them.

 

A win, win situation for all parties. Now the college players could have a longer season than that stupid two months that they play now. The more you play the better you get.

 

The Fire's team, from what I can tell, is just a co-brand, and not really a relationship of ownership.

Vancouver's arrangement does violate NCAA amateurism rules, they just don't care. A little easier when you're in Canada, where a) they don't care as much about college sports as we do, the result being that scholarships are less attractive (they don't include room and board, and in Ontario scholarships are limited to $3500 a year) and b) former pros are allowed to regain their amateur status (by taking a year off) and then play college ball. So it's just not as much of an issue with them.

 

USL will have to decide how they would react. If they did nothing, while MLS, for instance, made an agreement with its Union to bring back the reserve league in exchange for a few of the spots being taken by amateur youth team players, then USL would be hurt. If they make a forward step like putting pros in the PDL (I would think they would dissolve USL-2 as having a questionable raison d'etre at that point), they could be helped.

 

The next helpful rule change that the NCAA could make is to relax limitations on players from the same college playing together on summer teams, opening the door for MLS teams to funnel their academy graduates to a trusted local college program while playing together on a PDL team over the summer.

 

Exactly. The potential to benefit teams and players up and down the pyramids, from MLS to PDL, is great,

 

1) I don't ever see that happening

2) I actually think there are long term benefits to players at that age being forced to play competitively with different groups of players.

 

NCAA rule change, or cozy relationship between academy and college program? Club program-->college program pipelines certainly aren't unprecedented.

 

Not exactly. There's a special eligibility rule involving Major Junior. In general, playing for a Major Junior team (that is, a team in any of the three organizations under the CHL, the WHL, OHL, and QMJHL) forfeits a player's college eligibility. However, he may petition to have his eligibility restored, at a minimum penalty of loss of one year (with typically an additional game per game played for the Major Junior team, though I don't think that is codified). For guys who have only played a handful of games for a Major Junior team and changed their mind, these petitions are routinely granted.

Despite several recent opportunities to alter this arrangement, the college hockey folks have declined to do so. In general, it's taken that they like the current bifurcation where a star player can't try Major Junior with no penalty---I think the fear is that many of them would do so and stick, leaving college mainly with the washouts.

Anybody who's interested in reading about NCAA eligibility can find the rules in the NCAA Division 1 manual, which is available for download from the NCAA's website under (IIRC) legislation and governance. If I remember right, it's chapter 14.

 

This is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We can have a real Reserve league now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

The Fire MLS team does not own the Fire PDL team, it's more like a marketing arrangement. The Fire MLS does not control the rights to the PDL players, who are subject to the same MLS draft rules as any other college player.

For example, Rauwshan McKenzie played for two years with the Fire PDL, but still had to go through the draft and was taken by Kansas City.

 

The 5 players from the same NCAA program on a PDL/W-League/PDSL/WPSL team rule.

I don't see that ever increasing.

 

For the sake of accuracy (not your strong suit, I know), the competition season for colleges is about three months, four if the team goes deep into the playoffs. The spring season is close to two months. And that's just the stuff with staff allowed to be involved - any Division I athlete is doing way more than that.

There are many shortcomings with the NCAA structure, but to pretend they only get two months of work is not accurate. That's about the window they cram the fall season into, but development is about more than games.

 

I really hope this does go through. This rule change would allow a total integration of the Academy and the Reserves. The Reserve League could come back without being a total joke because MLS teams could call up amateur academy players without the academy guys losing amateur status. It would be great experience for the academy guys and a better test of their ability to compete with the big boys.

As people have noted, it also has ramifications for the PDL.

 

And apparently they want to keep it that way, asking to exempt hockey from this rule as well:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/pu...ts-to-keep-pros-out-of-amateur?urn=nhl,197433

One gets the feeling soccer people feel differently (UMD coach Sasho Cirovski was one of the most enthusiastic backers of the USSFDA program, knowing that although it would mean a few more guys go pro at 18, the guys who go to college will still be better players), which is good.

 

Right. Because of the different economic bases of the two sports, these different approaches to seemingly identical situations make sense. The pool of potential hockey players is limited mainly due to economics and partly by geography. Additionally, hockey has a well developed program of minor leagues and juniors. The competition for players between college programs and the pro/junior leagues is much more intense. On the other hand, there will always be a surplus of college aged soccer players. Cirovski isn't really competing with the USL pro division or MLS. For every better developed player he loses, there'll be more to replace them with.

 

This is nice and dandy but don't forget that the long term goal is to end reliance on college soccer or at least reliance on 22 and 23 year old college soccer grads.

 

thats pretty stupid to say.... nothing wrong with College players at least MLS is is scouting them heck even other european teams scouting them.

 

If they leave college early there is nothing wrong,if they stay till 22 or 23 yeah there is a problem. We are way behind other countries in terms of player development, college soccer won't fix that.

 

MLB and NHL seem to be surviving just fine.

 

there is no legitimate way on how to uproot a soccer player, but i know that its stupid to limit that player opportunities, neglecting the college scene is asking for suicide... being in some academy doesnt assure you profressional greatness, but letting these kids have choices and eligibility for college should not be taken away from them.... what kind of example are you setting for them... whats the freaking difference when a kids does 2 yrs on scholarship compared to four??? Money??? wow they get a shot at shot at Manchester United riding the bench??? common man get right bruh.... Some of yall eurosnobs dont know what the heck yall be talking about..

 

So we should just continue and rely on college soccer and college soccer will produce the next Ronaldo and Maradona? Comparing MLS to MLB and NHL is like comparing a Kia to a Mercedes. I guess people on these boards are complacent with the US being a 2nd rate college soccer power.

Once again, I am not knocking college soccer if the players leave by the age of 19, 20 and 21. However, if they stay there until they are 22-24, they will not be very successful. Most of the USMNT players who played college soccer were out by 21 or earlier. ex. Gooch, Bocanegra, Davies, Edu, Holden.

And the college soccer players on the recent U-20 team really showed their talent as they were outclassed by the Germans and Koreans.

 

The Ronaldos and Maradonas aren't going the college route now. It's not an all or nothing approach.

Landon Donovan, arguably the best U.S. player ever, didn't play a minute of college soccer.

The elite prospects are already going pro.

On the other hand, who's to say that a year or two of college - and personal maturity - wouldn't have kept someone like Santino Quaranta in the national team pool.

Shades of gray.