ECNL moving to school year not calendar

[Anonymous]

SoccerWire joins the coverage of the latest ... https://www.soccerwire.com/news/youth-soccer-age-group-changes-u-s-soccer-to-allow-flexibility-for-birth-year-or-school-year/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We will find out by end of January if ECNL will make any adjustments for Fall 25. I do not think it will be a major change.

Any change is a major change. If ECNL allows one waiver per team it'll tilt our market sideways. We're all waiting and the silence is deafening. ECNL is the only league that has been clear about their intentions, consistent in their approach and unwavering in how quickly they are ready to go. USSF has made their move (or non-move shall we say). ECNL can put its foot on US Soccers neck with their response.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:SoccerWire joins the coverage of the latest ... https://www.soccerwire.com/news/youth-soccer-age-group-changes-u-s-soccer-to-allow-flexibility-for-birth-year-or-school-year/

See....information. Love this thread. Thanks to all that contribute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what do Q3/Q4 parents plan to do this year? Stay put with current team another year?

Our whole world is changing in 2026 but now we have a dead year in front of us (which is so stupid). We can finally be untrapped but have to wait? Ugh.

Same concern I have. My daughter is U12. So next year 11v11 and chance of platform team for it all to change again. They should have just ripped the band aid off for fall 2025. I don’t see how this could be difficult

Now that the cat is out of the bag I suspect you'll have a path forward in the next few weeks. ECNL is vested in insuring your experience doesn't go sideways. Telling you wait a year makes zero sense and opens up the possibility you'll invest your daughters talents in a place that hurts their long term plans (and pocketbooks). These aren't people that take chances and they've been contemplating things for quite some time. Hold tight, you were the reason for this change....answers are coming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ECNL will start the change asap. No way they will wait 26. They will immediately get the best Q3/Q4 from GA to replace their mediocre Q1/Q2 ECNL players. Then ECNL will have the strongest grade team for college recruiting. Once this change is done, ECNL will increase from 78% to 90% or more D1 recruiting. The other 10% will be divided by GA and RL. GA will become 2nd league after all the best Q3/Q4 leave.

Your daughter secretly, or maybe openly thinks your obsession is pathetic.

Literally no different from the Q1/Q2 folks arguing here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ECNL will start the change asap. No way they will wait 26. They will immediately get the best Q3/Q4 from GA to replace their mediocre Q1/Q2 ECNL players. Then ECNL will have the strongest grade team for college recruiting. Once this change is done, ECNL will increase from 78% to 90% or more D1 recruiting. The other 10% will be divided by GA and RL. GA will become 2nd league after all the best Q3/Q4 leave.

Your daughter secretly, or maybe openly thinks your obsession is pathetic.

Literally no different from the Q1/Q2 folks arguing here.

BY parents smarter than us peasants and their kids have rightfully earned their spots on the roster. There's a huge difference.

[Anonymous]

Just remember everyone, except for the NTs, no matter how amazing your kid legitimately is or what club-based league they are in -- there's always someone who's better. At the end of the day, hopefully, they love the beautiful game and that's why they play it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Its cute to watch BY hopefuls continue to hold out hope that teams won't change. 'the better teams are fine, they are at the top already'. You really have no idea what's coming do you? WHOLESALE change.

We are in a VERY competitive area and the best teams in the nation are all here. And the best clubs want to stay that way. AT EVERY AGE GROUP.

The 2010-2012 teams (top in the nation) are already making moves. Their teams are made up of several Q3/Q4 kids. Use your imagination.... When one club drops their best 6 2011 players down to 2012 and takes that team from #30 to #1 in the country you're really so naive to think the other clubs are gonna shrug their shoulders and give up on their 2012 ranking?

If you believe that I have bridge in Brooklyn up for sale I'd love to discuss.

Until the unfortunate reality hits that the difference of a few months in age alone does’t change anything to get on some of these teams and talent actually matters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We will find out by end of January if ECNL will make any adjustments for Fall 25. I do not think it will be a major change.

Any change is a major change. If ECNL allows one waiver per team it'll tilt our market sideways. We're all waiting and the silence is deafening. ECNL is the only league that has been clear about their intentions, consistent in their approach and unwavering in how quickly they are ready to go. USSF has made their move (or non-move shall we say). ECNL can put its foot on US Soccers neck with their response.

Ecnl was never clear. You read too much into what they said. I doubt anything changes until the next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why the parents of the current version of “trapped” players don’t sympathize with the kids who will be “trapped” albeit in a different way under the new system. I realize this is a smaller group and so I support the change from a “what’s best for the system” perspective, but they’ll be disadvantaged just as unfairly as your kids were.

Great point. It'll depend on the state your in AND league. There may be some that stick with BY, too, although it's hard to know at this point. If there ends up being both, that might be helpful to players who are potentially trapped by SY.

Because it isn’t about the “trap!” It’s about RAE. Nobody on the pro-SY side is being honest about this.

RAE is a big part but clearly not the main part.

If everyone "voted" in the USSF survey for RAE that makes their kids older, the vote would have been about 67% pro CY (8 months of players) and SY would have been about 33% pro SY give or take.

But in the USSF survey comments "vote" more went SY than BY and the BY's biggest concern was the hassle of change.

The vote was across the whole landscape, including the grassroots and “rec” folks. Which are the vast majority of soccer players and coaches. Those groups are not really concerned about RAE and I’d venture many of the coaches, parents and players are unfamiliar with it. At the top end there is much more focus on RAE - for the wrong reasons on the parent side, the players don’t care, and the coaches fumble with it at best.

[Anonymous]

ECNL outside of the podcast has never posted or said anything is happening. Has anyone seen a post from ECNL/US Club regarding the information USSF put out?

[Anonymous]

The HS age players are totally getting screwed by this dead year ‘solution’ - what a cop out.

If clubs could move to BY eight years ago (with less than 3 months notice) they certainly can move back to SY with 9 months notice. Nobody got ‘eased’ into the change last time. This just kicks the can for no reason.

If US soccer was a real company, this type of decision would never be tolerated. It shows a complete ineptitude to manage timely execution of change.

Really hoping ECNL shows a backbone to pull the bandaid off and avoid the ridiculous dead year (and then the scramble year that follows)…otherwise it’s a big FU to the older players who only have 1-3 years left in total and now they have to waste one year of it on a rando team that has zero longevity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its cute to watch BY hopefuls continue to hold out hope that teams won't change. 'the better teams are fine, they are at the top already'. You really have no idea what's coming do you? WHOLESALE change.

We are in a VERY competitive area and the best teams in the nation are all here. And the best clubs want to stay that way. AT EVERY AGE GROUP.

The 2010-2012 teams (top in the nation) are already making moves. Their teams are made up of several Q3/Q4 kids. Use your imagination.... When one club drops their best 6 2011 players down to 2012 and takes that team from #30 to #1 in the country you're really so naive to think the other clubs are gonna shrug their shoulders and give up on their 2012 ranking?

If you believe that I have bridge in Brooklyn up for sale I'd love to discuss.

Until the unfortunate reality hits that the difference of a few months in age alone does’t change anything to get on some of these teams and talent actually matters.

This is beyond dumb. “Wholesale change” and teams changing rosters in a vacuum which takes them from middling to #1 assuming nobody else does anything….

I love that you support your kid. I hope your kid gets everything THEY want out of soccer. This change is not wholesale, it is a cutoff adjustment. It doesn’t make kids better soccer players with a swish of a pen. And if you apply that across a roster of 18+ kids, all you’re doing is multiplying the risk, not the certainty.

The kids already in the ECNL years are largely baked in place, looking for incremental improvements, not huge leaps. This change will show up in the 2024s and younger.

It blows my mind that with all the soccer parents, especially the SY fans, there send to be a huge knowledge gap of how and when these kids need to have acquired skills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its cute to watch BY hopefuls continue to hold out hope that teams won't change. 'the better teams are fine, they are at the top already'. You really have no idea what's coming do you? WHOLESALE change.

We are in a VERY competitive area and the best teams in the nation are all here. And the best clubs want to stay that way. AT EVERY AGE GROUP.

The 2010-2012 teams (top in the nation) are already making moves. Their teams are made up of several Q3/Q4 kids. Use your imagination.... When one club drops their best 6 2011 players down to 2012 and takes that team from #30 to #1 in the country you're really so naive to think the other clubs are gonna shrug their shoulders and give up on their 2012 ranking?

If you believe that I have bridge in Brooklyn up for sale I'd love to discuss.

Until the unfortunate reality hits that the difference of a few months in age alone does’t change anything to get on some of these teams and talent actually matters.

This is beyond dumb. “Wholesale change” and teams changing rosters in a vacuum which takes them from middling to #1 assuming nobody else does anything….

I love that you support your kid. I hope your kid gets everything THEY want out of soccer. This change is not wholesale, it is a cutoff adjustment. It doesn’t make kids better soccer players with a swish of a pen. And if you apply that across a roster of 18+ kids, all you’re doing is multiplying the risk, not the certainty.

The kids already in the ECNL years are largely baked in place, looking for incremental improvements, not huge leaps. This change will show up in the 2024s and younger.

It blows my mind that with all the soccer parents, especially the SY fans, there send to be a huge knowledge gap of how and when these kids need to have acquired skills.

2014’s not 2024s. Sorry, autocorrect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ECNL outside of the podcast has never posted or said anything is happening. Has anyone seen a post from ECNL/US Club regarding the information USSF put out?

Next podcast will be Wednesday. Sit tight.