College equation has changed for boys

[Anonymous]

It's becoming increasingly difficult to say the path to college soccer is worth the sacrifice for many, including our family. Several factors have made it a pipe dream. The most significant started years ago with Title IX, which is great for girls but, for boys, and understandably so, shifts scholarships to the revenue makers - basketball and football. These two sports eat up dozens of scholarships. Then you have the transfer madness that has most lineups comprised of 21 yo (often older) seniors with coaches constantly recruiting over their current talent. There is little to no loyalty. The infiltration and prioritization of scholarships to international players is another factor. Some are literally pros who are using college here as an avenue to keep playing while getting a degree. Finally, the MLS academies have become the D1 pipeline, which means if you are not in one - the odds are much steeper at going D1 or even D3, as there are quite a few academy players at all levels. Some kids don't want to go all-in on soccer and disregard academics, other sports, or the ability to enjoy their youth outside of soccer. My kid was a soccer nut until recently, but I think he and I are starting to see that it's no longer in our best interest to prioritize soccer as much as we have in the past. There are some kids who will see the end goal of college soccer as worth it. But I'd advise boys in particular to know that even if you join an academy and make a D1 roster, it's hard to argue that there is a straight up return on investment. Of course, this is different for everyone, but from a financial and time standpoint, know that you're going to commit ALOT to make it on a college roster and then will still deal with the transfers that change the team landscape every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's becoming increasingly difficult to say the path to college soccer is worth the sacrifice for many, including our family. Several factors have made it a pipe dream. The most significant started years ago with Title IX, which is great for girls but, for boys, and understandably so, shifts scholarships to the revenue makers - basketball and football. These two sports eat up dozens of scholarships. Then you have the transfer madness that has most lineups comprised of 21 yo (often older) seniors with coaches constantly recruiting over their current talent. There is little to no loyalty. The infiltration and prioritization of scholarships to international players is another factor. Some are literally pros who are using college here as an avenue to keep playing while getting a degree. Finally, the MLS academies have become the D1 pipeline, which means if you are not in one - the odds are much steeper at going D1 or even D3, as there are quite a few academy players at all levels. Some kids don't want to go all-in on soccer and disregard academics, other sports, or the ability to enjoy their youth outside of soccer. My kid was a soccer nut until recently, but I think he and I are starting to see that it's no longer in our best interest to prioritize soccer as much as we have in the past. There are some kids who will see the end goal of college soccer as worth it. But I'd advise boys in particular to know that even if you join an academy and make a D1 roster, it's hard to argue that there is a straight up return on investment. Of course, this is different for everyone, but from a financial and time standpoint, know that you're going to commit ALOT to make it on a college roster and then will still deal with the transfers that change the team landscape every year.

For boys and girls, it was never a great career path in the US.

Girls can get reduced college costs and for boys, getting around 2 years in USL for $40k per year and then coaching kids for around $75k per year would be a huge achievement.

Over half of MLS are foreign born players and about a third of the roster is making $100k per year, there just aren't many top jobs for Americans.

The minimum MLB salary is the same as the MLS max salary (not including the few designated players brought in from overseas).

Youth soccer in the US has always been for the fun of it, life lessons, etc. Other jobs here just pay more.

[Anonymous]

Unless you play in a revenue generating sport which means football or basketball, college sports are just another enjoyable activity to pursue. Think marching band, fraternities, engineering competitions, and the like. All power to you if that’s what you enjoy and it’s great that our colleges offer all these activities to enrich the experience. College soccer is no more no less. I hope people aren’t delusional about college sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless you play in a revenue generating sport which means football or basketball, college sports are just another enjoyable activity to pursue. Think marching band, fraternities, engineering competitions, and the like. All power to you if that’s what you enjoy and it’s great that our colleges offer all these activities to enrich the experience. College soccer is no more no less. I hope people aren’t delusional about college sports.

Come back when recruited athletes no longer get a special admissions process and are in the same bucket as students in marching band.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless you play in a revenue generating sport which means football or basketball, college sports are just another enjoyable activity to pursue. Think marching band, fraternities, engineering competitions, and the like. All power to you if that’s what you enjoy and it’s great that our colleges offer all these activities to enrich the experience. College soccer is no more no less. I hope people aren’t delusional about college sports.

I think this is kid- and family-dependent. OP is correct that it’s a pretty tough road for boys hoping to be recruited to play college soccer, and this upcoming change will hit the next few classes of seniors hard as well: https://www.sportsrecruitingusa.com/post/ncaa-set-to-overhaul-eligibility-rules-what-the-proposed-5-for-5-model-means-for-college-soccer-r It likely means less competition from overseas over-aged players, but it also means D1 coaches don’t know how many open roster spots they have to offer incoming freshman as kids on currently on their teams contemplate a fifth year of eligibility.

But hopefully boys are playing youth soccer for reasons other than potential recruitment. Almost all the kids I know who play in college truly love their sport, and I don’t think it makes sense to view the family investment in youth soccer from a cost-benefit lens, unless the family can’t afford it.

I don’t fully agree with your distinction between revenue- and non-revenue generating sports in this context. In my neighborhood, families look at soccer as a potential means of gaining locked in admission to an academically elite college or university, and make choices accordingly. This works out fairly well for athletic and academically talented kids who play on the top area teams. Also, there are plenty of former D1 players in MLS, making decent to great salaries. And lots of cute D1 female athletes in non-revenue sports making bank with NIL deals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless you play in a revenue generating sport which means football or basketball, college sports are just another enjoyable activity to pursue. Think marching band, fraternities, engineering competitions, and the like. All power to you if that’s what you enjoy and it’s great that our colleges offer all these activities to enrich the experience. College soccer is no more no less. I hope people aren’t delusional about college sports.

Come back when recruited athletes no longer get a special admissions process and are in the same bucket as students in marching band.

Marching band rides coattails of football and are already and have been in a better situation than non revenue college sport athletes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless you play in a revenue generating sport which means football or basketball, college sports are just another enjoyable activity to pursue. Think marching band, fraternities, engineering competitions, and the like. All power to you if that’s what you enjoy and it’s great that our colleges offer all these activities to enrich the experience. College soccer is no more no less. I hope people aren’t delusional about college sports.

Come back when recruited athletes no longer get a special admissions process and are in the same bucket as students in marching band.

Marching band rides coattails of football and are already and have been in a better situation than non revenue college sport athletes

For *admission*? Definitely not.

The one positive about the changing landscape is that scholarship limits are gone. D1 teams can offer scholarships to anyone on the roster (limit 28). Not that everyone will fully fund every team.

[Anonymous]

Why should anyone expect an easy path through any sport into college? I don't understand the entitlement

Also, I haven't met or heard of personally any kid who abandoned academics for soccer only

[Anonymous]

I've noticed the number of D1 commits from my son's former club has steadily dropped over the last 10 years. They used to get 6-8 players into D1. Now a good year is 2-3. My son played D3 and it ended up being much cheaper than sending him to an in state public university, so there can be some value still in travel soccer. I met a guy who played soccer at a big D1 school back in the mid nineties. He said they had three internationals on the roster back then. Now his former school has 17. Pretty long odds to make a D1 squad now.

[Anonymous]

Even 15 years ago, before the vast majority of D1 players were international, the average scholarship for college for players was $2,000 each, and that went to less than 2% of all HS players. They should play for the love of the beautiful game, not for scholarship money that isn't coming.

Just to show how old I am, there was a huge article about scholarship money for HS athletes in the Gazette that laid out the facts of all of this before they were bought out by Bezos and shuttered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless you play in a revenue generating sport which means football or basketball, college sports are just another enjoyable activity to pursue. Think marching band, fraternities, engineering competitions, and the like. All power to you if that’s what you enjoy and it’s great that our colleges offer all these activities to enrich the experience. College soccer is no more no less. I hope people aren’t delusional about college sports.

Come back when recruited athletes no longer get a special admissions process and are in the same bucket as students in marching band.

Athletes recruited for soccer don’t often get a led up in admissions. It’s different for revenue generating sports like basketball and football. DS was advised to maintain the highest GPA possible if he wanted to be recruited. Sure there may be an occasional applicant who a coach fights for but it’s isn’t going to be the majority of recruits. A 3.5 isn’t going to get admitted to HYSP on the men’s side. The coaches have their choice of talented HS soccer recruits who check the admissions boxes. But the fact is college soccer coaches are much more likely to choose a transfer or international player in 2026.

[Anonymous]

👋

The less transactional people we have in youth soccer with this end-game-mentality the better for the culture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless you play in a revenue generating sport which means football or basketball, college sports are just another enjoyable activity to pursue. Think marching band, fraternities, engineering competitions, and the like. All power to you if that’s what you enjoy and it’s great that our colleges offer all these activities to enrich the experience. College soccer is no more no less. I hope people aren’t delusional about college sports.

Come back when recruited athletes no longer get a special admissions process and are in the same bucket as students in marching band.

Athletes recruited for soccer don’t often get a led up in admissions. It’s different for revenue generating sports like basketball and football. DS was advised to maintain the highest GPA possible if he wanted to be recruited. Sure there may be an occasional applicant who a coach fights for but it’s isn’t going to be the majority of recruits. A 3.5 isn’t going to get admitted to HYSP on the men’s side. The coaches have their choice of talented HS soccer recruits who check the admissions boxes. But the fact is college soccer coaches are much more likely to choose a transfer or international player in 2026.

So a coach says to the recruited athlete maintain the highest possible GPA and I might put my thumb on the scale for you. And for the student not looking to be recruited? They should maintain the highest possible GPA. No thumb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless you play in a revenue generating sport which means football or basketball, college sports are just another enjoyable activity to pursue. Think marching band, fraternities, engineering competitions, and the like. All power to you if that’s what you enjoy and it’s great that our colleges offer all these activities to enrich the experience. College soccer is no more no less. I hope people aren’t delusional about college sports.

:roll:

Come back when recruited athletes no longer get a special admissions process and are in the same bucket as students in marching band.

Athletes recruited for soccer don’t often get a led up in admissions. It’s different for revenue generating sports like basketball and football. DS was advised to maintain the highest GPA possible if he wanted to be recruited. Sure there may be an occasional applicant who a coach fights for but it’s isn’t going to be the majority of recruits. A 3.5 isn’t going to get admitted to HYSP on the men’s side. The coaches have their choice of talented HS soccer recruits who check the admissions boxes. But the fact is college soccer coaches are much more likely to choose a transfer or international player in 2026.

Athletes recruited for soccer absolutely get a leg-up in admissions, and it’s very odd to claim otherwise. My child who was recruited by several ivies was told he could get through admissions so long as he kept his grades up and got at least a 1250 on the SAT. My other child (not recruited) with perfect grades in highly rigorous classes and a 1600 on the SAT was shut out by those same schools.

Also, check the rosters for HYPSM. The vast majority of players are American.

I’m not saying it’s an easy path to get to any top school, but we have found that the shot at a golden admissions ticket tends to keep kids more focused on their academics than they might otherwise be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless you play in a revenue generating sport which means football or basketball, college sports are just another enjoyable activity to pursue. Think marching band, fraternities, engineering competitions, and the like. All power to you if that’s what you enjoy and it’s great that our colleges offer all these activities to enrich the experience. College soccer is no more no less. I hope people aren’t delusional about college sports.

:roll:

Come back when recruited athletes no longer get a special admissions process and are in the same bucket as students in marching band.

Athletes recruited for soccer don’t often get a led up in admissions. It’s different for revenue generating sports like basketball and football. DS was advised to maintain the highest GPA possible if he wanted to be recruited. Sure there may be an occasional applicant who a coach fights for but it’s isn’t going to be the majority of recruits. A 3.5 isn’t going to get admitted to HYSP on the men’s side. The coaches have their choice of talented HS soccer recruits who check the admissions boxes. But the fact is college soccer coaches are much more likely to choose a transfer or international player in 2026.

Athletes recruited for soccer absolutely get a leg-up in admissions, and it’s very odd to claim otherwise. My child who was recruited by several ivies was told he could get through admissions so long as he kept his grades up and got at least a 1250 on the SAT. My other child (not recruited) with perfect grades in highly rigorous classes and a 1600 on the SAT was shut out by those same schools.

Also, check the rosters for HYPSM. The vast majority of players are American.

I’m not saying it’s an easy path to get to any top school, but we have found that the shot at a golden admissions ticket tends to keep kids more focused on their academics than they might otherwise be.

The HYP players or "IVY" players get no scholarship $.