ECNL moving to school year not calendar

[Anonymous]

Arlington released the following along with a detailed statement from US Soccer :

There will be no registration change for the 2025-26 season.
Members and leagues will have reasonable flexibility to choose between birth year or school year for the 2026-27 season.
U.S. Soccer will formally approve the implementation process in the coming weeks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what happens next? How do teams begin to prepare for SY next fall?

Our ECNL/RL 2012 and 2011 teams have started practicing together over the last couple of weeks. Our winter scrimmages are set up the same way. I expect offers will be based on SY/GY come spring.

ECNL Director at our club in California thinks ECNL will be playing SY for fall. NPL leagues will also start forming based off SY and US Club will recommend they play up for 25/26.

[Anonymous]

https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:va6c2:e457c30c-587e-4982-9555-342106eec0f7

[Anonymous]

We’ll quickly reach 400 pages if ECNL announce that they are starting registration changes sooner than Fall 26. Totally possible that they change their rules and produce waivers for trapped players.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Im confused, why are SY people happy? Change was supposed to be a done deal for 25.

There is zero actual change set up. They just want to cling to anything that will give their kid a possible advantage because they aren't good enough for their birth year to be competitive/recruited.

My kid is plenty good enough and already plays up year so he’s 11 playing 13 some close to being 14. This will be a windfall for him and plenty others I am sure.

What funny is reading all the bluster/excitement about having their kids play down to "destroy" the competition. Like that helps any development. Many I know actually are scrambling to stay on their current teams, because they think that's how they keep their edge and perhaps get ahead. This is needed, I guess, because soccer culture is all about playing up, and if you're not, you're probably really not going places.

You must be playing rec ball in the boonies. Here in soccer land, where there's fierce competition, and every player is headed to college, its a game of inches and exposure that you have no clue about. We're all on great teams, we're all getting plenty of time. Your concerns aren't our concerns, so please stop assuming you have any idea what elite soccer is about or what this forum is about. Go back to slicing oranges for halftime and ranting under your breathe about how development is all that matters for little Suzy. You have silly local concerns and probably shouldn't even be here. Go away and let the rest of us with national and international concerns have a grown up conversation.

All great teams? ... Hahahahahha ... IF that were true, then you wouldn't have tons of teams at the bottom of their tables that get squashed year-in and year-out. Our local longtime ECNL clubs likes to tout it's college recruitments all the time -- except they aren't D1 very often. At least USYS has relegation in its National League where your team needs to win for several years just to get to the top -- although hype machines say they possibly can't be as good.

[Anonymous]

The official statement is above. No changes until 26-27. Detailed info.

[Anonymous]

The big question is whether MLSan makes the move. TBD, but not sure that is happening(unlike ECNL).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The official statement is above. No changes until 26-27. Detailed info.

If you read the fine print on page two it’s a recommendation that teams do not change until Fall 26.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Actually, those 10% moving "down" are more of boon for the younger players to help them develop and improve. In a way, those 10% clawed, scratched and survived all these years to only get relegated to less competition. Sure they got screwed by the trap year BUT now there getting screwed by their own elite leagues who for their own selfish reasons want them on younger teams now. But hey, they'll score some goals!

Man! Is common sense really that uncommon?? C'mon, work those mental muscles.....I know you can get there if you try hard enough. You only think they are going to be playing down because of the BY lie you've been living. In the real world there is no actual advantage to being born in Q1. We artificially made it a special quarter to be born. It correlates to nothing until you get up to international competition. In every normal sense the advantage should go to September babies. There is no 'playing down', you're now going to get a front row seat to what the other kids in 6th grade are capable of. It has nothing to do with scoring goals. You're going to compete for high school roster spots with other 9th graders. You're going to compete for scholarships with other 11th graders. When you're in 11th grade, are you competing for scholarships with 10th graders?? When you try out for the 9th grade team are you competing against 8th graders?? So it what universe does it make sense to keep playing down. Your kid is playing down now and its a lie.

See you in the fall. lol.

[Anonymous]

There will be changes to teams in 2025. Subtle changes, but there will be some.

Clubs will begin to gauge how many trap players they have on each team and will limit how many are on each team.

Cant have 5 move down to your team and then you only pass off 1 to the next.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The official statement is above. No changes until 26-27. Detailed info.

If you read the fine print on page two it’s a recommendation that teams do not change until Fall 26.

If by fine print you mean literally the FIRST sentence on the page, then yes, it's the fine print. "U.S. Soccer’s Board of Directors and staff reviewed these insights and have RECOMMENDED the
following next steps...".

The BY/SY debate is over. SY wins it. Full stop. The consolation debate for BYers is now whether SY is happening in 25 or in 26, thus all the BY trolls on here interpreting the "recommendation" as edict. Not to muddy things with economic theory ... but the recommendation to wait until 26 is only as strong as the first league to break away from it to gain first-mover advantage. The national soccer scene is the classic definition of an oligopoly. Look up what oligopoly's do in ANY market sector - they follow and mimic one another until the new equilibrium is reached. That new equilibrium is SY.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

All great teams? ... Hahahahahha ... IF that were true, then you wouldn't have tons of teams at the bottom of their tables that get squashed year-in and year-out. Our local longtime ECNL clubs likes to tout it's college recruitments all the time -- except they aren't D1 very often. At least USYS has relegation in its National League where your team needs to win for several years just to get to the top -- although hype machines say they possibly can't be as good.

Then you don't live or compete where we do. ECNL is expanding too fast and that has consquences. The lower level clubs lie about all sorts of stats. Even the D1 players that were 'recruited' aren't actually playing for the team. Trust me I know. But I'll say it again, that isn't the world Im personally concerned with. There are levels and levels to this game. If you're worried about playing time, making a team or trying to get an advantage to score more goals then you're having an entirely different discussion than most of us on here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Im confused, why are SY people happy? Change was supposed to be a done deal for 25.

There is zero actual change set up. They just want to cling to anything that will give their kid a possible advantage because they aren't good enough for their birth year to be competitive/recruited.

My kid is plenty good enough and already plays up year so he’s 11 playing 13 some close to being 14. This will be a windfall for him and plenty others I am sure.

A windfall? That makes no sense.

He can continue to play up, and will be playing even older kids if he stays up.

He’s fortunate in that he will be a trapped player no longer. We will do what’s best for us, the younger age group has a phenomenal coach and most of the kids are in the same grade. Its a good deal for us, not gonna lie

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The official statement is above. No changes until 26-27. Detailed info.

In that same section, first sentence: “There should be no registration change for the 2025-2026 season.”

Just says “should”, and not definitively no change mandated anywhere in that letter. The clubs/leagues can probably change earlier if they see it in their best interest. And, that’s exactly what I heard from a couple league board members out here in CA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The official statement is above. No changes until 26-27. Detailed info.

If you read the fine print on page two it’s a recommendation that teams do not change until Fall 26.

If by fine print you mean literally the FIRST sentence on the page, then yes, it's the fine print. "U.S. Soccer’s Board of Directors and staff reviewed these insights and have RECOMMENDED the
following next steps...".

The BY/SY debate is over. SY wins it. Full stop. The consolation debate for BYers is now whether SY is happening in 25 or in 26, thus all the BY trolls on here interpreting the "recommendation" as edict. Not to muddy things with economic theory ... but the recommendation to wait until 26 is only as strong as the first league to break away from it to gain first-mover advantage. The national soccer scene is the classic definition of an oligopoly. Look up what oligopoly's do in ANY market sector - they follow and mimic one another until the new equilibrium is reached. That new equilibrium is SY.

Its really comical BY thinks it won.... They clearly did not.