Hard to say. Certainly they are all really talented kids. I would suspect that, despite its many imperfections, DA contributed very meaningfully to their development, progress and success. And I would also guess that this trend is growing and accelerating.
Not sure what you mean by too narrow, but I agree it is imperfect. Ideally there are more clearly defined pathways up the pyramid so smaller programs with fewer resources can move their best players up the ladder. Seems like we are headed in that direction with solidarity and transfer payment changes. Still a long way to go, but the US in challenging as we are so spread out geographically.
Unfortunately, proximity is also an important factor. There might also be a super talented player in North Dakota. But he/she isn’t gonna get a lot of exposure.
They were grandfathered in from where? Yes, some were ECNL teams that moved into being DA teams but there were several new clubs that were not ECNL and there was a lot of movement on rosters of the ECNL clubs as there were other options- there were tryouts and there were teams formed and this is the conclusion of the second year of the DA even if you want to ignore that fact
nah - women don't have a similar upside as men to justify 4x/week practice requirements and US Soccer controlling parent/student decisions re playing high school soccer, playing other sports, playing futsal, and missing significant amounts of class time. Unless in your 5 years the women's pro league has transformed into a profitable operation with a TV deal (they lost their last one), and a base salary of $75K-100K. Or, if girls DA becomes fully funded for many of the girls programs just like on the boys side. I don't see either of those scenarios occurring anytime soon.
