That was an incredible ride. I have been reading and reading about D1 College Soccer being Under Threat for a LONG time (you all covered a shit-ton of ground in not that many days). It made me think of the old NorCal board and the string about FC Elk Grove that went on for a couple of years (I had major surgery about 3 or 4 months into that thread and was completely out of pocket for two weeks (ICU, etc.) and commented when I came back that I was reassured that the string was continuing - never imagined it would go for years. But this one . . . so many comments in such a short period of time. As I went down the rabbit hole, I'd occasionally ping back to check my work email so I did not miss anything.
If we are going to look at D1 athletics only as a vehicle to professional $$$ (which, I think, may have been a point made back on page 2), then we can bag nearly all college sports, not just soccer. All but football, men's basketball (which can be scaled back b/c the # of D1 players who play high level pro ball (say, NBA, Euro, even G league) is a relatively small percentage), baseball (again, small percentage) and maybe women's hoops. Everything else . . . bag 'em! The elite tennis players don't play college. Swimming is kinda sorta required but the top, top level swimmers are starting to leave early (while I think Missy Franklin did all 4 years at Cal, I think Katie Ledecky only swam a couple at Stanford and I am not sure if Phelps ever swam collegiately). Golf is still an area where guys play college before pro but they are not honing their game in college so let's bag that, too.
But the schools don't see it that way - they reap benefits even if the program loses money in direct revenues v costs - and the athletes certainly don't (or many don't) see it that way. Getting in to schools that maybe would have chosen another with the same academic credentials, or having some relief in paying for school so that going to college w/o being crushed by debt, or just the intangibles for teamwork, creativity, discipline, etc. that come with being an athlete? I'm glad my kid will be playing sports in college and won't face (or we won't face) a debt load when she's done. I am glad she will have resources available to her as a student athlete that will give her the best chance to thrive in college (her choice in school was a direct reflection of the support she will get in academics - she saw that herself w/o any input from her parents). A short-term career goal IS to play professionally (hell, doing that until you are in your mid-20s . . . that sounds awesome. I was a school teacher out of college and did not do grad school until 27; if I were playing a sport in Europe rather than being in a classroom . . . sounds pretty great) and maybe to see whether her talent, the coaching and her dedication allows her to represent the country. For her, as for most student athletes (since, like the ad says, most will be going pro in something else), playing for the school and the tradeoff of what the school provides will, hopefully, be worth it. (some of the more veteran parents who are following this conversation, like
@Simisoccerfan (whom I hope to meet when our kids face off if there is a women's soccer season), can say whether, for their kids, it has been "worth it").
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@MacDre - I have looked into the FIFA rules regarding repping countries and they are different than citizenship rules. That is, each country can decide how it naturalizes citizens but FIFA decides who is eligible. My wife holds dual citizenship with Ireland. My kids are not eligible for the Irish national team automatically. They may be in a different sport - the rules may differ by international governing body - but it would require certain steps to be eligible under FIFA rules. Where it can help is playing professionally since my kids can get their Irish citizenship and being an EU citizen makes some of the administrative burdens much less for playing on a pro (club) team. Not sure how Brexit will impact that for EU players in the UK, however). And, as others have said, I'm really rooting for your kid - I root for all your kids to do well - and hope she gets the rewards she wants. She sounds like a pretty incredible young person, lots of talent that goes way beyond soccer. I love hearing about kids like that).
