It's no surprise now that MLS and its teams are setting up youth academies for younger players, and the forecoming announcement will be that these individual MLS teams have the legal authority to sign players developed through their systems, just like in Europe. However, as many of us have probably noticed in the European game, these academies deminish the role of the college game in their respective countries. Clubs do not draft players from the University of Paris, or Oxford, but rather bring them up through their youth systems. Thus, my question is this: Will these new MLS youth academies deminish the play and the general numbers of college squads throughout this country? It's no secret that the vast majority of soccer players achieve to play professionally, and if this youth systemaccomplishes what it sets out to do, then why would a player choose to go to college if he has the opportunity to train full time with a professional club, and have an even greater chance of playing with that teams first squad? Obviously, the flip side to this question is the role education will play. Will MLS youth academies one day be so large as to offer classes (and maybe GED's)? Or will the college players be simply the lower tier of soccer players in this country? I started thinking about this after I read about the new ABC/ESPN deal with MLS, which apparently includes the broadcasting of the MLS Superdraft. Don't get me wrong, I love watching the game, especially college (GO BILLIKENS!), but the majority of players entering the MLS draft are relative unknowns to the American public, unlike in college basketball or football. Thus, one day, will there even be a need to hold a draft? Let's hear it.
The College game will always have its place in the system, and there will surely be some late-bloomers out there who will find their way into the professional ranks via that. I think that a lot of what the youth academies will be doing is skimming off the top, and making sure we take the best youth players and get them out of this atrocious over-structured soccer system where you have some youth coach who played at the local community college running the team like a boot camp, and focused on winning some silly club tournament. It's not exceedingly important to be the u-12 champion of of the southwestern Kentucky Land'O'Lakes youth soccer tournament. I've been coaching my son in a local U-6 rec league, and I watch other coaches out there running their players through some strict pregame regimen and going cone crazy at practice (while the kids spend most of their time standing around waiting in line). I have my kids play kick the coach, with the hope that they will have enough fun to go home and play with a soccer ball in their back yard or in the street with other kids; that's where the next great players will come from. I think the move will allow more nurturing of creativity and soccer skills and less focus on winning youth soccer tourneys or whatever, which is a positive all around.
I don't think there's any way you can compare the US to other countries since very few play serious college sports. Most countries have never heard of a athletic scholarship for college. The big problem with MLS youth academies has always been the question of colege eligability. Would parents be willing to give up the chance of a free or discounted college education in return for a long-shot chance at a professional soccer career? I don't think that very many would. This could get real sticky so I'm anxious to see how they work it out.
Your guess is as good as mine. This was a typical Garber announcement that he will be making an announcement.
As I said before I don't think the NCAA can successfully declare these kids ineligible. Andy Dorman's brother is playing for Boston U. this year after being part of Blackburn's youth setup. People have argued that the NCAA looks differently upon professional setups in other countries, but I don't see any way that sort of arbitrary distniction could hold up under a court challenge. If the players aren't compensated and are under no obligation to join MLS simply from being a youth academy member, I don't see how the NCAA can successfully argue that this should remove their eligibility. What exactly have they done to jeopardize their "amateur" status?
That can't really be it since several of them already do. He was pretty specific about the main concept being that teams will be able to retain the rights to their academy players rather than having to take their chances in the draft.
You're assuming that the NCAA makes logical decisions based on a rational analysis of the evidence. I'm not totally sure I would make that assumption. However, I'm guessing that the reason the youth academy thing has taken so long to happen is because MLS is working with the NCAA to get their approval before going forward.
About giving up an education...how many guys really are we really talking about here. Figure 12 teams, at most 12 academies...figure 4 guys at every "year" interval, 4 guys from every state or so. Maybe-at most- 48 guys a year going to an academy instead of college, and it may not even be that many. Keep in mind, the guys in the academies are also usually local residents of that area (unlike in other countries), and could certainly use the money they'd be getting from going pro to go to a local state school or so. For example, Eddie Gaven went pro at 16. He had finished HS and then started going to an online university. So, it isn't Duke, but he'll end up with a degree, paid for by the 78k a year he was getting from MLS. Not everyone will be in that category of course, but to me the idea of the youth academy is to get guys like Magee, Gaven, Adu, Besagno, etc off of local club teams at the age of 12-14 and give them a better, more professional environment to train in. Imagine if someone like Eddie Johnson or Marvel Wynne went to a proper youth academy and trained everyday with professionals from the age of 12? They'd have footballing skills to match their freakish athletic abilities, and we'd be on the road to producing top flight talent like the rest of the world. If you look at most of the "stars" in the world, they didn't wait until 22 to join a professional team. Maybe it works out for guys like Dempsey & Rico Clark, but most of the world's best were on academy teams from the age of 12-15, some from the age of 9. Is it worth risking that 4 year free ride to UCLA or Indiana? Maybe. But, guys like Lee Nguyen are already doing that. I'd rather have them doing it over here than in Europe, and they can still get a decent education. The important thing, to me, is that you have people that are making soccer the absolute priority in their lives. It seems a bit offensive to us, being Americans, because we think of being well-rounded and of getting an education as important. But, the top players in the world made that choice and lived to reap the rewards. Yes, some fall by the wayside and it doesn't work out, but we already have that happening in the NBA (the flood of high schoolers made the NBA change the draft rules to keep kids in school longer), and we tend to forget that baseball drafts kids as young as 16 and has them go to minor league ball before getting to the majors. Some go to college, but very many do not. It won't work for every case, but it will work for a number of kids, and it will be a positive move for US Soccer & MLS. Personally, I can't wait for the rules to change so that youth players can graduate properly to their senior squads, and I hope all teams follow the lead of NY, DC and others in establishing full youth programs as part of their organizations. In 10 years, you'll notice a big difference in the quality of MLS and the quality of our senior US Men's team because of moves like this.
NCAA already states that hockey players who play Major Junior lose thier eligability while those who play Junior A (No real talent difference between the two) get to keep thiers.
My guess is that it might actually increase the quality of the college game. We don't know how they will set it up, but what I expect is that just a few per team each year will make the jump to MLS after high school and that the others will keep their college eligibility. So while the colleges lose the very top players, they get a larger number of better trained players.
I'm guessing it's going to be much, much less than that. I'm betting MLS allows each club to "protect" one or two kids per year that they can sign without going through the draft system. I believe most people are blowing out of proportion how much this is going to mirror a true European or South American academy system.
I wrote about this on Friday a bit in my blog, link below. Overall I think MLS youth academys in the long term will change the college game totally. Each year the best soccer talents will be off the market for colleges, leaving them with the second pickings.
The Rapid and Fire reserves are not affiliated with the club. They have partnerships with the MLS sides. MLS team gets advertising and branding, PDL side gets better name recognition.
College soccer will be more about the women's game in the future. I recently read that scholarships for women's teams are going up from 12 to 14. This compares to 9.9 on average for men's teams. Fast forward 20 years - with MLS clubs developing their own players - what crumbs will be left for the college game? I seriously doubt there will be any "late bloomers" at that point. How many EPL players can you name who left Oxford after 4 years and turned pro? Not saying it's impossible - but if a kid at 18 doesn't have enough to take the next step (be it physical, mental, talent) it is very unlikely that the magic will happen later in a college soccer environment. There are simply going to be too many smart, dedicated, talented young kids in the pipeline ahead of them - in the developmental ranks - who will be further along. It's pointless to look back in history for exceptions because the talent pool and sources are going to be totally different. yeah Mathis went to college for 4 years - but frankly in the future - Clint would be discovered nurtured and offered a pro contract that would make him skip college all together. i mean - aside from the beer - do you get the impression that Clint went to school for the experience and education? No - he went because it was the best option for him. MLS will in the future provide a better option for the serious and talented player. Leaving the rest to play in the college ranks. It will be more of a hobby - fun league - than the current semi-pro training grounds for a pro career.
I dont think it's fair nor accurate to compare the British system to that of NCAA here. For starters, its been decades - if at all - since English teams plucked their players from college/uni. We've never had a draft to my knoweldge, so the two worlds are , well, worlds apart. I agree with the poster that said they can see soccer at college migrating to be predominately womens game based,m that makes sense. Will the draft have a place in the future, perhaps, but it will likely represent more closely the supplemtnal draft we have now, rather than the superdraft itself. We're also assuming the format an academy will take replaces college, who knows, they may start it as a 12-18 year old, in place of high school or something? Even if it does carry on past that, I don't see that education has to suffer. They could also offer academic programs, as do most European Academies. I think everything has it's place, and that it will all work out. The big question is, should we be calling this the Johnny Exantus (sp?) Ruling, becuase IIRC that was the main motivation behind NY pushing for academies?
I don't think so. Even in the most optimistic scenario for MLS youth academies, a significant number of the top rated prospects will still opt for college instead. But, more importantly, through sheer number of teams the NCAA will draw lots of prospects that weren't as highly rated as they should have been (due to the severe limitations of MLS and USSF scouting).
Overall, I think the potential impact of MLS youth development is not all it's cracked up to be. There are a bunch of reasons for this, but here's just one: geography. Youth soccer ability and interest is distributed unevenly across the US - southern California has produced a disproportianate number of national teamers, for example. But in an MLS youth development system, southern California gets two teams, which will probably not have enough resources to adequately evaluate and attract the available talent that's nearby. On the other hand, MLS teams in places that are mostly barren of national team talent will have the same amount of resources, but few available players with the ability to take advantage of those resources. Finallly, talented players that don't live near any MLS market - which includes the entire south, the northwest, and most of the midwest - will be overlooked entirely. Nobody is going to move cross-country to enroll their kid in an MLS academy. A rational and efficient development system would concentrate resources where the talent is. And in places where soccer is an important economic and cultural force, this often happens naturally - think about how many teams you can find in or near Buenos Aires, London, or Sao Paulo. In an MLS-based academy system, you'll have resources being distributed evenly based on where teams were previously located. That's very inefficient.
I tend to agree with this. Even with 16 MLS teams, at most I see each team offering a preofessional contract to 1 or 2 academy players per year. When you compare this to the thousands of players available and the hundreds of college soccer programs, this will hardly be a drop in the bucket. And yes, there will still be late bloomers and players who somehow escape notice. And lets not forget the foreign college players who have been a major source of talent for MLS clubs. In the long run, the major effect will not be to hurt the college game. College soccer seems to be growing in the US, especially as football gets more expensive for smaller schools. It's possible the college draft will lose a small amount of its importance. But beyond that, I don't see any huge changes.
Actually, expecting more then 1 or 2 kids to be good enough to play professionally a year is probably blowing it out of proportion. As for college soccer, I suspect MLS youth academies would only strengthen college soccer by providing better qualified players, even if they aren't suited to the professional game. Essentially college soccer will have access to American Andy Dorman's, Ben Hunter's, Alex Harrison's...ect.
Not to mention that the college players can still remain with the club on the PDL team and I'm sure some of them will develop enough to join the team, but have much better training than the average college player.
I don't think it would be the family that would be moving. I'm quite sure if Real Salt Lake or whoever found a "gem" in Fargo, North Dakota they would easily arrange for that player to come live there and train with the academy.
FWIW. NCAA rules specifically prohibit education, room and board provided by professional teams. 12.1.1 Amateur Status 12.1.1.1.3 Educational Expenses Prior to Collegiate Enrollment After years of lack enforcement, they've finally started to clamp down on professional academy players.
Well the working itself out bit could be about this, not that I think NCAA would change. Although I imagine they could just do what the two PDL teams do in being only losely affliated with the professional team. Perhaps setting up an independent non-profit organization in the mold of IMG.