ECNL moving to school year part 2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dear Families,

We want to educate you and update you on the important change taking place next year across most if not all of soccer in the US at the club, league, and team level: the shift from birth year to school year for team formation, in alignment with the latest directive from US Soccer.

What’s Changing?

Going forward, “school year” will be defined as August 1 to July 31, and teams will be formed based on this calendar rather than by birth year.

Who Will This Affect?
We will adopt this new format for all teams in the club competing in:

SoCal League
GA and GA Aspire
Anticipated: MLS NEXT and Elite Academy (EA) with information coming out soon.

While we await final confirmation from MLS NEXT, early indications suggest that MLS NEXT HD may stay Birth Year and MLS NEXT AD will move to school year along with EA.

This would then mean that all teams in the club across all leagues will follow the school-year model with MLS NEXT HD being maybe the only one staying birth year.

How Are We Preparing?
Our club has already conducted a full review of current rosters to assess the teams. The majority of teams will remain largely intact. However, many players will shift down an age group based on the new cutoff. In most cases, this will strengthen our teams due to the high level of depth and competition within each age group.

Please note that every team and every player is evaluated individually as we go through this process.

As with previous transitions, such as when US Soccer last shifted from school year to birth year, teams emerged stronger — a testament to our deep and talented player pool. We fully expect similar positive results this time around.

Next Steps
We will begin setting up school-year age group training sessions in November, as the SoCal season concludes. This will allow us to assess players in their new groupings and begin planning for the 2026–2027 season.

We’re committed to making this transition as smooth and organized as possible.

A hot mess if next 1 and 2 are different. Too confusing for forming teams and player mobility. Unnecessary as well. I’m hearing all p2p for next going SY. Hopefully they announce soon so families can decide if they want to try out in Nov/dec for a new club for the Spring season. No sense being stuck in a lame duck spring with a club/team that is going to add a bolts of uncertainty with multiple age cutoffs for the top 2 teams.

Every spring team is a lame duck, every year.

Not at all. Spring season is motivating to help solidify next season placement. But if MLsN clubs are going to throw in extra uncertainty, subjectivity, and confusion in a process that is already overloaded with it, then we’ll explore ECNL clubs.

Nobody cares

[Anonymous]

https://playclubsoccer.org/blog/youth-soccer-age-group-change-2026

Link is 2 months old but states none of MLS Next is changing.

I think it is obvious MLS Next absolutely does not want to change. But as it gets closer to the age switch, they are most likely getting a lot of pushback from club directors who don't want to deal with the logistical nightmare it would be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://playclubsoccer.org/blog/youth-soccer-age-group-change-2026

Link is 2 months old but states none of MLS Next is changing.

I think it is obvious MLS Next absolutely does not want to change. But as it gets closer to the age switch, they are most likely getting a lot of pushback from club directors who don't want to deal with the logistical nightmare it would be.

My daughter’s club director said MLSN had a meeting with director a few weeks ago. As of then they were still staying BY but mentioned many directors spoke out against staying and it is still under review. Said it will be a mess dealing with boys staying BY.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://playclubsoccer.org/blog/youth-soccer-age-group-change-2026

Link is 2 months old but states none of MLS Next is changing.

I think it is obvious MLS Next absolutely does not want to change. But as it gets closer to the age switch, they are most likely getting a lot of pushback from club directors who don't want to deal with the logistical nightmare it would be.

My daughter’s club director said MLSN had a meeting with director a few weeks ago. As of then they were still staying BY but mentioned many directors spoke out against staying and it is still under review. Said it will be a mess dealing with boys staying BY.

On the younger teams with SY 8/1-7/31 it makes the oldest players 8 months younger than the BY 1/1. But Aug, Sept, Oct etc might be playing on a team thats an entire grade younger.

On the older teams with SY 8/1-7/31 only the younger side of the team would be eligible to play on a BY 1/1 team.

Add in that Aug etc birthdays might be playing down a grade and it would not work. MLS Next is looking for players that can play up. SY is incentivizing situations where players play down. The groupings aren't compatible. If MLS stays BY it will just marginalize ECNL even more than is already occurring. Even scrimmages between MLS and ECNL won't be helpful because MLS coaches wont know what age and grade ECNL players are playing at.

[Anonymous]

The AD teams are changing.

No one wants to deal with skipping high school ball, continuation of trapped player BS Skipping u12, mis alignment in local tounaments, getting killed by ECNL/US Club eco system teams who will now be comprised of older kids.....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The AD teams are changing.

No one wants to deal with skipping high school ball, continuation of trapped player BS Skipping u12, mis alignment in local tounaments, getting killed by ECNL/US Club eco system teams who will now be comprised of older kids.....

No, what will happen is MLS teams wont participate in ECNL tournaments. I dont know if ECNL will participate in MLS tournamants. Cross league play would stop because one league or the other would be at a disadvantage depending on who is hosting the tournament.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The AD teams are changing.

No one wants to deal with skipping high school ball, continuation of trapped player BS Skipping u12, mis alignment in local tounaments, getting killed by ECNL/US Club eco system teams who will now be comprised of older kids.....

No, what will happen is MLS teams wont participate in ECNL tournaments. I dont know if ECNL will participate in MLS tournamants. Cross league play would stop because one league or the other would be at a disadvantage depending on who is hosting the tournament.

You realize 98% of tounaments are sanctioned by USYS or US club right? None of these will be using BY.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The AD teams are changing.

No one wants to deal with skipping high school ball, continuation of trapped player BS Skipping u12, mis alignment in local tounaments, getting killed by ECNL/US Club eco system teams who will now be comprised of older kids.....

No, what will happen is MLS teams wont participate in ECNL tournaments. I dont know if ECNL will participate in MLS tournamants. Cross league play would stop because one league or the other would be at a disadvantage depending on who is hosting the tournament.

Good teams can play up at tournaments just like they do now or they will bring down some better Aug-Dec players from age group above for tournaments.

Not saying this is the best idea but if they dig their heels in they can make it work. Who knows maybe they will just add additional showcases and cut out other tournaments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The AD teams are changing.

No one wants to deal with skipping high school ball, continuation of trapped player BS Skipping u12, mis alignment in local tounaments, getting killed by ECNL/US Club eco system teams who will now be comprised of older kids.....

No, what will happen is MLS teams wont participate in ECNL tournaments. I dont know if ECNL will participate in MLS tournamants. Cross league play would stop because one league or the other would be at a disadvantage depending on who is hosting the tournament.

You realize 98% of tounaments are sanctioned by USYS or US club right? None of these will be using BY.

MLS2 clubs will start hosting their own BY tournaments. I also believe that eventually MLS will allow MLS2 players to play HS soccer. Once these happen boys ECNL will be cooked. (more than it already is)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The AD teams are changing.

No one wants to deal with skipping high school ball, continuation of trapped player BS Skipping u12, mis alignment in local tounaments, getting killed by ECNL/US Club eco system teams who will now be comprised of older kids.....

No, what will happen is MLS teams wont participate in ECNL tournaments. I dont know if ECNL will participate in MLS tournamants. Cross league play would stop because one league or the other would be at a disadvantage depending on who is hosting the tournament.

You realize 98% of tounaments are sanctioned by USYS or US club right? None of these will be using BY.

MLS2 clubs will start hosting their own BY tournaments. I also believe that eventually MLS will allow MLS2 players to play HS soccer. Once these happen boys ECNL will be cooked. (more than it already is)

Its never going to be profitable without the girls side..... MLSN eco system doesnt have any..... GAME OVER.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The AD teams are changing.

No one wants to deal with skipping high school ball, continuation of trapped player BS Skipping u12, mis alignment in local tounaments, getting killed by ECNL/US Club eco system teams who will now be comprised of older kids.....

No, what will happen is MLS teams wont participate in ECNL tournaments. I dont know if ECNL will participate in MLS tournamants. Cross league play would stop because one league or the other would be at a disadvantage depending on who is hosting the tournament.

Good teams can play up at tournaments just like they do now or they will bring down some better Aug-Dec players from age group above for tournaments.

Not saying this is the best idea but if they dig their heels in they can make it work. Who knows maybe they will just add additional showcases and cut out other tournaments.

Tournaments are the least concerning thing about this to club directors. That’s very easy to navigate. The rest of it presents issues. They can definitely dig in their heels. Maybe it pays off big time, maybe it’s the beginning of the end.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The AD teams are changing.

No one wants to deal with skipping high school ball, continuation of trapped player BS Skipping u12, mis alignment in local tounaments, getting killed by ECNL/US Club eco system teams who will now be comprised of older kids.....

No, what will happen is MLS teams wont participate in ECNL tournaments. I dont know if ECNL will participate in MLS tournamants. Cross league play would stop because one league or the other would be at a disadvantage depending on who is hosting the tournament.

You realize 98% of tounaments are sanctioned by USYS or US club right? None of these will be using BY.

MLS2 clubs will start hosting their own BY tournaments. I also believe that eventually MLS will allow MLS2 players to play HS soccer. Once these happen boys ECNL will be cooked. (more than it already is)

Its never going to be profitable without the girls side..... MLSN eco system doesnt have any..... GAME OVER.

No, GA is still their partner. The question/experiment we may see is whether you can have the top of the pyramid a different Age Group. I'm mean, all the Youth National Teams (and ODP -- although it's not what it was) will also remain BY.

[Anonymous]

ok..... same mentaly ill poster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The AD teams are changing.

No one wants to deal with skipping high school ball, continuation of trapped player BS Skipping u12, mis alignment in local tounaments, getting killed by ECNL/US Club eco system teams who will now be comprised of older kids.....

No, what will happen is MLS teams wont participate in ECNL tournaments. I dont know if ECNL will participate in MLS tournamants. Cross league play would stop because one league or the other would be at a disadvantage depending on who is hosting the tournament.

You realize 98% of tounaments are sanctioned by USYS or US club right? None of these will be using BY.

MLS2 clubs will start hosting their own BY tournaments. I also believe that eventually MLS will allow MLS2 players to play HS soccer. Once these happen boys ECNL will be cooked. (more than it already is)

Its never going to be profitable without the girls side..... MLSN eco system doesnt have any..... GAME OVER.

No, GA is still their partner. The question/experiment we may see is whether you can have the top of the pyramid a different Age Group. I'm mean, all the Youth National Teams (and ODP -- although it's not what it was) will also remain BY.

Thought ODP was both, 6 months groupings.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, but I am not familiar with all the MLS Next Divisions. Is MLS Next HD their original MLS next 1 and is MLS AD their MLS Next 2? If so does that mean 1 would be Birth year and 2 would be SY? If that is right than it would be extremely confusing correct?