From various sources — new #NWSL CBA will include elimination of the college draft effective immediately. Players will be free to sign with whoever they see fit— Dan Lauletta (@TheDanLauletta) August 21, 2024
Interesting reflection on the elimination of the draft from CBS sports: https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/ne...act-the-entire-american-sports-landscape/amp/ I'm not sure if this will actually herald in a scene change in all of US pro sports, but they do bring up good points that this is somewhat aligning with the recently-allowed professionalism of NCAA athletes. They also mention how NWSL teams largely don't have academies yet, which makes me wonder if that's about to happen as a consequence of eliminating the draft. We've certainly chatted in other threads about the desire to have NWSL seed lower-division leagues with academy and reserve sides
College athletics is in the midst of a large shake-up thanks to the NIL anti-trust settlement and I'd imagine the above is part of that shake-up. Ohio State's new leadership has been telegraphing this sentiment. They're gonna slash funding in many of their Olympic sports. I expect many Big Ten teams to do the same...and perhaps even the conference. Few outright sport drops, big scholarship cuts https://t.co/iDrWK75EFR pic.twitter.com/dUFWfeWf8V— Matt Brown (@MattBrownEP) August 22, 2024 https://www.dispatch.com/story/news...jork-nil-d1-sports-teams-big-ten/74893167007/
Salary minimums to rise from $48,500 in 2025 to $82,500 by 2030, and salary cap going from $3.3m to $5.1m over the same time. Pretty interesting, considering the new media deal will only be signed in 2027, and they don't yet know what that will be valued at. I assume there is some built-in adjustments if the league can pull off another huge increase.
I was hoping it would never come to this. The elimination of the college draft in my opinion is a bad idea. The college draft in pro sports is something I and fans all over the US look forward to. The draft levels the playing field between the rich and not so rich. We will now, at least in NWSL, be like Europe. Where only the top 3 or 4 teams with money will vie for the Championship each year. The college draft brings excitement, hope, anticipation to an upcoming season. We Chicago Bears fans had one thing to hope for and get excited about this year and that was the drafting of Caleb Williams as our quarterback. That was and is our one grain of hope to many miserable years of Bears football, to decades of mediocre quarterbacks. The anticipation to this year's NFL draft was a 24/7 subject on sports radio talk shows in Chicago since we acquired the #1 draft pick. Please don't remove the college draft in any more American pro sports. The college draft is too important in American sports psyche.
Considering the history of draftees in NWSL, I don't think the draft actually levels the field all that much. The expansion draft was much better at doing that. Plus... Highly, highly unlikely. The existence of the salary cap is more than enough to not let that happen, especially combined with the fact we have playoffs. The college draft has been essentially useless in MLS ever since the academy system blew up and MLS parity is still quite high thanks to the top-level limitations.
At some point they should do the NHL thing and institute both a cap and a floor, or at least institute minimum spending whether it's on the senior roster, youth academies, infrastructure (like training facilities), scouting, etc.
The college draft is anti-player. It's just a way for rich owners to control salaries by restricting contracting agency. It's also unfair to US based players vs those who come from overseas or who sign without going to college. I'm glad it's gone.
Will this make the league more like the European leagues with haves and have nots? Are there other ways to keep teams competitive? The NFL gives easier schedules to less successful teams.
No - the college draft is largely ineffective at leveling the field Yes - the salary cap drives the parity
I am more a fan of teams than players, per se. I love my players when they play for the Bears, Bulls, Sox, Red Stars or Fire. Once they leave, I don't care, especially if they go to another team in the league. If a football player leaves my Bears and goes to the Packers or Lions, I dislike them even more now. That's Chicago. Love the draft. I look forward to it in every sport. It's part of the game, IMO. Part of my sports entertainment schedule. It's fine if the league wants to be more player centric. But what about what the fans want? The fans are the ones who pay the salaries, directly or indirectly. Pro sports are for the fans entertainment. Once the fans deem it no longer entertaining, they leave. If the fans like the draft, keep it. I have been a Season Ticket Holder of the Chicago Red Stars since the beginning, some 16 years. They are my home town team. I want to continue to support my home town team.
Paying players less because of the draft doesn't lower ticket prices, it just lines the pockets of owners. I do understand the romantic emotional history of the draft in US sports though.
While this may be true for the NFL and basketball, as their draftees often have an immediate impact on the teams. However, that is very unique in sports. Only the analysts and stat nerds really pays attention to the hockey and baseball draft outside the first few picks because the players tend to disappear into their minor league system. With MLS and NWSL, the draftees tend to be meh. Even the top draftees will often just disappear and never be seen again. Even worse, there will be some random player picked later in the draft that often ends up performing significantly better than those picked higher. You could argue that is because their scouts are worse, but I think another reason is that the college system just doesn't give them the proper training environment to become pro.
Just a refresher of a few of the Chicago Red Stars 1st round college draft picks over the years: 2009 - Megan Rapinoe 2014 - Julie Ertz, Vanessa Dibernardo 2015 - Arin Gilland (Wright), Danielle Colaprico. Sophia Huerta 2016 - Katie Naughton 2019 - Tierna Davidson 2023 - Penelope Hocking I wouldn't say they were meh. And as far as college systems not giving proper training environments for players to become pros, go tell Anson Dorrance, Jerry Smith, Randy Waldrum, Paul Ratcliffe or Mark Krikorian that.
They weren't meh by any means, but Chicago has been better than most teams at getting the most out of their draft picks. The number of draftees who get significant minutes - or even signed for a full season - isn't big overall across the league. Also, aside from Rapinoe and Ertz, none of Chicago's have been true standouts either - recognized names, absolutely, but as reliable team players rather than stars to build your team around. Besides, it's rare for the draft to truly "level the playing field". Partially because the teams with high draft picks often trade them away, and partially because it's hard for draftees to make an impact (as previously stated). I think the only times I've seen rookies really help a team with a year-to-year bottom-three-to-playoffs turn-around were Dunn in 2014 and Rodman in 2021. Even WNY's championship final season, often cited for representing a strong draft class, was based on the previous year's draftees, not that year's draftees.
That's more an MLS thing than an NWSL thing. The college system is still the main source of domestic talent for the NWSL. A majority of the #1 draft picks in NWSL history were on the team that just won the gold medal. I could speculate that his change might even influence some young players to go to college, as there has been the U18 rule where players can avoid the draft by signing before turning 18. If there's no draft to avoid, some of those might choose to go to college for a year or two since they maintain control of choosing where they sign.
I’m not as plugged into NWSL’s social media sphere as I am MLS’s, is there excitement around NWSL’s draft? I am fairly plugged into the Reign’s social media sphere and haven’t really noticed that much excitement until after the draft is over.. How often does that happen tho? Also, would it be beneficial for them to go into college vs signing with a NWSL. Women’s college soccer is definitely superior to Men’s in producing players, but that is more because the lack of academy teams.
I wasn't speaking as much about the excitement as the importance of the player pool that has entered the league through the draft, which has been much more significant than the equivalent in MLS. That source of talent is still going to be there, and all will have to adjust to an open system to sign these players. This year so far there have been 10 U18 signings. For example Giselle Thompson signed 4 days before her birthday, making sure she stayed home and could play with her sister. It's an individual decision but likely some of them would be better off with some college, especially if they're not getting playing time immediately. The lack of academy and reserve setups feeds into that. A 16/17 year old who signs in MLS can play with the academy or Next Pro, but that age in NWSL has to get into the first team or they're not playing.
Croix Bethune has been placed on the Season-Ending Injury list with a torn meniscus. Some reports are saying it happened when she threw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Nats game the other week She already had a record-breaking 3 rookie-of-the-month awards (with August still TBA, unless it was going to be paired with September due to the Summer Cup) and had tied (but not broken) the NWSL record for assists in a single season Washington will be a weaker team without her down the run, and it's just cruel for her as she was clearly on pace to clean up in the season-end awards
[QUOTE="ThreeApples, post: 42477503, member: 5192"... It's an individual decision but likely some of them would be better off with some college, especially if they're not getting playing time immediately. ....[/QUOTE] It is not impossible for a player to be in college while on a pro team. Of course, the pro player will not get an athletic scholarship, but she still can be in school.
I was commenting on the possibility of players choosing to play college soccer now that they don't need to use the U18 rule to avoid the draft, not on what educational paths they might pursue in their free time.
And it would seem to suggest that the movements that you basically never do in your own sport can be the most dangerous ones, because your body is not used to them.