ECNL moving to school year not calendar

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't see how this can happen when school cuttoff dates are all over the place. Some states/counties it is December, others August.

It will stay birth year.

You know that was the case prior to the change 10 years ago. It worked for decades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't see how this can happen when school cuttoff dates are all over the place. Some states/counties it is December, others August.

It will stay birth year.

They actually don't seem that all over the place. A breakdown of school cutoffs by state:
https://nces.ed.gov/programs/statereform/tab1_3-2020.asp

The vast majority is 9/1. If you allowed 8/1-10/1 to go along with school year, you'd cover almost every state. Extend that to 10/15 and you have Maine. If you live in Connecticut, you're the outlier at 1/1 and probably the only state loving the current system.

[Anonymous]

If the goal is to get the most possible kids playing with class, minimize the chance of egregious cases of redshirting, and prevent the organizational need for verifying school registration, 8/1 seems to be the easy answer. Then just recommend to clubs that they ask kids with birthdays between 8/1-10/15 which class they are in, and try to play them up if necessary to keep them with class. Clubs will of course be tempted to play those kids down for competitive advantage, but then any issues created when those (very few) players play out of class are the club's own fault. And good kids won't want to play down out of class for social reasons and recruiting reasons in HS. So the problem pretty much solves itself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If the goal is to get the most possible kids playing with class, minimize the chance of egregious cases of redshirting, and prevent the organizational need for verifying school registration, 8/1 seems to be the easy answer. Then just recommend to clubs that they ask kids with birthdays between 8/1-10/15 which class they are in, and try to play them up if necessary to keep them with class. Clubs will of course be tempted to play those kids down for competitive advantage, but then any issues created when those (very few) players play out of class are the club's own fault. And good kids won't want to play down out of class for social reasons and recruiting reasons in HS. So the problem pretty much solves itself.

What does school class have to do with club soccer?

Soccer is based on your individual level of skills, talent, potential and physical/mental capabilities.

College scouts only care about when you're graduating and if you fit the needs of their program.
They don't need to know when everyone is graduating, just the couple players they're interested in.

[Anonymous]

People in the know are now telling me 100% for 2025.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the goal is to get the most possible kids playing with class, minimize the chance of egregious cases of redshirting, and prevent the organizational need for verifying school registration, 8/1 seems to be the easy answer. Then just recommend to clubs that they ask kids with birthdays between 8/1-10/15 which class they are in, and try to play them up if necessary to keep them with class. Clubs will of course be tempted to play those kids down for competitive advantage, but then any issues created when those (very few) players play out of class are the club's own fault. And good kids won't want to play down out of class for social reasons and recruiting reasons in HS. So the problem pretty much solves itself.

What does school class have to do with club soccer?

Soccer is based on your individual level of skills, talent, potential and physical/mental capabilities.

College scouts only care about when you're graduating and if you fit the needs of their program.
They don't need to know when everyone is graduating, just the couple players they're interested in.

There are 24 pages of discussion before this about the various reasons the organizations in charge may be interested in aligning club soccer levels with class year. Debating the new cutoff was just assuming the outcome of the discussion inside the organizations in charge could be "let's change it."

[Anonymous]

Turning into a fringe group league

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People in the know are now telling me 100% for 2025.

US soccer or ECNL?

[Anonymous]

Wouldn’t it have to be announced soon for 2025 if it was going to happen?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn’t it have to be announced soon for 2025 if it was going to happen?

I heard through the rumor mill (read: not necessarily reliable) that if it were to be changed for Fall 2025 expect the announcement sometime before Thanksgiving. After that and it becomes very unlikely to happen next Fall.

[Anonymous]

Well let's get on with it then.

It will be a very good change, remove the stupid trapped player issue for 25% of players in the country, and help the college coaches who could care less about what year a kid was born and only care about what year a kid graduates.

Many kids playing high level soccer want to play soccer in college. Current system is a deterent for that for reasons that are fixable.

Almost ironic that it took a decision maker's own personal situation with his kid to recognize the mess created 9 years ago--but suppose better late than never.

No downside for kids born 1/1-9/1 other than they now need to compete with their classmates, who they will graduate with. And only upside for those who have been screwed out of 2 soccer seasons of their career (8th/12th).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well let's get on with it then.

It will be a very good change, remove the stupid trapped player issue for 25% of players in the country, and help the college coaches who could care less about what year a kid was born and only care about what year a kid graduates.

Many kids playing high level soccer want to play soccer in college. Current system is a deterent for that for reasons that are fixable.

Almost ironic that it took a decision maker's own personal situation with his kid to recognize the mess created 9 years ago--but suppose better late than never.

No downside for kids born 1/1-9/1 other than they now need to compete with their classmates, who they will graduate with. And only upside for those who have been screwed out of 2 soccer seasons of their career (8th/12th).

There absolutely is a downside for kids 1/1 to 9/1, as it shifts the RAE window. Just as the existing birth year has a downside for 9/1-12/31 kids because of RAE.

What moving to school year does is allows for trapped kids (orphaned from their teams) in 8th grade and 12th grade to “play with their classmates.”

It also misaligns the ECNL teams with pretty much all leagues and sanctioned bodies outside of ECNL, including national teams and international play.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well let's get on with it then.

It will be a very good change, remove the stupid trapped player issue for 25% of players in the country, and help the college coaches who could care less about what year a kid was born and only care about what year a kid graduates.

Many kids playing high level soccer want to play soccer in college. Current system is a deterent for that for reasons that are fixable.

Almost ironic that it took a decision maker's own personal situation with his kid to recognize the mess created 9 years ago--but suppose better late than never.

No downside for kids born 1/1-9/1 other than they now need to compete with their classmates, who they will graduate with. And only upside for those who have been screwed out of 2 soccer seasons of their career (8th/12th).

There absolutely is a downside for kids 1/1 to 9/1, as it shifts the RAE window. Just as the existing birth year has a downside for 9/1-12/31 kids because of RAE.

What moving to school year does is allows for trapped kids (orphaned from their teams) in 8th grade and 12th grade to “play with their classmates.”

It also misaligns the ECNL teams with pretty much all leagues and sanctioned bodies outside of ECNL, including national teams and international play.

No matter where you draw the line RAE will be present. But it makes more sense to keep kids together with classmates. Also this change if it does happen would not affect national teams as that would still be based on birth year. If anything going by grade year allows for more development for all kids rather than just the first half of the year.

Aug to Dec would get more comp soccer opportunities but Jan to July kids still have the age advantage for ODP and national teams.

[Anonymous]

It doesn’t make sense because of redshirting. Which is why they moved to birth year in the first place.

[Anonymous]

so much incorrect with such a short statement.

Anonymous wrote:It doesn’t make sense because of redshirting. Which is why they moved to birth year in the first place.