ECNL moving to school year not calendar

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Except as already discussed in reality the change only affects 2-3 players per team. ECNL have hinted that they want the decision to be made in time for clubs to prepare for tryouts in the new year so that rosters can be reshuffled as necessary. None of us know yet who is voting in favor of it and who isn't. All we know right now is ECNL has gathered survey responses from clubs who agree will be messy in the short term but better in the long run and ECNL is pushing hard for everyone to change with them.

Dude, do you believe everything you hear?

The better question is why do some here believe nothing that they hear? Everything just keeps being dismissed by the conspiracy theory that there's no change seriously being discussed and it's all made up by crazy parents. Maybe that's true, and maybe our government really is hiding contact with aliens from us, but it's probably a bad bet.

Yes! The fact we are looked at as the crazy ones for listening to someone who knows and is involved in conversations.

You school year deniers can only keep and fingers in your ears going lalalala I can’t hear you for so long before you look like lunatics.

So he is the only one in these conversations? Why hasn’t anyone spoken out about it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ECNL is trying to align with a dying college sport. They are trying to save college soccer as that is their bread and butter.

NILs will soon ruin college ball and leagues like (GA and MLS NEXT) will be the pathway to YNT, Pro, what’s left of college

That is what ECNL is trying to do with this change.

Even if college soccer dies SY is still better for the majority which is hard for people to wrap their heads around that Rec kids, bronze, silver, insert level of kids just wanting to have fun. The reality is most kids just want to play with friends and won’t play college soccer either. I think only 3-5% of players play any level of college. And only 3-5% of college kids go pro. So you’re talking very much the minority.

The only argument for BY is because that pathway works better for my kid or even let’s say 5000-10000 academy kids that’s still very much the minority.
California alone probably has 100K rec kids (just a guess).

What do you mean play with their friends? How many of you kids friend play soccer? Competitive soccer at that?

This is a foolish statement. Most times they don’t even play at the same club. Stop with the nonsense

Just because your own reality is different doesn’t make it true. As a teacher and coach for a variety of sports almost 20 years one thing I know as a fact is kids at the entry level want to play with their friends. That’s why kids like playing high school to play with their classmates not for the super intense competition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ECNL is trying to align with a dying college sport. They are trying to save college soccer as that is their bread and butter.

NILs will soon ruin college ball and leagues like (GA and MLS NEXT) will be the pathway to YNT, Pro, what’s left of college

That is what ECNL is trying to do with this change.

Even if college soccer dies SY is still better for the majority which is hard for people to wrap their heads around that Rec kids, bronze, silver, insert level of kids just wanting to have fun. The reality is most kids just want to play with friends and won’t play college soccer either. I think only 3-5% of players play any level of college. And only 3-5% of college kids go pro. So you’re talking very much the minority.

The only argument for BY is because that pathway works better for my kid or even let’s say 5000-10000 academy kids that’s still very much the minority.
California alone probably has 100K rec kids (just a guess).

What do you mean play with their friends? How many of you kids friend play soccer? Competitive soccer at that?

This is a foolish statement. Most times they don’t even play at the same club. Stop with the nonsense

Just because your own reality is different doesn’t make it true. As a teacher and coach for a variety of sports almost 20 years one thing I know as a fact is kids at the entry level want to play with their friends. That’s why kids like playing high school to play with their classmates not for the super intense competition.

Correct. And how often are highschool teams good? Rarely. Because they play at different levels.

It’s a money making scheme to fuel a money making machine. Accept it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Except as already discussed in reality the change only affects 2-3 players per team. ECNL have hinted that they want the decision to be made in time for clubs to prepare for tryouts in the new year so that rosters can be reshuffled as necessary. None of us know yet who is voting in favor of it and who isn't. All we know right now is ECNL has gathered survey responses from clubs who agree will be messy in the short term but better in the long run and ECNL is pushing hard for everyone to change with them.

Dude, do you believe everything you hear?

The better question is why do some here believe nothing that they hear? Everything just keeps being dismissed by the conspiracy theory that there's no change seriously being discussed and it's all made up by crazy parents. Maybe that's true, and maybe our government really is hiding contact with aliens from us, but it's probably a bad bet.

Yes! The fact we are looked at as the crazy ones for listening to someone who knows and is involved in conversations.

You school year deniers can only keep and fingers in your ears going lalalala I can’t hear you for so long before you look like lunatics.

So he is the only one in these conversations? Why hasn’t anyone spoken out about it?

I’m pretty sure the reason he brought it up is because people are emailing the ECNL podcast to get answers. If he wanted ratings like cnn they would just talk about it every week to get listeners as it’s the biggest topic in the youth soccer realm right now.

Also I’m pretty the vice president talked about it in some capacity as well. If your stance is why is no one else talking about it why don’t you email people and ask?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Except as already discussed in reality the change only affects 2-3 players per team. ECNL have hinted that they want the decision to be made in time for clubs to prepare for tryouts in the new year so that rosters can be reshuffled as necessary. None of us know yet who is voting in favor of it and who isn't. All we know right now is ECNL has gathered survey responses from clubs who agree will be messy in the short term but better in the long run and ECNL is pushing hard for everyone to change with them.

Dude, do you believe everything you hear?

The better question is why do some here believe nothing that they hear? Everything just keeps being dismissed by the conspiracy theory that there's no change seriously being discussed and it's all made up by crazy parents. Maybe that's true, and maybe our government really is hiding contact with aliens from us, but it's probably a bad bet.

Yes! The fact we are looked at as the crazy ones for listening to someone who knows and is involved in conversations.

You school year deniers can only keep and fingers in your ears going lalalala I can’t hear you for so long before you look like lunatics.

So he is the only one in these conversations? Why hasn’t anyone spoken out about it?

I’m pretty sure the reason he brought it up is because people are emailing the ECNL podcast to get answers. If he wanted ratings like cnn they would just talk about it every week to get listeners as it’s the biggest topic in the youth soccer realm right now.

Also I’m pretty the vice president talked about it in some capacity as well. If your stance is why is no one else talking about it why don’t you email people and ask?

Or because it doesn’t have enough traction as one may think.

ECNL is not bigger than the rest of soccer. They have the biggest platform, but they are not the spokesman for all leagues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ECNL is trying to align with a dying college sport. They are trying to save college soccer as that is their bread and butter.

NILs will soon ruin college ball and leagues like (GA and MLS NEXT) will be the pathway to YNT, Pro, what’s left of college

That is what ECNL is trying to do with this change.

Even if college soccer dies SY is still better for the majority which is hard for people to wrap their heads around that Rec kids, bronze, silver, insert level of kids just wanting to have fun. The reality is most kids just want to play with friends and won’t play college soccer either. I think only 3-5% of players play any level of college. And only 3-5% of college kids go pro. So you’re talking very much the minority.

The only argument for BY is because that pathway works better for my kid or even let’s say 5000-10000 academy kids that’s still very much the minority.
California alone probably has 100K rec kids (just a guess).

Nobody is making the argument about “what’s better for my kid” except the SY people. They claim every person that argues against the change is a Q1 parent.

The reality is that it just doesn’t matter except at the highest level, where alignment internationally ACTUALLY DOES matter. Then the SY people, the same ones who are obsessed with their kid being given better ECNL opportunities via age-cutoff changes, rush in to say “well ECNL doesn’t really focus on anything but college.” Which is a total load of bull. On the girls side 70%+ of the YNT is ECNL, and even higher % of the pros that were post DA are ECNL. On the boys side, it’s different, but ECNL is definately part of the international vertical.

Nobody cares what Rec does. Rec is community based, it’s run by some leagues, and clubs, but it’s also run by towns, cities and counties. USSF doesn’t force them to adhere to BY because it’s about having fun and being active. BUT! Rec feeds into competitive.

So you get to Challenge or Classic leagues. Some challenge are BY, some are SY. Most Classic leagues are state association led, so they run through USYS and because you have state cups, etc, they need uniformity there. Doesn’t matter if it’s BY or SY thought tbh, but currently they’re BY. Classic is sort of “fun travel.”

Then you get into the NPLs and DPL and the beginning of national leagues. Now in theory, these should be serious competition for kids with big dreams of playing in college and beyond. Used to be the case, no longer is. That said, here is where a serious consideration of International alignment out to be discussed. That said, a lot of these players DO make up the majority of HS teams - so fine, SY makes sense. ECRL is really the tip of the pyramid in this tier.

Then you get to the elite tiers, MLSN, GA and ECNL. These are where the very best kids should be competing. This is where an international alignment ought to mandatory because this small pool of maybe 10k boys and girls out of a 3 million kid pyramid is the feed stock for, now with NIL a reality, professional paid soccer (college is no exception now with NIL and colleges ability to pay athletes).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Except as already discussed in reality the change only affects 2-3 players per team. ECNL have hinted that they want the decision to be made in time for clubs to prepare for tryouts in the new year so that rosters can be reshuffled as necessary. None of us know yet who is voting in favor of it and who isn't. All we know right now is ECNL has gathered survey responses from clubs who agree will be messy in the short term but better in the long run and ECNL is pushing hard for everyone to change with them.

Dude, do you believe everything you hear?

The better question is why do some here believe nothing that they hear? Everything just keeps being dismissed by the conspiracy theory that there's no change seriously being discussed and it's all made up by crazy parents. Maybe that's true, and maybe our government really is hiding contact with aliens from us, but it's probably a bad bet.

Yes! The fact we are looked at as the crazy ones for listening to someone who knows and is involved in conversations.

You school year deniers can only keep and fingers in your ears going lalalala I can’t hear you for so long before you look like lunatics.

So he is the only one in these conversations? Why hasn’t anyone spoken out about it?

I’m pretty sure the reason he brought it up is because people are emailing the ECNL podcast to get answers. If he wanted ratings like cnn they would just talk about it every week to get listeners as it’s the biggest topic in the youth soccer realm right now.

Also I’m pretty the vice president talked about it in some capacity as well. If your stance is why is no one else talking about it why don’t you email people and ask?

He brought it up because he has a trapped kid that is not a baller!

He is the guy who buys a red car, then notices all the other red cars, and now thinks red cars are a big deal. He is the engine of the discussion, not the messenger.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ECNL is trying to align with a dying college sport. They are trying to save college soccer as that is their bread and butter.

NILs will soon ruin college ball and leagues like (GA and MLS NEXT) will be the pathway to YNT, Pro, what’s left of college

That is what ECNL is trying to do with this change.

Even if college soccer dies SY is still better for the majority which is hard for people to wrap their heads around that Rec kids, bronze, silver, insert level of kids just wanting to have fun. The reality is most kids just want to play with friends and won’t play college soccer either. I think only 3-5% of players play any level of college. And only 3-5% of college kids go pro. So you’re talking very much the minority.

The only argument for BY is because that pathway works better for my kid or even let’s say 5000-10000 academy kids that’s still very much the minority.
California alone probably has 100K rec kids (just a guess).

What do you mean play with their friends? How many of you kids friend play soccer? Competitive soccer at that?

This is a foolish statement. Most times they don’t even play at the same club. Stop with the nonsense

Just because your own reality is different doesn’t make it true. As a teacher and coach for a variety of sports almost 20 years one thing I know as a fact is kids at the entry level want to play with their friends. That’s why kids like playing high school to play with their classmates not for the super intense competition.

Correct. And how often are highschool teams good? Rarely. Because they play at different levels.

It’s a money making scheme to fuel a money making machine. Accept it

Nobody is talking about HS soccer!

HS soccer doesn’t even go by BY, SY or GY - it goes by enrollment. “Are you in the school? Great! Tryout!” 😂

This is about ECNL. It’s not “play with your friends” soccer. And it’s not “kids drop out before 14” soccer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ECNL is trying to align with a dying college sport. They are trying to save college soccer as that is their bread and butter.

NILs will soon ruin college ball and leagues like (GA and MLS NEXT) will be the pathway to YNT, Pro, what’s left of college

That is what ECNL is trying to do with this change.

Even if college soccer dies SY is still better for the majority which is hard for people to wrap their heads around that Rec kids, bronze, silver, insert level of kids just wanting to have fun. The reality is most kids just want to play with friends and won’t play college soccer either. I think only 3-5% of players play any level of college. And only 3-5% of college kids go pro. So you’re talking very much the minority.

The only argument for BY is because that pathway works better for my kid or even let’s say 5000-10000 academy kids that’s still very much the minority.
California alone probably has 100K rec kids (just a guess).

What do you mean play with their friends? How many of you kids friend play soccer? Competitive soccer at that?

This is a foolish statement. Most times they don’t even play at the same club. Stop with the nonsense

Just because your own reality is different doesn’t make it true. As a teacher and coach for a variety of sports almost 20 years one thing I know as a fact is kids at the entry level want to play with their friends. That’s why kids like playing high school to play with their classmates not for the super intense competition.

Correct. And how often are highschool teams good? Rarely. Because they play at different levels.

It’s a money making scheme to fuel a money making machine. Accept it

Nobody is talking about HS soccer!

HS soccer doesn’t even go by BY, SY or GY - it goes by enrollment. “Are you in the school? Great! Tryout!” 😂

This is about ECNL. It’s not “play with your friends” soccer. And it’s not “kids drop out before 14” soccer.

?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ECNL is trying to align with a dying college sport. They are trying to save college soccer as that is their bread and butter.

NILs will soon ruin college ball and leagues like (GA and MLS NEXT) will be the pathway to YNT, Pro, what’s left of college

That is what ECNL is trying to do with this change.

Even if college soccer dies SY is still better for the majority which is hard for people to wrap their heads around that Rec kids, bronze, silver, insert level of kids just wanting to have fun. The reality is most kids just want to play with friends and won’t play college soccer either. I think only 3-5% of players play any level of college. And only 3-5% of college kids go pro. So you’re talking very much the minority.

The only argument for BY is because that pathway works better for my kid or even let’s say 5000-10000 academy kids that’s still very much the minority.
California alone probably has 100K rec kids (just a guess).

What do you mean play with their friends? How many of you kids friend play soccer? Competitive soccer at that?

This is a foolish statement. Most times they don’t even play at the same club. Stop with the nonsense

Just because your own reality is different doesn’t make it true. As a teacher and coach for a variety of sports almost 20 years one thing I know as a fact is kids at the entry level want to play with their friends. That’s why kids like playing high school to play with their classmates not for the super intense competition.

Correct. And how often are highschool teams good? Rarely. Because they play at different levels.

It’s a money making scheme to fuel a money making machine. Accept it

Nobody is talking about HS soccer!

HS soccer doesn’t even go by BY, SY or GY - it goes by enrollment. “Are you in the school? Great! Tryout!” 😂

This is about ECNL. It’s not “play with your friends” soccer. And it’s not “kids drop out before 14” soccer.

If ECNL wants to make a change, I can almost guarantee you it’s not for the kids. It’s for $$$

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What people are not getting is that this change would be a big deal. Even if there is preliminary approval in November (which I doubt) there would need to be six months of more of work to plan for it. Rules, faqs, process, directions to the clubs. That would be a six to nine month process. Then there would be final appoval. So even fast tracked it will not be in place for next year. This is not a rando soccer club that can just change everything on the fly. This (both ECNL asnd its governing boards) is a corporate entity that follows process and procedures. This is a long way from done.

I doubt it will ever get done as the votes are not there. Could ECNL something on its own? Sure but they will not. They need to act as mostly one or the next time they want something they will not get it.

As has been previously pointed out, AYSO just moved from SY to BY a couple of years ago. The idea that USYS would get on board when one of its biggest members was dragged across the finish line recently by USYS to comply with USSF and FIFA only to be totally undermined by USYS to help out ECNL (not apples to apples competitor to AYSO, but a competitor league none the less) is a bit fantastical of a proposition.

I can see the argument for mid and low tier competitive soccer and rec soccer to by SY. I have a hard time seeing the logic as one climbs the pyramid into pools that should be feeding YNTs, College and Pro ranks - those are the tiers that most need alignment to international standard and benchmarking.

USSF has not enforced its 2016 shift to BY for many rec programs for just that reason. But what a mess it would create it MLSN and GA were BY and ECNL SY for evaluating results and data when looking at pools for college, pools for YNG, pools for pros. I can’t believe USSF would allow that - it’s bad for the overall game and it’s bad for our ability to compete at the very highest levels.

It sounds like the majority of soccer people understand this would really make things messy but believe SY is better for the MAJORITY of youth players. And changing is worth a one time disruption to get this right.

The primary focus should not be what’s best for the national team pool. As they are very much the minority of overall soccer players.

But I actually don’t think it’s a bad thing and MLSN and GA SHOULD be allowed to stay birth year. Having a one size fits all for so many kids I don’t think is the right approach either.

You understand the soccer pyramid right? You get how it is supposed to function right?

The pyramid is meant to show people what the highest leagues and levels of play in the US are. Look at your precious pyramid the largest sections towards the bottom and make up the vast majority. Maybe you should double check who that is.

Oh. So it’s just a graphic…my bad….

Here I thought it was how our leagues and tiers build on each other with the foundation being grassroots, which creates the entry point for all of soccer. My mistake. I guess the FA’s pyramid is just a graphic too. I wonder why all the US Soccer hatters point to Europe as the model then if they’re just doing graphics instead of foundational funnels too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ECNL is trying to align with a dying college sport. They are trying to save college soccer as that is their bread and butter.

NILs will soon ruin college ball and leagues like (GA and MLS NEXT) will be the pathway to YNT, Pro, what’s left of college

That is what ECNL is trying to do with this change.

Even if college soccer dies SY is still better for the majority which is hard for people to wrap their heads around that Rec kids, bronze, silver, insert level of kids just wanting to have fun. The reality is most kids just want to play with friends and won’t play college soccer either. I think only 3-5% of players play any level of college. And only 3-5% of college kids go pro. So you’re talking very much the minority.

The only argument for BY is because that pathway works better for my kid or even let’s say 5000-10000 academy kids that’s still very much the minority.
California alone probably has 100K rec kids (just a guess).

What do you mean play with their friends? How many of you kids friend play soccer? Competitive soccer at that?

This is a foolish statement. Most times they don’t even play at the same club. Stop with the nonsense

Reread the statement with less of a 1980s Russian planner's view of trying to create 10 gymnasts for the Olympics and you will have clarity. Also note the given the choice of hanging with friends or bullies or Randos, kids pick friends all else equal. They are just bizarre like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What people are not getting is that this change would be a big deal. Even if there is preliminary approval in November (which I doubt) there would need to be six months of more of work to plan for it. Rules, faqs, process, directions to the clubs. That would be a six to nine month process. Then there would be final appoval. So even fast tracked it will not be in place for next year. This is not a rando soccer club that can just change everything on the fly. This (both ECNL asnd its governing boards) is a corporate entity that follows process and procedures. This is a long way from done.

I doubt it will ever get done as the votes are not there. Could ECNL something on its own? Sure but they will not. They need to act as mostly one or the next time they want something they will not get it.

As has been previously pointed out, AYSO just moved from SY to BY a couple of years ago. The idea that USYS would get on board when one of its biggest members was dragged across the finish line recently by USYS to comply with USSF and FIFA only to be totally undermined by USYS to help out ECNL (not apples to apples competitor to AYSO, but a competitor league none the less) is a bit fantastical of a proposition.

I can see the argument for mid and low tier competitive soccer and rec soccer to by SY. I have a hard time seeing the logic as one climbs the pyramid into pools that should be feeding YNTs, College and Pro ranks - those are the tiers that most need alignment to international standard and benchmarking.

USSF has not enforced its 2016 shift to BY for many rec programs for just that reason. But what a mess it would create it MLSN and GA were BY and ECNL SY for evaluating results and data when looking at pools for college, pools for YNG, pools for pros. I can’t believe USSF would allow that - it’s bad for the overall game and it’s bad for our ability to compete at the very highest levels.

It sounds like the majority of soccer people understand this would really make things messy but believe SY is better for the MAJORITY of youth players. And changing is worth a one time disruption to get this right.

The primary focus should not be what’s best for the national team pool. As they are very much the minority of overall soccer players.

But I actually don’t think it’s a bad thing and MLSN and GA SHOULD be allowed to stay birth year. Having a one size fits all for so many kids I don’t think is the right approach either.

You understand the soccer pyramid right? You get how it is supposed to function right?

The pyramid is meant to show people what the highest leagues and levels of play in the US are. Look at your precious pyramid the largest sections towards the bottom and make up the vast majority. Maybe you should double check who that is.

Oh. So it’s just a graphic…my bad….

Here I thought it was how our leagues and tiers build on each other with the foundation being grassroots, which creates the entry point for all of soccer. My mistake. I guess the FA’s pyramid is just a graphic too. I wonder why all the US Soccer hatters point to Europe as the model then if they’re just doing graphics instead of foundational funnels too.

When you have enclosed leagues that won’t allow certain clubs into the mix… that is probably one of the bigger issues

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ECNL is trying to align with a dying college sport. They are trying to save college soccer as that is their bread and butter.

NILs will soon ruin college ball and leagues like (GA and MLS NEXT) will be the pathway to YNT, Pro, what’s left of college

That is what ECNL is trying to do with this change.

Even if college soccer dies SY is still better for the majority which is hard for people to wrap their heads around that Rec kids, bronze, silver, insert level of kids just wanting to have fun. The reality is most kids just want to play with friends and won’t play college soccer either. I think only 3-5% of players play any level of college. And only 3-5% of college kids go pro. So you’re talking very much the minority.

The only argument for BY is because that pathway works better for my kid or even let’s say 5000-10000 academy kids that’s still very much the minority.
California alone probably has 100K rec kids (just a guess).

What do you mean play with their friends? How many of you kids friend play soccer? Competitive soccer at that?

This is a foolish statement. Most times they don’t even play at the same club. Stop with the nonsense

Just because your own reality is different doesn’t make it true. As a teacher and coach for a variety of sports almost 20 years one thing I know as a fact is kids at the entry level want to play with their friends. That’s why kids like playing high school to play with their classmates not for the super intense competition.

Correct. And how often are highschool teams good? Rarely. Because they play at different levels.

It’s a money making scheme to fuel a money making machine. Accept it

Nobody is talking about HS soccer!

HS soccer doesn’t even go by BY, SY or GY - it goes by enrollment. “Are you in the school? Great! Tryout!” 😂

This is about ECNL. It’s not “play with your friends” soccer. And it’s not “kids drop out before 14” soccer.

If ECNL wants to make a change, I can almost guarantee you it’s not for the kids. It’s for $$$

Egh, maybe. Or it could be emotional individuals at the controls are making emotional decisions because of their resentments and contempt for the outcomes they’ve experienced and are validating their emotional opinions by wrapping them in altruism.

You very well could be right, and ECNL has a grand scheme to make money.

But in my experience, when businesses pivot on a product that is working fine as it is, and introduce chaos with assumptions like “short term pain for long term gain” - it’s seldom turns out the way they expected, and I can honestly say I’ve never seen a product survive it. Introducing chaos is never good when things are working fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ECNL is trying to align with a dying college sport. They are trying to save college soccer as that is their bread and butter.

NILs will soon ruin college ball and leagues like (GA and MLS NEXT) will be the pathway to YNT, Pro, what’s left of college

That is what ECNL is trying to do with this change.

Even if college soccer dies SY is still better for the majority which is hard for people to wrap their heads around that Rec kids, bronze, silver, insert level of kids just wanting to have fun. The reality is most kids just want to play with friends and won’t play college soccer either. I think only 3-5% of players play any level of college. And only 3-5% of college kids go pro. So you’re talking very much the minority.

The only argument for BY is because that pathway works better for my kid or even let’s say 5000-10000 academy kids that’s still very much the minority.
California alone probably has 100K rec kids (just a guess).

Nobody is making the argument about “what’s better for my kid” except the SY people. They claim every person that argues against the change is a Q1 parent.

The reality is that it just doesn’t matter except at the highest level, where alignment internationally ACTUALLY DOES matter. Then the SY people, the same ones who are obsessed with their kid being given better ECNL opportunities via age-cutoff changes, rush in to say “well ECNL doesn’t really focus on anything but college.” Which is a total load of bull. On the girls side 70%+ of the YNT is ECNL, and even higher % of the pros that were post DA are ECNL. On the boys side, it’s different, but ECNL is definately part of the international vertical.

Nobody cares what Rec does. Rec is community based, it’s run by some leagues, and clubs, but it’s also run by towns, cities and counties. USSF doesn’t force them to adhere to BY because it’s about having fun and being active. BUT! Rec feeds into competitive.

So you get to Challenge or Classic leagues. Some challenge are BY, some are SY. Most Classic leagues are state association led, so they run through USYS and because you have state cups, etc, they need uniformity there. Doesn’t matter if it’s BY or SY thought tbh, but currently they’re BY. Classic is sort of “fun travel.”

Then you get into the NPLs and DPL and the beginning of national leagues. Now in theory, these should be serious competition for kids with big dreams of playing in college and beyond. Used to be the case, no longer is. That said, here is where a serious consideration of International alignment out to be discussed. That said, a lot of these players DO make up the majority of HS teams - so fine, SY makes sense. ECRL is really the tip of the pyramid in this tier.

Then you get to the elite tiers, MLSN, GA and ECNL. These are where the very best kids should be competing. This is where an international alignment ought to mandatory because this small pool of maybe 10k boys and girls out of a 3 million kid pyramid is the feed stock for, now with NIL a reality, professional paid soccer (college is no exception now with NIL and colleges ability to pay athletes).

If the lowest levels are SY, and the highest levels are BY, shouldn't the leagues get to decide for themselves which side of that divide they are on in the pyramid? MLSN, GA, and ECNL should decide for themselves. USSF should make its recommendations and issue guidelines with factors to consider, and then leave it to the leagues to run themselves. That's essentially how the USSF bylaws and policies read. Members must follow bylaws and policies. Player development initiatives are recommendations from the technical committee.