{"id":229413,"date":"2025-10-16T16:21:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T16:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/229413\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T16:21:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T16:21:10","slug":"with-college-soccer-at-risk-u-s-soccer-pushes-for-overhaul-but-not-without-resistance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/229413\/","title":{"rendered":"With college soccer \u2018at risk,\u2019 U.S. Soccer pushes for overhaul \u2013 but not without resistance"},"content":{"rendered":"

A U.S. Soccer-led committee is pushing college soccer toward a new competitive model that could override current conferences, introduce an element of promotion and relegation and extend the college season from late summer through the spring.<\/p>\n

In a white paper<\/a> released Thursday, the committee<\/a> of college administrators, pro soccer executives, corporate partners and others recommended this revolutionary model for men\u2019s college soccer.<\/p>\n

On the women\u2019s side, though, they have met resistance, primarily from coaches, some of whom feel that the recommendations are primarily driven by men\u2019s soccer \u2014 and tailored to the top 1 percent of players, rather than to the thousands of kids who play the sport collegiately \u2014 multiple people involved in discussions told The Athletic.<\/p>\n

The committee, therefore, called for \u201ca broader period of engagement\u201d with women\u2019s coaches, players and administrators to analyze multiple models and ultimately pick one that, \u201cat a minimum, delivers a more competitive environment for elite players to develop in the \u2018off-season\u2019 months.\u201d One of the proposals involves an invite-only spring competition featuring top college programs, reserve teams of pro clubs and perhaps youth national teams.<\/p>\n

For decades, college soccer has been a fall-only sport. Seasons have begun in August and ended in December \u2014 and for a while, that was enough. Programs attached to universities, offering scholarships, were the best pre-professional environment for ambitious American soccer players. They helped produce the vast majority of U.S. women\u2019s national teamers and a majority of every U.S. men\u2019s World Cup squad from 1990-2010.<\/p>\n

\"Catarina<\/p>\n

\n U.S. international Catarina Macario came through the college system. (Richard Rodriguez \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Their relevance began to fade on the men\u2019s side, however, as youth academies multiplied last decade<\/a> and pushed American kids to the pros as teens. On the women\u2019s side, the extent of decline is debatable, but many experts now believe that the college environment, given the shortness of the season, is less conducive to player development than the pro club pipelines that are becoming more sophisticated and plentiful in Europe. A growing \u2014 though still small \u2014 number of girls now bypass college to jump straight into the NWSL.<\/p>\n

College sports in general, meanwhile, are navigating a period of uncertainty and dizzying change. Conferences have expanded, or \u201crealigned,\u201d to consolidate money and power, forcing teams to travel across time zones regularly. The House v. NCAA settlement<\/a>, which allows schools to pay their athletes, will also financially strain athletic departments, and men\u2019s soccer is among the sports in the most danger of being sacrificed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is at risk,\u201d U.S. Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone said of college soccer generally in an interview with The Athletic. \u201cIt may not be immediately at risk, but there is risk around the corner.\u201d<\/p>\n

And so, this \u201cNextGen College Soccer Committee,\u201d chaired by Deloitte\u2019s Dan Helfrich in partnership with U.S. Soccer, concluded: \u201cWe have reached an inflection point where proactive change is required.\u201d<\/p>\n

The changes they propose range from extended seasons to \u201cmodernized\u201d eligibility rules that could, for example, allow players who turn pro as teens to take a \u201csecond chance\u201d pathway back to the college game. The paper also signals U.S. Soccer\u2019s intent to invest in this segment of the sport that, previously, it had mostly ignored.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re willing to put time, money, expertise in support of this,\u201d Cone said, \u201cnot just in the short term but for the long term.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Vermont dramatically claimed the 2024 NCAA Division I title. (Isaiah Vazquez \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

U.S. Soccer CEO JT Batson told The Athletic that the goal is to \u201cmake college soccer a key part of soccer\u2019s future. It\u2019s obviously been a huge part of American soccer\u2019s past. This is an opportunity around designing it for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The big unknown is how leaders in college athletics will respond to the recommendations. Cone, Batson and Helfrich told The Athletic that all relevant stakeholders \u2014 including conference commissioners and the NCAA, the association that governs college athletics \u2014 were consulted as the committee formulated its stance; so, at least, they won\u2019t be surprised by the paper or its contents. Others, though, predict that powerful conferences will balk at some of the suggestions, and that the path to consensus will be painstaking and messy.<\/p>\n

Any overhaul of college soccer\u2019s competitive structure would need to be crafted and advanced by newly empowered, sport-specific NCAA oversight<\/a> committees<\/a>. On the men\u2019s side, Helfrich believes \u201cthey\u2019ll be able to create legislative proposals, which the recommendations will help inform, in this calendar year\u201d \u2014 but the changes could be phased in, rather than forced through as one \u201cbig bang.\u201d<\/p>\n

The women\u2019s side, meanwhile, \u201cis a little bit more complicated,\u201d Cone acknowledged. A significant number of experienced coaches, perhaps the vast majority outside of a dozen elite programs, are opposed to anything resembling the proposed men\u2019s model. The committee, essentially acknowledging this opposition, agreed to table discussions until after the 2025 season. \u201cI do understand why we needed to pause on the women\u2019s side and do a little more work there,\u201d Cone said.<\/p>\n

And \u201ceven on the men\u2019s side,\u201d she added, \u201cthere\u2019s still a lot of work to do across all levels of the game, to really work through the details of how this is going to come to life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paper calls for urgent change in men\u2019s soccer<\/p>\n

The 18-page white paper, finalized this week after months of consultations, repeatedly calls for urgency. The committee \u201cevaluated\u201d multiple competitive models, and for men\u2019s soccer, its conclusion was clear: the sport should \u201cmove expeditiously\u201d to perhaps the most transformative of the analyzed models beginning next season.<\/p>\n

In the committee\u2019s preferred scenario:<\/p>\n

The regular season would begin in September, break for December and January, then resume in February, and feature roughly one game per weekend. It would conclude, and a national tournament would begin, in April. The national championship would be won in late April or May.
\nAll 213 men\u2019s Division I programs would be split into four regional conferences (of 50-54 teams each). Those, in most cases, would replace current conferences (i.e. the Big Ten and ACC).
\nWithin each region, the 50-plus teams would be split into two tiers. The top tier, featuring the \u201cmost competitive\u201d teams, would comprise two divisions (of nine teams each); the second tier, featuring the rest, would be four \u201clocal\u201d divisions based on geography.
\nEvery team would play every divisional opponent twice, once home and once away, just like in a European pro league. They\u2019d also play a few \u201ccrossover games\u201d against non-divisional opponents.
\nAfter 18-22 regular-season games, 88 teams \u2014 22 per region, determined solely by table placement, but with more bids allocated to top-tier divisions \u2014 would qualify for one expanded postseason tournament. A play-in round would whittle the field to 64.
\nThe teams would be sorted into tiers by objective criteria in Year 1. Then, in future years, they could move up or down, \u201ceither through on-field performance similar to promotion\/relegation or off-field analysis by a committee that objectively considers many factors,\u201d the committee wrote.<\/p>\n

The system, interestingly, would not actually add many games to the calendar. But it would spread those games over six months rather than four, relieving what the committee calls \u201cthe physical, mental, and academic toll of a highly congested single-semester fall soccer calendar.\u201d It would allow for better training. And in conjunction with \u201cmodernized\u201d rules, it would give players a full summer to train and\/or play with pro teams \u2014 or to pursue normal internships.<\/p>\n

The other potential benefit is the April-May championship window, post-basketball, pre-softball\/baseball\/lacrosse and far away from football. This, in theory, could create \u201celevated commercial interest,\u201d the committee wrote. And \u201cthe national tournament format would be designed with commercial partners to optimize revenue and visibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those benefits have been at the heart of proposals to reform men\u2019s college soccer for over a decade. Sasho Cirovski, the longtime University of Maryland coach and advocate for reform<\/a>, told The Athletic that \u201cthe most important piece\u201d of any new model \u201cis the decompressed, split season and especially the spring championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Maryland head coach Sasho Cirovski supports reform. (G Fiume \/ Maryland Terrapins \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

He worries, then, about regionalization and tiering \u2014 not because the concepts are inherently bad, simply because they\u2019re logistically and politically complex.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of complications when you\u2019re breaking up conferences,\u201d Cirovski said. \u201cAnd how do you select the top tier? How do you create scheduling? I\u2019m afraid that is going to slow the process and muddy the waters of an idea that\u2019s been worked on for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

He commended the committee\u2019s work, but advocated for a phased approach, where a simple extension of the season could be introduced after the 2026 World Cup; regionalization, which he supports in some form, could then be explored for future seasons.<\/p>\n

The committee argues that regionalization, along with a preseason more aligned with academic calendars, could save programs anywhere between $25,000 and $350,000 \u2014 in part because a school like Maryland would be playing Virginia and Pittsburgh rather than UCLA and Washington. (The committee also suggests that current conferences could \u201crun pre-season or in-season mini-tournaments or Cups that award a distinct conference championship trophy.\u201d)<\/p>\n

And among athletic directors, many of whom must cut costs in so-called \u201cOlympic sports\u201d while prioritizing football and\/or basketball, there seems to be support.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my position, everything is so much about resources and revenue generation,\u201d Chris Clunie, the athletic director at Davidson College and a member of the U.S. Soccer committee, told The Athletic. \u201cAnd if there\u2019s a way for us to maximize efficiency, to do things differently in a manner that allows us to cut back on spending, to shift to more of a localized, regionalized model that impacts budgets, and allows us to do more with more, I\u2019m all for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not trying to cut soccer. I don\u2019t want to cut resources to soccer. But if there were ways for us to be more efficient with the dollars that we\u2019re spending, ultimately that\u2019s gonna help us.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, if U.S. Soccer can help generate revenue for college programs and subsidize expenses, Clunie sees a future where NCAA leaders could work with national governing bodies in other sports to do the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this goes well, this can be applied across a number of other Olympic sports,\u201d he said. \u201cThis could potentially build a model. Especially in this world of college athletics, where big-time college football is driving the machine. You [might have to] get off the bus and start driving your own bus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recommendations for women\u2019s college soccer<\/p>\n

Much of the same rationale also applies to women\u2019s college soccer, and multiple people close to the committee have told The Athletic that some stakeholders believe a similar overhaul should occur on the women\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

Women\u2019s college soccer, though, is protected by Title IX and not facing the semi-existential threat looming over men\u2019s soccer. It also exists in a different context, with a variety of distinct realities, many of which the committee acknowledges: there are more programs (353) and less competitive parity; and college soccer remains the world\u2019s most common pathway to women\u2019s professional soccer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Mallory Swanson was a rare case, skipping college to jump straight to the NWSL. (Michael Madrid \/ USA TODAY Sports)<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the women\u2019s soccer ecosystem \u2014 both globally and domestically \u2014 sits in a moment of unprecedented innovation, investment, and opportunity for elite players,\u201d the committee writes. Those elite players are central to one of the committee\u2019s three \u201cmust-have\u201d outcomes: Any proposal, it writes, \u201cmust enhance the identification and development of elite players for professional and\/or National Team careers immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, it \u201cbelieves strongly that this creates an imperative for U.S. women\u2019s college soccer to proactively modernize.\u201d<\/p>\n

What the committee hasn\u2019t yet built consensus on is how to \u201cbalance the interests and soccer-related ambition of the approximately 9,000 Division I women\u2019s players with the hundreds who have professional and\/or national team futures.\u201d<\/p>\n

That, multiple people told The Athletic, has been part of the struggle. Just last winter, women\u2019s soccer coaches pushed through new NCAA legislation that will elongate their season by two weeks to ease congestion. A majority believe this slightly extended season suits their sport just fine.<\/p>\n

So, the committee settled on a three-part recommendation:<\/p>\n

The 2026 fall season should continue as planned.
\nIn the spring of 2027, U.S. Soccer should work with \u201ccertain elite programs\u201d to build a new competition. Four college-only regional tournaments would feed into \u201ca new flagship elite global U23 soccer event\u201d featuring the college winners and, perhaps, reserve teams of pro clubs or youth national teams.
\nAfter the current season, talks should continue, and \u201cduring this period,\u201d the committee writes, \u201cwe should analyze both the implications and stakeholder preferences of pursuing more fundamental structural changes to the women\u2019s competitive model and calendar.\u201d Among the models to consider would be one \u201csimilar to the proposed men\u2019s model\u201d; and one that expands on the \u201celite\u201d spring competition.
\nRadical eligibility shifts mooted<\/p>\n

In addition to new competitive structures, the committee also spelled out 10 recommendations for integrating college soccer into the sport\u2019s broader U.S. ecosystem. U.S. Soccer, for example, should promote college national championship events and turn them \u201cinto a larger celebration of soccer.\u201d It should engage more with players and coaches, and perhaps arrange \u201cshowcases\u201d for top prospects \u201cin connection with pro leagues.\u201d<\/p>\n

The most radical of the recommendations here related to eligibility rules. \u201cAreas for exploration,\u201d the committee wrote, \u201cinclude:\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAllowing players who have signed or are under rights agreements with professional teams to pursue college competition\u201d \u2014 with the pro teams potentially funding \u201csome or all of their scholarships.
\nThe \u201csecond chance\u201d pathway for \u201cplayers to enroll and compete in college after previously starting a professional career that has stalled.\u201d
\nExpanding opportunities for college players to train with professional teams outside the academic calendar.<\/p>\n

The depth of the recommendations, and the length of the process, also begged a question: Why? Why would U.S. Soccer sink so much time and money into college soccer as it seemingly declines in relevance?<\/p>\n

The answer, Batson and Cone told The Athletic, is that college soccer helps facilitate participation at all levels of the game. It produces pro players, but it also incentivizes parents to put their kids in the sport. It helps create fans, executives, referees and coaches.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of our unique advantages as a country,\u201d Batson said. \u201cSo, we want to be great at it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A U.S. Soccer-led committee is pushing college soccer toward a new competitive model that could override current conferences,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[2662,9523,46185,403,99,1794,25450],"class_list":["post-229413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-college-sports","tag-mls","tag-nwsl","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-sports-business","tag-womens-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}