Get ready folks

SoccerSanDiego said:
Seems to me this means ECNL is leaning towards a change. Otherwise, theyd have said "No change" already.
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I think any plan needs to be approved by USSF in the next AGM meeting. We should hear something around that time. I also believe there will be some changes in 25/26 otherwise they should notify the clubs directly.
 
Scrub It Kook said:
Does member organization mean sanctioning body? Or would we interpret it to be each league?

I guess they are trying to make everyone happy. Maybe this gives players options depending on their aspirations if you have more than 1 organization in your area.
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It goes back to the mls academies. They are the least likely to have been on board, hence the compromise result.
 
Grace T. said:
It goes back to the mls academies. They are the least likely to have been on board, hence the compromise result.
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I would have thought the MLS Academies are pretty "meh" on this. They have players grouped by a date range, but the players they are really interested in play up. The rest are a supporting cast (of really good players) who are there to fill out the platform, e.g. MLSN has U16 and then U18 teams. Ultimately MLS will do whatever works for them. They are a separate league who don't need a seat at any table when talking about youth soccer.
 
whatithink said:
I would have thought the MLS Academies are pretty "meh" on this. They have players grouped by a date range, but the players they are really interested in play up. The rest are a supporting cast (of really good players) who are there to fill out the platform, e.g. MLSN has U16 and then U18 teams. Ultimately MLS will do whatever works for them. They are a separate league who don't need a seat at any table when talking about youth soccer.
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You make it sound like MLS Next players don't get recruited to play in college. They do. This in fact is MLSNs primary benefit over other leagues. Both pro and college recruiters are watching the players.
 
Carlsbad7 said:
You make it sound like MLS Next players don't get recruited to play in college. They do. This in fact is MLSNs primary benefit over other leagues. Both pro and college recruiters are watching the players.
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The Academies are distinct from MLSN. Those players do also get recruited to college, but their purpose, for the MLS teams, is not college. MLS Next is a supporting league and a funnel to them at the younger ages up to U14/15. The MLS teams, who fund the Academies, don't care about college and don't care about youth soccer generally. They care about the 0.1% who might have a shot at a pro career.
 
whatithink said:
The Academies are distinct from MLSN. Those players do also get recruited to college, but their purpose, for the MLS teams, is not college. MLS Next is a supporting league and a funnel to them at the younger ages up to U14/15. The MLS teams, who fund the Academies, don't care about college and don't care about youth soccer generally. They care about the 0.1% who might have a shot at a pro career.
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There are far more non-academy MLSN teams than academy ones. Those players are shooting for "maybe" getting a look by the academy teams, but more generally hoping to play in college. College scouts generally attend the MLS Next events as a priority versus other events. In NorCal, just two years ago ECNL boys side wasn't that far off from the MLS Next table (I think I even argued that point somewhere else here). Something has shifted dramatically with this where it's not even close. I believe a lot of the ECNL boys teams have lost players to MLSN clubs. Perhaps this is just a snapshot in time and this stuff ebbs and flows -- but there certainly feels like MLSN is where a lot of the better players are going these days up here.

I think MLSN cares simply because BY is the international standard. Otherwise I don't think they care because the notion of trapped players doesn't exist -- players aren't supposed to play high school soccer (I think non-academy teams have more leniency -- but most MLSN teams I know of are training throughout the winter).
 
NorCalDad said:
There are far more non-academy MLSN teams than academy ones. Those players are shooting for "maybe" getting a look by the academy teams, but more generally hoping to play in college. College scouts generally attend the MLS Next events as a priority versus other events. In NorCal, just two years ago ECNL boys side wasn't that far off from the MLS Next table (I think I even argued that point somewhere else here). Something has shifted dramatically with this where it's not even close. I believe a lot of the ECNL boys teams have lost players to MLSN clubs. Perhaps this is just a snapshot in time and this stuff ebbs and flows -- but there certainly feels like MLSN is where a lot of the better players are going these days up here.

I think MLSN cares simply because BY is the international standard. Otherwise I don't think they care because the notion of trapped players doesn't exist -- players aren't supposed to play high school soccer (I think non-academy teams have more leniency -- but most MLSN teams I know of are training throughout the winter).
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Well put. There are far more mlsn regular v academy teams but they aren’t the ones calling the shots. It’s the academies, and their mls clubs. The other teams exist for the sake of the academy teams, which outside of SoCal has caused some drama like when in Texas last year several mlsn regular teams left back to ecnl.

No high school break is because the academies play nationally and because of the weather the high school season varies across the country. It’s lip service to the notion that high school play is no good. That’s not the real reason. But letting out regular teams for high school would leave the academy teams without local teams to practice against at various uncoordinated times across the us.
 
whatithink said:
The Academies are distinct from MLSN. Those players do also get recruited to college, but their purpose, for the MLS teams, is not college. MLS Next is a supporting league and a funnel to them at the younger ages up to U14/15. The MLS teams, who fund the Academies, don't care about college and don't care about youth soccer generally. They care about the 0.1% who might have a shot at a pro career.
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This is not entirely true. Having visited the Philadelphia Union academy (YSC), they are serious about academics and placing kids in college. I suspect for the other academies that only offer on-line schooling, that the priorities are less college oriented. Despite their emphasis on education, Union/YSC is one of the top programs for placing kids in the pros.

College Counseling - YSC Academy

www.yscacademy.com www.yscacademy.com
 
watfly said:
This is not entirely true. Having visited the Philadelphia Union academy (YSC), they are serious about academics and placing kids in college. I suspect for the other academies that only offer on-line schooling, that the priorities are less college oriented. Despite their emphasis on education, Union/YSC is one of the top programs for placing kids in the pros.

College Counseling - YSC Academy

www.yscacademy.com www.yscacademy.com
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That looks like pay to play model though like the Barca program in AZ or IMG. Those programs are mega expensive just to play college soccer.
 
Grace T. said:
Well put. There are far more mlsn regular v academy teams but they aren’t the ones calling the shots. It’s the academies, and their mls clubs. The other teams exist for the sake of the academy teams, which outside of SoCal has caused some drama like when in Texas last year several mlsn regular teams left back to ecnl.

No high school break is because the academies play nationally and because of the weather the high school season varies across the country. It’s lip service to the notion that high school play is no good. That’s not the real reason. But letting out regular teams for high school would leave the academy teams without local teams to practice against at various uncoordinated times across the us.
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Yes, its the funnel system lots of MLSN to MLS Academies. The MLS teams run the league for their benefit.
 
NorCalDad said:
There are far more non-academy MLSN teams than academy ones. Those players are shooting for "maybe" getting a look by the academy teams, but more generally hoping to play in college. College scouts generally attend the MLS Next events as a priority versus other events. In NorCal, just two years ago ECNL boys side wasn't that far off from the MLS Next table (I think I even argued that point somewhere else here). Something has shifted dramatically with this where it's not even close. I believe a lot of the ECNL boys teams have lost players to MLSN clubs. Perhaps this is just a snapshot in time and this stuff ebbs and flows -- but there certainly feels like MLSN is where a lot of the better players are going these days up here.

I think MLSN cares simply because BY is the international standard. Otherwise I don't think they care because the notion of trapped players doesn't exist -- players aren't supposed to play high school soccer (I think non-academy teams have more leniency -- but most MLSN teams I know of are training throughout the winter).
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Agree, if I were a college coach I'd look at MLSN first as that should be the cream. My point is that the MLS is looking for pros, not college players, they are a by-product (and they generate far more college players than pros).
 
NorCalDad said:
In NorCal, just two years ago ECNL boys side wasn't that far off from the MLS Next table (I think I even argued that point somewhere else here). Something has shifted dramatically with this where it's not even close. I believe a lot of the ECNL boys teams have lost players to MLSN clubs. Perhaps this is just a snapshot in time and this stuff ebbs and flows -- but there certainly feels like MLSN is where a lot of the better players are going these days up here.
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It's been quite lot longer than that. Norcal ECNL on the boys side hasn't been that close to any decent team in MLS N for 3 or 4 years at this point - they rate much closer to NPL (which includes RL as the top level of NPL).

But several of the crappier MLS N non-academy teams play much of their roster down on NPL teams anyway, so they can collect the $ from parents for having their kid on an "MLS" team and they have the potential to see some wins.
 
RandomSoccerFan said:
It's been quite lot longer than that. Norcal ECNL on the boys side hasn't been that close to any decent team in MLS N for 3 or 4 years at this point - they rate much closer to NPL (which includes RL as the top level of NPL).

But several of the crappier MLS N non-academy teams play much of their roster down on NPL teams anyway, so they can collect the $ from parents for having their kid on an "MLS" team and they have the potential to see some wins.
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Definitely not true. I literally went through this exercise like a year and a half ago. For example, at least 5-6 of the 2010 ECNL boys teams would've landed close to mid table in the 2010 MLSN table, now barely 2-3 would. On top of that some of the existing MLSN teams have excelled in their rankings. Just go look at some of the teams in those tables and you will see what I mean.
 
You need to take the ages into account. 2 years ago, the 2010B MLS teams would have been the youngest in MLS. For the first year - MLS is not very different than ECNL (or NPL). But if at that same time period, you looked at the 2009B or 2008B teams, you would have instead seen a marked difference. Look now at the 2012B brackets, and you'll see what I mean.
 
RandomSoccerFan said:
You need to take the ages into account. 2 years ago, the 2010B MLS teams would have been the youngest in MLS. For the first year - MLS is not very different than ECNL (or NPL). But if at that same time period, you looked at the 2009B or 2008B teams, you would have instead seen a marked difference. Look now at the 2012B brackets, and you'll see what I mean.
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I thought the same thing and looked up the 2012 and 2011 tables -- did all the math, and it's not even close. The average ranking for the ECNL 2012/2011 tables are almost double their MLSN counterparts. The bottom half of those ECNL tables would struggle to make mid table in their respective NPL tables. It's been a pretty precipitous decline. ECNL tables a couple of years ago had 2ish bad teams that were "out of place", but it's gotten very bottom heavy. Even if you look at the 2009s you can see this same behavior. It's pretty crazy to be honest. I would love to be able to run some analytics on the soccer ranking app data beyond what is "current".
 
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