Paul Gardner: The College Draft...; A Rebuttal

The College Draft Doesn't Make Much Sense for MLS,
Paul Gardner, New York Sun, January 28, 2008

Sorry, this slam of the MLS SuperDraft slides down a slippery slope of slime and certainly deserves a sacking.

Sure, using colleges as a primary player development tool has its disadvantages, may not be as important to MLS as it is to the NFL or the NBA, and may not be as important in the future as it is now, but that does not make it senseless.


“Major League Soccer is trying very hard to prove that it belongs up there with the NFL and the NBA as an important pro sport. An important American pro sport, that is. As one way of doing this, the MLS has introduced into its schedule an event that is unknown elsewhere in the worldwide game of soccer: the annual college draft.”

I don’t believe MLS has a draft in order to prove that it belongs up there with the NFL and the NBA. Major League Lacrosse and the National Lacrosse League have annual entry drafts and they are hardly major league. Gardner might be happy to learn that the United Soccer Leagues recently announced ”the suspension of its annual USL First Division College Player Draft” for 2008, although “following an evaluation process, the draft may return in 2009.”[/b] Still, despite the fact that they call their top league Division 1, they weren’t fooling anyone, and their draft was not intended to fool anyone.


“Just like the NBA and the NFL? In appearance, yes. In practice, no. Basketball and football have a wealth of talent to pick from, including a select group who can go straight into the professional game as top stars. The situation in soccer is different. There are no college superstars — indeed, the level of the sport in the colleges is so far below the level of the pro game that very few, if any, of the players drafted can expect to join a club as a regular starter.”

Last year, Maurice Edu, Bakary Soumare, Michael Harrington, Andrew Boyens, and Dane Richards all got a significant number of starts for their club as rookies. It isn’t really fair to compare MLS rookies to NFL rookies because in the NFL there are so many more clubs with twice as many field positions and unlimited substitutions. In the NBA, only two rookies average more than half a game in minutes per game played and only two rookies are scoring more than 10 points per game played. NBA rookies also benefit from unlimited substitutions.

Why should MLS have any less wealth of talent to pick from than the NFL or the NBA? Even if there is a reason (perhaps American youth soccer players are coddled too much), that is not the fault of the draft.


”The shortcomings of college soccer as a breeding ground for professional players have been obvious for decades. The people at MLS are well aware of the problem, but find themselves in a bind. The public relations value of the draft is immense — it goes out live on TV and looks every bit as efficient and meaningful as the NFL and NBA versions. The draft also allows the colleges to feel that they are contributing to the growth of the pro game, and it appears to offer college players a chance of stardom.”

Wow. I didn’t know the MLS SuperDraft was so popular. Perhaps because my local newspaper never even mentioned it. A local boy was taken in the Supplemental Draft—again no mention—in our small town newspaper. Be that as it may, publicity stunt or not, most MLS players come from US colleges, and the SuperDraft.


”But faced with reality, the MLS has been forced to take steps that inevitably downgrade the college game. In 1997, it introduced its Project-40 program, designed to identify the 40 best high school players in the country, and to steer them away from college soccer by offering them special training and scholarship money to ensure their education.”

As if the NFL and NBA don’t ever take talent early from college. In the NBA, any player who will turn 19 by the end of the calendar year can declare for the draft as long as one NBA season has elapsed since the player graduated from high school. Basically, the player only has to wait one year after they graduate to turn pro, whether or not they attend college. The NBA rapes college basketball every year and yet Gardner doesn’t complain about the NBA draft or the quality of college basketball. By comparison, the quality of college soccer, played at fewer schools, should seem superb.

The NFL is much more strict, as they only allow college juniors to leave early. If a prospective player enters a football college, he must wait five years after entering college before he can sign as a free agent, unless the college does not have a football program (then it is four years). Such players can apply for special eligibility three years after high school graduation much like college juniors, I can’t say how easily it is granted, but it sure seems to me a rags-to-riches, barely scraping by for a living window of opportunity of football is not quite as open as is currently thought.

If the NFL follows the same rules for signing foreign players, and I can’t find anything that says they don’t, then perhaps that explains why there are so few foreigners in the NFL. Of the nearly 1,700 players on the 2007 NFL Kickoff Weekend rosters, only 14 were foreign: 11 from Canada, 3 from Australia, and 1 from England. Yes, I am aware that American football is not played in other countries, but I would think that the large amount paid to NFL players would garner someone’s attention. 14 out of 1,700? That really is unbelievable.


“The MLS is shy about identifying the role of the colleges in its draft, which it grandiosely dubs the SuperDraft — no mention of the colleges, even though that's where virtually all of the players come from....”

Let’s face it. The MLS is shy about identifying the role of colleges in the draft because pundits like Paul Gardner and people in the soccer business believe, rightly or wrongly, that the American college system is what is holding back the development of American players. I don’t know how Gardner can say that there was “no mention of the colleges” in the MLS SuperDraft. Did Gardner even watch the SuperDraft? You can check it out yourself on MLSnet.com.


“Project-40 is now a sponsored program called Generation Adidas, but its aim remains that of fast-tracking promising players into MLS, or put another way, of encouraging them to leave college early. Eight of the 14 first-round picks in Baltimore were GA players — six were college underclassmen, the other two were from Bradenton. But the GA factor further undermines the validity of the draft, because with GA players there is a non-playing factor that helps account for them being picked high in the draft. They are attractive to MLS clubs because the salaries of GA players do not count against a club's salary cap.”

Well, at least GA players still enter the draft. Perhaps the order these players is picked is skewed somewhat, even significantly, but so what? How does having GA players in the draft make the draft itself irrelevant?


“The SuperDraft, then, is anything but super, and is of increasingly questionable merit.”

So it is not super because GA players tend to get picked ahead of college seniors? I’m in tears.


“Signs of its inadequacy surfaced in 2005 when MLS cut the number of rounds to four from six.”

And added four supplemental rounds, for a total of eight. Nothing gets by Mr. Gardner.


“MLS coaches will admit — off the record — that they spend little time or money assessing college players.”

Off the record, MLS coaches are stupid, then. Most of their players come to them from US colleges, via the draft. If they aren’t taking some time to get to know the players they are drafting, they are liable toe make some big mistakes come draft day.


“A top college coach, asked if he ever noticed MLS coaches scouting players at his games, replied scornfully "Are you kidding? They watch them for a couple of days at the combine, then maybe I'll get a phone call.”

So Gardner is going to suggest that MLS will suddenly start actively scouring high school age club soccer leagues searching high and low for the next international superstar. I’ll believe it when I see it.


“The MLS's support of the college game is laudable, but it is unrealistic. The flimsy fiction that college soccer can supply pro-level players cannot be maintained for much longer. Nothing short of radical changes in the college game can alter the outlook.”

Unrealistic? Flimsy fiction? Radical changes in the college game are required? Then how is it that 89% of American players in MLS spent at least one year in college, with the vast majority of those spending two years or more? Are these not pro-level players? At what level do you have to be in order to be considered “pro”?

I took a look at the current inventory of MLS players, ignoring the 2008 SuperDraft, and categorized them in the following manner:

American (184)
American Non-Collegiate (23)
Canadian (3)
Canadian Collegiate (2)
Canadian Non-Collegiate (10)
Foreign (52)
Foreign Collegiate (23)

The 3 “Canadians” went to Canadian colleges and were not included in any SuperDraft. The “Canadian Collegiates” went to American colleges and thus were draftable.

So how many Americans, or foreigners who attended American colleges, entered MLS via a draft, representing 78%, 232 of 297, of the league? 192, or 83%, of them did. 65% of the entire league.

Yet “MLS coaches will admit — off the record — that they spend little time or money assessing college players.” That doesn’t make much sense to me.

Gardner can argue that MLS doesn’t actually have any pro-level players, and in a certain light, he may be right. It has very view “top-level” players. In fact there are very few top-level American players in any league. But Gardner is complaining that the MLS draft is inappropriate for MLS, not the world’s top-level leagues.


“As a provider of young talent, college soccer has to be measured not against college basketball and football, but against the youth development programs of top soccer-playing countries in the rest of the world. Those programs involve intensive training and are all controlled by pro clubs.”

Well, college soccer does not claim to be and has never claimed to be a “provider” of young talent. However, it clearly is a “source” of young talent. Clearly many of the most talented Americans go into the US college soccer system. Gardner seems to be saying that no “pro-level” talent comes out, ostensibly because college programs don’t “involve intensive training controlled by pro clubs”. I guess I would be upset too if all this talent was going in and none was coming out.

Gardner seems to ignore the fact that much of the superstar talent is identified before the player even reaches college age. Adu, Altidore, Beasley, the three U-17s taken in this year’s draft, just to name a few.

It isn’t illegal for a player to sign a contract right out of high school with a pro club here in the US. Two signed with Miami FC last year and were sent down to a sister club in Sao Paulo to train. New England signed Miguel Gonzalez a few years ago, and might sign Jose Angulo this year (I admit the rules on these signings are not clear).

One thing that is clear--overseas programs don’t have to compete with the NCAA.


“The 20 or so regular-season games played in American colleges are nowhere near enough....”

Gardner isn’t counting the 20 or so games these players can get with PDL teams. Just exactly how many games per year is “enough”, anyway? Lance Armstrong didn’t develop into the world’s best cyclist simply by entering bike races. Lot’s of folks enter bike races. His training was top notch, and his physiology was superior. What about all the American soccer players that go to Europe and ride the pine? Are they getting enough games? I assume there are quite a few developing Europeans riding the pine in Europe as well. And while he is hardly a developing European, even Polish star Maciej Zurawski can’t get games.

American youth club teams get plenty of games and travel a lot but do they do any real training? I wonder.


“It is the NCAA that stands in the way of allowing a nationwide system involving thousands of soccer-devoted people and hundreds of teams with excellent facilities, to help improve the quality of American players....”

Really? What would Gardner propose that the NCAA do? Drop soccer as a men’s varsity sport? Eliminate all scholarships? I don’t think the NCAA is going to let its players train or play all year with professionals.


“A recent hint of the coming divorce between the MLS and college soccer came last year when the league announced that each of its clubs is expected to create its own youth development academy. MLS clubs had been dragging their feet on this, for under MLS regulations any starlet that they produced would have to enter the SuperDraft and in all likelihood would be snaffled by a rival club. So the MLS changed its regulations, allowing each club to withhold its best two youngsters from the draft — a move that further erodes the credibility of the draft.”

So has it been the NCAA been standing in the way of all this progress, or MLS?

Even if MLS is able to develop significant talent from within its own youth academies, it seems unlikely to me that the NCAA talent spring will dry up completely (barring the draconian measures apparently preferred by Gardner). If MLS were to garner only half of the talent from college that it does now, wouldn’t the draft still have credibility? Wouldn’t it still be a fair way to disperse what talent there is? Even with youth academies, I suspect that more than a few emerging soccer players will continue to hedge their bets on the likelihood that a professional soccer career will pan out. Since professional athletes generally train only two hours a day, it seems to me one can train and attend college simultaneously. Conversely, there is nothing to prevent the athlete from joining a professional club and attending college at the same time.

MLS already obtains talent from sources other than the college drafts. That doesn’t make the drafts worthless.


“As the MLS expands, it needs more young players, and it needs better ones. With college talent already stretched beyond its limits, the league must soon face the inevitable conclusion that a draft based almost entirely on college players — as at present — makes no sense.”

While the draft is based almost entirely on college players MLS does not get all of its players from the draft. In addition to the some young GA players taken in the draft, MLS teams may sign up to six players to the senior roster outside the draft every single year. I believe that means MLS teams can sign any player they want, American or foreign, in college or out of college. While MLS teams are pretty much limited to selecting college players in the draft, they can replace over 33% of their senior rosters with pretty much anyone that they want every single year with discovery picks. There is no requirement that MLS clubs use these picks on international players, although that is usually what they choose to do. In addition, MLS teams have 10 developmental roster spots with no restrictions on how they fill these spots, other than the minimal salary that is paid and the 25-year-old age limitation. An example: Toronto signed 17-year-old Canadian/Nigerian Gabe Gala last April as a developmental player even though he had signed a letter of intent to play at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. While the $13k and $17k that these players make is not a lot of money, it still beats paying to play, which is what they had been doing prior to that point. MLS clubs can loan these players out to affiliated USL clubs if they wish. I don’t believe there is anything to prevent college players from dropping out of college and signing one of these contracts, or a discovery contract, but I could be wrong. If it isn’t college talent that is the problem but college development itself, why aren’t more players opting for this route?


“But a draft without college players is not feasible.”

I took a quick look at another American major league sport that has a large influx of international players but also has to deal with the limitations of the NCAA: ice hockey. The NHL has a draft but it is quite different from MLS’. Most of the players drafted do not attend college. A college player does not lose college eligibility even if drafted. The rights to sign a player that does attend college are kept until 30 days after the player graduates. All North Americans that will be 18 by the start of the following season and will be under 21 by the end of the calendar year are eligible. Those that will be 21 or older are free to sign with any NHL club—they are free agents. Non-North Americans can only enter the NHL via the draft, so in effect all that are 18 or over are eligible. There may be important differences between European hockey contracts and international soccer contracts, and FIFA might frown on the NHL’s approach. While a draft not based primarily on college players might not be feasible, it is definitely imaginable.


“The MLS may well wish to continue the SuperDraft for its publicity value, but it cannot improve its playing standard while relying on college talent.”

Well, theoretically MLS could do more to improve the training players get before they enter college, and they could do more to instruct college coaches and PDL coaches on how to train college athletes. So I have to disagree with this statement as well.


“The MLS club academies now look set to take over the main role in the development of American players.”

I’m ecstatic that the NCAA, which had been holding American soccer back for so long, finally wizened up and saw the light. Now we will get to see what real soccer development is really like! Keep in mind we will be relying on the same MLS clubs who don’t even bother to scout colleges, where they currently obtain 80% of their players.

Maybe Gardner should note that “Most of these players developed will go to college, they're not all going to be offered professional contracts by any means,'' [Ivan] Gazidis said. “I think the college game will benefit significantly by having an influx of players who were trained by MLS clubs.”

It is good to see that MLS will work to improve the ability of players entering the college system. Perhaps they will get better players out of it on the other end than they currently do.

 

Twellman was not a late bloomer. He was the runner-up for the Hermann Trophy and the MAC Player of the Year Award in his sophomore season at Maryland. He also had an offer out of high school to play shortstop for the Kansas City Royals.

 

And it is certainly still true for Brazilian women.
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Apparently New England have found an intriguing use for their Dempsey allocation money.