ECNL moving to school year not calendar

[Anonymous]

Looks like my daughter's ECNL club is using the upcoming year to group the kids in the same age together. I guess they're throwing away this upcoming year, with younger players, to get a jump on 26-27 where the core group of girls have already played together for a year.

A year from now, we'll see if this was good strategy by the club to form the teams a year ahead.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I'm just here waiting for a GA announcement so I can choose the best club for my Q42013. Granted, now I'm just here with my popcorn and to read how everyone thinks their own kid should be going pro!

The rumor is that Q4 parents wanting to club hop based on league rules is exactly why they are waiting until after tryouts to make announcements. If the leagues wait until this summer to change the rules (to perhaps allow Q4s to play down), then the clubs can dictate who to move between teams - not the parents.

Yup! wont know until late after ECNL tryout window is over.

If US Soccer agrees on a transit plan from a league, the plan must be kept away from the public until all 25/26 teams are formed. Thus, there will be no interleague poaching because of the transit plan.

There is no transition plan from US Soccer. The "transit plan" is essentially what you see now: announce a change a year in advance to let orgs and clubs plan their own needs.

This is kind of a waste, though, if they don’t give clubs tools to meaningfully make the transition.

It is clear that no new rules will be announced until after teams are formed for next season.

The best approach for Sep-Q4 players is to be in a club that gives you the chance to move up a level after SY is adopted.

What will happen for ECNL no idea about GA. All teams and clubs will have tryouts as usual ECNL will wait until they put out their policy rules for 25/26. But most likely there will be flexibility for players to go down but only to play in the new RL league not ECNL. So a Dec 2011 can play 2011 NL and 2012 RL.

Sounds like their will be limitations on how many games per player but will allow for coaches to start assessing player talent for 26/27.

But they are still working on the details…. Nothing set in stone yet.

Play in 2011 NL and play down in 2012 RL? This is weird. My Q4 NL can absolutely dominate the younger NL team.

Has anyone thought about the scenario where ECNL goes SY and GA goes BY. Then the ECNL team you are on goes GA or vice versa? Hopefully they align but curious if anyone else is concerned about that scenario playing out?

What scenarios are you referring too? It has been speculated that GA could stay BY but we haven’t heard anything yet. Rumors are it will be known sometime before June.

My kids GA team keeps asking grade over and over again and not birth year or month born just grade level. Maybe that is a tell?

My kids GA team hasn’t said or asked anything about grade.

My kids GA team hasn't asked either. Although it's pretty easy to tell when some are playing/played HS soccer and others arent/didn't.

Coaches and clubs don’t pay attention to those levels to memorize who’s in what grade.

Nice troll, but you'd be an idiot to not know what grade kids are in when the a drastic change is on the horizon.

I think you’re giving these soccer people a lot of credit.

The ECNL tryout is done. The coach is building the team based on players' level, not their birth month. RL parents are disappointed. We have to wait until next year.

This may seem hard to believe - but it will be the league rules that dictate whether Q4 players can "play down" in 25/26. Not whether your club completed their tryouts. Sorry.

Obviously, you are not in an ECNL tryout. The ECNL coach does not buy your assumption. SY RL parents have to wait until next year.

Nobody knows whether league rules will permit Q4s to play down next year. You can pretend to know, but you don't know. It's just what you want to believe.

I pretend nothing. I just stated the fact that I saw in the ECNL tryout. No Q4 RL players got pulled up. In fact, I support SY, as my kid is one of the two Q4s on the NL team, and they get several very good new Q1s to join.

What you said was "The ECNL tryout is done. The coach is building the team based on players' level, not their birth month. RL parents are disappointed. We have to wait until next year."

Your statement assumes that because ECNL tryouts are done - the club won't later change the teams if the league rules permit Q4s to play down. Sorry, but that's a terrible assumption. They absolutely would re-do the teams in that event. You know that.

In which part did I say "the club won't later change the teams if the league rules permit Q4s to play down"?

Fyi, as a top ECNL team in the nation, we have new players to show up in practice throughout the year. The team is constantly changing.

I know RL Q4 parents want the NL coach to consider birth month during the tryout, but it did not happen this time.

[Anonymous]

The reality is even the best number 1 teams around dont play up a year in NL leagues. At best they play games in RL and struggle at times.

Coaches think RL is just fine untill they need to reform teams. Consider this when choosing this year.

If you dont agree just switch to another NL team and get the bennifits of playing up in NL for a few months knowing change is very soon.

[Anonymous]

Playing up a year is almost what December kids do right now. This is why there are very few Q4s and almost no December kids in NL and RL teams. Most of these top teams are stacked with Q1 players for a reason. Being 9-12 months older is a huge advantage physically.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:What little I have seen is the MLSN2 regionals are play in's for the MLS cup showcase in Nashville. Its a select number of teams and not the entire MLSN.

We also have a talent ID event before the MLSN Fest and not sure if that is also a play in event (They seem to have roster caps of 18-20ish???)

Either way some kids are going to get BIG oppertunities for playing well.

Good start for the new league no qestion.

ECNL cannot compete with access to markey events like MLS cup and MLS fest.

Markey events😂😂😂😂

RIP Biz Markey...

But any who, a lot people are making up stuff about a league (MLS2) that has not played a single game and has released almost 0 information. From what I can see, my local MLS2 will be run by NAL. Which is fine but certainly nothing earth shattering or new going on there (that league seemed barely better than USYS regional comps). Then maybe one 'MLSN2 only' event with maybe one team from each age group getting invited to an (singular) MLSN event.

You can't improve quality just by changing the league name. It is still a B team league with B team players who pretend to be MLSN players and pay more.

Mostly true, although for many clubs in the new tier, that will be their top team. Also, while the league name is certainly a rebrand, seems like clubs that perform well over most age groups will be prime MLS Next expansion candidates.

The other thing our club told us (and it could just be a sales pitch obviously) is that movement between top tier and new tier teams can happen the entire year in MLSN vs having to be done by January in ECNL.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:What little I have seen is the MLSN2 regionals are play in's for the MLS cup showcase in Nashville. Its a select number of teams and not the entire MLSN.

We also have a talent ID event before the MLSN Fest and not sure if that is also a play in event (They seem to have roster caps of 18-20ish???)

Either way some kids are going to get BIG oppertunities for playing well.

Good start for the new league no qestion.

ECNL cannot compete with access to markey events like MLS cup and MLS fest.

Markey events😂😂😂😂

RIP Biz Markey...

But any who, a lot people are making up stuff about a league (MLS2) that has not played a single game and has released almost 0 information. From what I can see, my local MLS2 will be run by NAL. Which is fine but certainly nothing earth shattering or new going on there (that league seemed barely better than USYS regional comps). Then maybe one 'MLSN2 only' event with maybe one team from each age group getting invited to an (singular) MLSN event.

You can't improve quality just by changing the league name. It is still a B team league with B team players who pretend to be MLSN players and pay more.

Mostly true, although for many clubs in the new tier, that will be their top team. Also, while the league name is certainly a rebrand, seems like clubs that perform well over most age groups will be prime MLS Next expansion candidates.

The other thing our club told us (and it could just be a sales pitch obviously) is that movement between top tier and new tier teams can happen the entire year in MLSN vs having to be done by January in ECNL.

You were fed nonsense. None what you wrote will occur.

MLSN1 will not be 'pulling up' from the 2nd team more than they do now just because the 2nd team is now named differently. 99.9% of the MLSN2 (only) clubs will never get MLSN1. This is a rebranding of NAL. Which, to be fair, was needed as NAL was marketed terribly and no one cared about it at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The reality is even the best number 1 teams around dont play up a year in NL leagues. At best they play games in RL and struggle at times.

Coaches think RL is just fine untill they need to reform teams. Consider this when choosing this year.

If you dont agree just switch to another NL team and get the bennifits of playing up in NL for a few months knowing change is very soon.

I recently watched a national championship winning (2024) NL side battle to 2-1 (very late) win against their own mid-tier RL side that is one year older. The RL side did not make it out of playoffs in RL in 24.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The reality is even the best number 1 teams around dont play up a year in NL leagues. At best they play games in RL and struggle at times.

Coaches think RL is just fine untill they need to reform teams. Consider this when choosing this year.

If you dont agree just switch to another NL team and get the bennifits of playing up in NL for a few months knowing change is very soon.

I do not know if any Q4 RL players make the NL team in my club or other ECNL clubs nearby for my son's age group. At this moment, I think NL coaches just build the team as business as usual.

[Anonymous]

I think we are 7 months from California doing SY tryouts. Countdown is on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reality is even the best number 1 teams around dont play up a year in NL leagues. At best they play games in RL and struggle at times.

Coaches think RL is just fine untill they need to reform teams. Consider this when choosing this year.

If you dont agree just switch to another NL team and get the bennifits of playing up in NL for a few months knowing change is very soon.

I do not know if any Q4 RL players make the NL team in my club or other ECNL clubs nearby for my son's age group. At this moment, I think NL coaches just build the team as business as usual.

Well yeah, that’s why it will be chaos next spring. The pools of players will be completely mixed up and they won’t able to just roll into tryouts with the idea of just sticking with their current roster.

Except for some younger ages and forward thinking coaches, they’re focused on the next win, not next year.

[Anonymous]

Where I am there is no MLS1. The top club has ECNL and and two other clubs went from NPL (their top teams) to MLSN2. Those teams are on level with the top clubs RL teams.

The MLS thing may attract players initially but the showcases will be in groups against other N2 teams. Time will tell if if MLSN2 works out but it seems a LOT better than NPL from a business standpoint

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where I am there is no MLS1. The top club has ECNL and and two other clubs went from NPL (their top teams) to MLSN2. Those teams are on level with the top clubs RL teams.

The MLS thing may attract players initially but the showcases will be in groups against other N2 teams. Time will tell if if MLSN2 works out but it seems a LOT better than NPL from a business standpoint

Not sure why US Club keeps NPL around. They should have moved those clubs into ECRL a few years ago.

In my old area all of the NPL clubs just switched to MLSN2. For attracting and retaining players it was a no brainer.

2 of them applied for ECNL and were only offered ECRl so that was the motivation for the switch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Playing up a year is almost what December kids do right now. This is why there are very few Q4s and almost no December kids in NL and RL teams. Most of these top teams are stacked with Q1 players for a reason. Being 9-12 months older is a huge advantage physically.

Yep…the BY crowd hates when people point this out…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Playing up a year is almost what December kids do right now. This is why there are very few Q4s and almost no December kids in NL and RL teams. Most of these top teams are stacked with Q1 players for a reason. Being 9-12 months older is a huge advantage physically.

Yep…the BY crowd hates when people point this out…

[Anonymous]

BY, SY, someone will always be youngest.