Sounds interesting ... More info on the event: http://www.umterps.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=29700&ATCLID=210839415 http://povichcenter.org/april-5-the-future-of-soccer-the-college-game/
I made it to the panel discussion. Absolutely outstanding program that was very encouraging, I thought, to the overflow crowd of about 100 college soccer fans in attendance. Hats off to University of Maryland and to Terps Head Coach Sasho Cirovski for hosting this great, insightful program, and to all the knowledgeable, impressive panelists for their time, expertise, and support for strengthening college soccer. The proceedings were video taped, and after the event wrapped up, in an informal discussion with a few people Coach Cirovski mentioned that he believed the plan was for the highlights from the panel's discussion to eventually be posted online by the Big Ten. A few highlights from what I recall hearing and saw. In addition to the impressive panel members and moderators (see list of these panel members here: http://www.umterps.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=29700&ATCLID=210839415 ) Georgetown's head coach and UMBC's head coach were also in the audience. All of the panelist spoke with conviction about the great opportunities now and going forward to move ahead and strengthen college soccer. The primary innovation that the panel focused on and offered supported for in terms of improving the college game for both players and fans was the proposal to change the college soccer schedule from a one semester game schedule to a full academic year game schedule. In this regard, it was mentioned that the results from the recent survey of men college players and men's coaches about whether or not they would support moving to this full academic year game schedule was 70 percent of the D1 men's players and 90 percent of the D1 men's coaches were in favor of moving to the full academic year schedule. (These survey results were just made informally available today, and have not been made public yet.) The panelists said that obviously they have made progress in socializing this plan with the players, coaches, and a of lot supporters, but that certainly there is more work to be done to move it through the NCAA process, including gaining more support from individual college athletic directors, and then from the two NCAA committees that would need to endorse such a change. Nevertheless, despite the need to obtain such support and approvals, essentially all of the panelists expressed their thought that this change could become a reality, and one panelist suggested that if all goes well -- no guarantees, of course -- it might happen within the next several years, or so. It was pointed out that US Soccer and many MLS coaches have also been in some extensive discussions with some college coaches about this plan, and the US and MLS reps have generally expressed their support for this move to a full academic year schedule. In concluding remarks, moderator Taylor Twillman stressed his view that with such changes the college game could have a even greater future, as with this change it would provide an even better environment for development of young men into mature, professional individuals -- which pro coaches want -- and of course well-developed, skilled soccer players too. He also stressed that playing for a college gives the players something extra, that more is on the line in terms of representing your school in front of crowds that include your classmates and other fans when games are important, inspiring, and fun, and that during these games and there is pressure to perform for your school's reputation; and that this same type of situation is not really or exactly replicated in USL, NCLS or other development environments. Twillman also spoke with conviction about how U.S. soccer fans should stand up for and go out and really support your college teams as well as your local pro teams, and to be proud on what U.S. soccer is working for ... and not to be apologetic in any way for how U.S. soccer is different than the way soccer is structure in some other nations. He said we don't and should not apologize for U.S. soccer... instead, we are going to go ahead and go forward to win, period. He also said we should do it our way and make it work, and that college soccer going forward should be and can be an even bigger part of how we make U.S. better as soccer nation and a soccer power. He also pointed out that indeed, college soccer isn't doing all that bad currently, e.g., 12 of the 23 players on the U.S. 2014 world cup roster had college experience. Coach Cirovski pointed out that there would be a lot of advantages to student/players under the full academic year schedule. For example, instead of missing a lot of days in the fall semester, any days missed would be spread out between both semesters, and the overall, total days missed would be no more and perhaps even be lower given that almost all travel could be done over the weekend under the one game a week, full academic year schedule. That full year schedule would also allow for more days off, and for more time for training and skills development as opposed to just getting ready for and resting up from/for so many back to back games. Sasho closed by stating "it really is a no brainer to make this change," and that doing so could continue to help make great things happen with college soccer ... e.g., that when he started at MD, it was lucky if 400 people would show up to a game, while lately he has had games with over 9,000 and with an average of 4,000 a game ... and that he dreams that in the future there could well be 40,000 fans at college soccer games. Sorry to go on so long. Obviously, I thought it was a very interesting and exciting event. Much more was discussed, but I'll leave it there. (Twillmen mentioned the issues of subs and other NCAA soccer rules not being in line with FIFA as something that needs to be looked at too, but his was the only mention / remarks on these issues.) (Washington Post soccer reporter Steve Goff was on the panel, so he might write something about it, but I'm not sure if he will or not ... )
As a father of a perspective student athlete I think the best way to sell this is to reduce the time missed from class due to travel. Spreading out the games to mostly weekend travel would be fantastic. For the vast majority of players there isn't a professional future so the education should be stressed. I understand the side of this that says spreading this out over the full academic year will improve the game and I have no issue with that however for the majority of players college will be the end of their playing days. If the angle is that this will allow players to do better in school thus setting the player up for a better future after college it's an easy sell to the majority. Just my thoughts.
I would say that the academic side and benefits of this was stressed a lot during the presentation, along, of course, with the soccer angle too.
A couple of other highlights from the event last evening that I didn't mention in my earlier post. Again, these are just my recollections to the best of my recall, and certainly not a comprehensive record of everything that was discussed. There was also some discussion of the full academic year schedule for soccer would relate to women's college soccer. In this regard, it was pointed out that in the recent survey 50 percent of women D1 players (I think that was the category) were in favor of switching to the full year academic schedule for soccer. (Sorry, but I don't recall the stats from D1 women's soccer coaches in terms of their position on whether or not to go with the potential change to a full academic year soccer season.) Famous UNC women's coach Anson Dorrance, one of the panel members, expressed his strong support for moving to the full year academic schedule for womens soccer, and I think he also said he thought that support for this change would grow among women college soccer players and coaches over time, he believed. Also, Washington Post soccer reporter Steven Goff said he felt that U.S. college soccer would continue to grow and make an important contribution to the growth and strenghten of the sport in this nation, whether or not the full academic year schedule for soccer was put in place.
Photo of the panel last night ... moderator Taylor Twillman not in photo as he was off to the side ...
A couple of articles about this same event: https://www.nscaa.com/news/2016/04/kehoe-column---april-2016 http://www.dbknews.com/2016/04/07/maryland-mens-soccer-coach-sasho-cirovski-schedule-change/
Maryland Terps' head coach Sasho Cirovski follows-up this panel from back in April 2016 with a new video talk on the future of D1 college soccer. The video further discusses these future of D1 soccer ideas, including the proposal to have the D1 men's college regular seasons, followed by playoffs, to take place over both the fall AND spring semesters.
U of MD head coach Cirovski talking about the two semester college soccer season at today's MLS superdraft show earlier today: www.facebook.com/MLS/videos/10154956397913887/
Interesting article on college soccer and its continuing relationship to pro soccer for some players ... https://www.fourfourtwo.com/us/feat...rce=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_m_medium=t