Very telling things about the current state of college soccer

How is that "21st Century Model" looking for these coaches now?

 

To be fair to those in favor of the 21st century model, it calls for competition to begin somewhere around the 2nd weekend / middle of March.
While it's hardly tropical in many places in March, it's the same time frame as when MLS starts up.
No one out there is pushing hard for an annual slate of February games!

 

For the record, I am not pushing hard for an annual slate of February games!

Pittsburgh/Akron.
Saturday, February 20th @ 15:00.
Projected high of 25* F.

 

Actually, the forced playing in the spring will show universities that the facility overload that they fear is minimal in both cost and workload. The plan for 21st Century Model was to start in mid-March through Mid-May. In addition, Covid has forced the travel to warm-weather areas that many teams would opt for in early March (that every baseball and softball team does every year) unable to happen.

 

For who?

I've seen the exact opposite:

• Games cancelled due to extra travel expenses
• Fans cancelled because facilities couldn't be prepared
• Streaming cancelled, for whatever random reason
• Facility congestion when shared spaces (parking, locker rooms, staffing, etc.)
• Budgets drastically cut (sure, some of it is pandemic-related)

Additionally, while games may be starting in March, the fitness required to play soccer is A LOT more than what is required in baseball or softball. Good luck getting kids ready to play with the limited training time that is allotted for the "21st Century Model." Heck, a lot of kids aren't even ready in August with a three-month leadup!

 

can someone give us a quick overview of the "21st century model" thanks

 

https://www.21stcenturymodel.org/

 

One would think that ThePonchat would read the 21st Century Model before making an uninformed comment. Games were not played until well after teams had more than a month of training. That's more time than they have in August.

 

I know all about it. I’ve read and chatted about it with many coaches, players, referees, and administrators.

I appreciate your concerns.

 

I guess all these games being rescheduled AND moved to 11am kickoffs are beneficial to fans, players, and the sport?

I know a DII team that has 25+ games scheduled this spring. They know some will get cancelled. Then, they utilize others for their first team, reserve team, and a mix for an exhibition with reserves/first team players.

 

Are DII and DIII even considering the 21st Century Model?

Also, and this shouldn't need to be said, but...
Just because some colleges are having trouble putting together a 20 game Spring season during covid, that doesn't mean teams will have trouble putting together a 20 game year-round schedule without covid.

 

No, they aren’t “supposed” to do a 20-game schedule. They are playing around a 10-game schedule. Which is what nearly every division is doing.

This DII school chose to over-schedule because they knew many would get cancelled. Several opponents are DI opponents. As the DIs know they’ll have opponents chance too.

 

Eastern New Mexico University becomes the latest program to be cut. DII has had their fair share of casualties in program chopping. 17 total have been cut at the level in my tracked programs.

That means the state has lost a DI and DII program in 2019 and 2021.

 

Haven’t seen anything official, but I figured that was the case when I saw basically the entire team on the portal on the same day.

 

The men's soccer calendar change is up for vote in spring for NCAA. It would be effective on August 1, 2022.

Would that immediately change the calendar? That's a question that would be raised and valid. I can't see a major change in a few months. If it passes, then maybe it will be effective for 2023...in my opinion.

 

Is this still the case or did NCAA shelve the vote for spring soccer indefinitely?

 

It’s still set to vote, unless something has changed over the holidays.

January 20 is the vote. A lot of things seemingly on the table across all divisions at the 2022 NCAA convention.

 

FYI, I just checked and there was an amendment to the proposal submitted by the sponsors on Dec. 10 that would change the effective date from Aug. 1 2022 to Aug. 1, 2023.

 

That’s no surprise, as making a shift in 6+ months isn’t ideal — or really that doable.

I would assume that the 2022 date was just because the 2021 vote was tabled, and they just never changed the date from initial start date for 2022.

 

Found out this morning. It’s now an April vote.

Of course…delayed again.

 

To be fair, the agenda listed so many deferred votes because of Covid that it was inevitable a bunch of items would have to be pushed off until April.

 

It took awhile, but finally some VERY public rejection of the "21st Century Model."

Paddy Burns and the Notre Dame men's soccer program have unanimously rejected the proposal and come up with statements about it. It's not wrong, at all.

Vote coming soon! Needs 33 of 64 votes to pass. But, it's important to note that just because it passes coaches doesn't mean it will change anything in NCAA immediately.

 

I would not be surprised if this does not pass. A CoSIDA Memo was sent to the NCAA council, which sounded to give reasons to dissuade from voting it through.

CoSIDA Executive Board Memo to NCAA Division I Council — NCAA DI Men's Soccer 21st Century Model - CoSIDA

 

As long as the priority is staffing and not the well-being of the players, I guess this is fine.

For the ND team, as long as you don't mind going an extra year because you suffer an injury in the fall and take a RS year.

For me, I think that there are legitimate issues that will need to be resolved if the full year model is invoked. But, the current fall season only, can be problematic as well at the detriment of the players which have never been the top priority for college - which is the biggest issue of college sports IMO.