playing devil's advocate on this change.
statistically, the biggest size advantage between early developers/Jan-Mar birthdays and late developers/Oct-Dec birthdays starts in the u13 age group and then is most pronounced in u14.
having the u12 enables, in theory, us soccer to ID kids with solid skills/ability early, wait out the big growth spurt at u13 and u14, and then see how the high performing u12 late developers/late birthdays do at u15.
This is assuming that US soccer has it together enough to actively track progress by player over time.
If academy is to start at u14 then there's a whole set of players who seem they like they would go by the wayside due to age-related size disadvantage.
Plus, there's a large number of feeder academy clubs with u12 thru u14 academy teams that would probably find it hard to continue to recruit players/families into an academy track - given the $, time and energy required - without the academy brand formally attached.
And there's a number of academy u12 teams that have actively been including 08's this year. what happens with those boys? You could argue that they continue w/ the 07s but the age difference/size difference/developmental difference will kick in next year.