Rant: League fracturing is asinine

[Grace T.]

"Connections" to pro teams really don't mean anything for 99% of MLS Next players...

And Fest and Cup seem like great events where lots of college scouts and coaches attend so...

Yes but the appeal of Fest and Cup is because of the academy kids not good enough for pro, it's why the coaches go.

 

[Carlsbad7]

"Connections" to pro teams really don't mean anything for 99% of MLS Next players...

And Fest and Cup seem like great events where lots of college scouts and coaches attend so...

I agree its a mirage for most.

Which makes playing in US Soccer coordinated multi league showcases with college coaches present even more appealing.

Anything that makes it easier for coaches to see as many players as possible in one location is helpful.

 

[Socal-Soccer-Dad]

Yes but the appeal of Fest and Cup is because of the academy kids not good enough for pro, it's why the coaches go.

Yea I get that. There are definitely a bunch of coaches there primarily for the academy kids...

But not every school is Stanford. Plenty of programs know they’re not getting an MLS academy standout and are looking at the other kids too.. in that level below elite but pretty decent vs upper half of MLS Next competition...

 

[Scrub It Kook]

MLSN is just another league. People buy into the (justifiable) hype. The difference is MLSNs "power" is the connection to pro teams not college. Unfortunately on this pathway theres a lot of hands out looking to get greased and its in their best interest not the players to keep the pipeline closed off. If there wasnt so many hand out playing in US Soccer controlled showcases would make sense. Either way if there was US Soccer controlled cross league showcases I guarantee MLSN scouts would be there watching for talent.

MLS Academy scouts attend some ECNL events. They're just not announcing their presence like college coaches and nor are they simply strolling around looking for random talent. They usually have a short list of players to watch based on coach/DOC recommendations or from players they've invited in on trial but weren't ready to select yet.

 

[Jamisfoes]

Well there might be some truth to that... but D3 philosophically emphasizes academics first then athletics so I think it's a coach by coach thing even if it's remotely true that they don't prefer hard majors...

I don't think "you won't get an offer if you major in pre-med or engineering" is accurate.

As an example, these are all D3 schools with men's soccer and it's kind of hard to avoid pre-med/engineering at these schools.. it's basically all pre-med or engineering haha... (ok some econ and business mixed in)

• MIT
• Carnegie Mellon
• Johns Hopkins
• Washington University in St. Louis
• University of Chicago
• Emory

Yes probably depends on how a coach sees his job security. The more competitive a program is the more a coach thinks twice about admitting a pre-med major.