By Ben Nicholson
July 29 – The noise is increasing for change in the USA’s college soccer system from a three-month stint to a year-long calendar season. The proposal recommends splitting the season between the fall and spring semesters. The proposal is for a 25-game season with conference championships being played in May, and the NCAA College Cup happening in June.
At a recent NSCAA (National Soccer Coaches Association of America) Convention the idea was given backing from some main players of the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) organisation, which is the most prestigious governing body of university athletics across the USA.
Whilst there has been talk for a while that the current system fails to maximize the development of college athletes (which translates to university students, aged roughly 18-22) change did not appear afoot. But the grumbling from coaches and players alike has risen to the top.
Sasho Cirovski, who is the chairman of the Division I men’s coaches’ committee, said: “We have to change the game and do it justice. College soccer has been relevant, but it can become much more relevant. It is doing a good job; it can do a great job.” If the NCAA backs his vision it could be implemented in time for an inaugural 2016/2017 season.
The US is seemingly becoming sensitive to their estrangement from the rest of the world in football. Recently murmurs have emerged to change the MLS season, which currently runs from March until October, into line with the FIFA calendar.
The current NCAA season runs from late August to November, pending the success of the team. This means packing in up to 22 games in around 100 days.
After this hectic schedule is complete, teams must wait another year for their season to restart. Up to 5 days worth of competitive play is allowed in the latter stage of the spring semester, but this is all too short a playtime for aspiring professionals when compared to their competition abroad. European teams train virtually all year round and can schedule 40-game seasons without fear of overtraining and overplaying.
The extensive gap between competitive games, and the current NCAA restrictions disallowing students from playing elsewhere during the academic calendar, cripples the opportunity for young talent to play enough of the game to prosper. This has been recognized at the professional levels of the game in the US and been commented on by coaches for a number of years, including those in Jurgen Klinsmann’s current national set up.
During the supposed, and misleadingly narrow appropriation of the term, ‘off-season’, which lasts about a month after students re-arrive on campus after winter break, an eight hour maximum time limit of training per week as a team is imposed across the board. Furthermore, only two of these eight hours allows the incorporation of a ball into the activity.
And break these rules at your peril for the NCAA are not afraid of delivering heavy sanctions to usurpers of their regime.
The wisdom behind the two-hour with the ball rule was to level the playing field for east coast schools, who suffer snowy winters that make outside play difficult, against the climate blessed west coasters.
With the luxurious facilities that many of these schools possess, including indoor playing surfaces and turf pitches, the ruling now seems redundant. Either way, if serious progress of the youth soccer scene is desired it is a necessity to do away with the restrictions, even if it is to the detriment of east coast schools.
The problem is that the ‘off-season’ is significantly longer for college athletes than the NCAA account for. University teams are not allowed to train together outside of the academic calendar, except for a brief few weeks in August that counts as pre-season. This means over the winter and summer breaks, players are on their own.
There are summer leagues that provide the opportunity to play at a higher level. The PDL (Premier Development League) and the NPSL (National Premier Soccer League) are geared toward U23s and the teams are often comprised of advancement-seeking college students. However, this does not plug the gap that is left by the current vast absences of competitive games and training that the organisation has their soccer athletes suffer.
NSCAA has recognised this issue, stating: “Division I soccer exists in an outdated format that is inconsistent with the growth of United States soccer and with the current youth and professional soccer structures that operate in 10-month seasons.”
The new proposal would move pre-season to a later start, at the end of August, allowing for two friendlies before 13 competitive games that are played prior to Thanksgiving, in late November. Then would come a winter break before a sole friendly game, 9 more competitive matches and then conference and NCAA tournament games for the qualifying teams.
This would increase the amount of matches that college teams can play each year, and also leave greater recovery time between each match without enforcing months of inactivity.
It would also provide better conditions for fans wanting to catch championship games, promising greater attendances and greater attention for the events; spring warmth makes for better championship game viewing than the autumnal and winter colds of November and December respectively on the East coast.
There are of course difficulties to account for. Increasing the amount of games being played would increase the costs to universities to run soccer teams, and could lead to some schools deciding to discontinue their programs. It would also make for an awkward encounter with the annual January MLS draft, which currently sits in the middle of the two semesters.
But the benefits speak in at least an equally loud voice; increased leverage for coaches to focus on individual player development, opposed to forever hastily preparing for the forthcoming fixture, decreased clustering of the season to help counteract injuries, and, as is important to the American student-athlete culture, it would prevent soccer athletes missing as many classes in any one semester, spreading the burden into a more manageable fashion.
The US soccer system works in a different manner to the rest of the world’s models. Players look forward to making a name for themselves in the illustrious college sport world, and it is from this pool that the most talented are drafted into the professional MLS league. This model enables young adults to earn a degree whilst pursuing professional sporting endeavors.
It is a refreshing approach in comparison to the sport-or-nothing option often seen elsewhere for it culminates in intelligent professional sportsman that are better ambassadors for their sport and better role-models for kids. It prevents the problem of 18 year olds being released from professional clubs at the end of their apprenticeship with little to show for their years away from school, and little in the way in future life prospects.
If the NCAA is stagnant with soccer it could see MLS clubs increasingly bypass the college game to get their hands on high school students, luring them away from university so as to take their development into their own hands. This would conform to other nation’s models, but it would be to remove part of what makes American sportsman so impressive: that they are talented athletically whilst being able to conduct interviews using full and intelligible sentences.
Cirovski understands this luxury, saying: “A college education is important for life-long success and happiness. This [proposed] schedule allows student-athletes to fully maximise the soccer experience and the life experience. Its time has come.”
It is a formula that has worked for baseball, basketball and American football, and with a little engineering could do just as well for ‘soccer’. The US has already provided players like Brad Friedel and Clint Dempsey through this system, and they can continue to look to the NCAA for future MLS stars providing the system is capable of moving forward with the rest of the football world. Currently it is in danger of being left behind and too far outside of mainstream football.
If the proposal is accepted, it could be the beginning of a rejuvenated era for US football, and could be a cause for worry for the rest of the world.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734836155labto1734836155ofdlr1734836155owedi1734836155sni@n1734836155osloh1734836155cin.n1734836155eb1734836155