ECNL moving to school year not calendar

[Anonymous]

National team selection.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Scouting Clarity | Regardless of the registration choice, players will need to be scouted based on their birth year

What does this mean?

More than likely all national team stuff will stay BY.

[Anonymous]

No one disputed that would need to stay BY. I guess they needed to make it clear for the Low IQ soccer parents in the room.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Member Visibility Over Leagues & Participants | Member organizations, with the visibility of their entire sanctioned league population, can ensure leagues are appropriately aligned via the annual affiliation / sanctioning process
Alignment of Post-Season Play & Standalone Competitions | It is generally seen that for regular seasons serving as qualifiers for post-season competitions, those seasons should be on the same registration choice as the end-state competition (e.g., national championships); for standalone competitions not part of league play (e.g., showcases), member organizations will be responsible for working with the competition organizers on clearly communicating the approved registration choice
IMMEDIATE STEPS - NEXT 60 DAYS


Does this mean showcases might be Grady year? League and nationals will be based on SY? If ECNL deceives to switch in 26/27?

Everything is open to our own interpretation. Does ECNL want to go with grad year to streamline recruitment for showcases? Really would not affect teams very much if SY cutoff in place.

But you will definitely have some parents not happy if the team loses a spot for a showcase because of a hold back.

Maybe they will allow rosters of 20 for showcases?

[Anonymous]

The ‘Why’ Behind the Final Decision
As outlined in our previous statement, we recognize how important this decision is and ran
a thorough process to capture feedback about the best path forward. Below outlines the
key insights that emerged from our assessment of over 15,000 ecosystem stakeholder
responses to support this decision.
• Localized Decision-Making | Player registration should reflect the unique
characteristics of local participants (e.g., school year timing)
• Segment-Based Considerations | Acknowledgement that registration choice may
need to differ across the recreation, competitive, and pre-professional segments
• Primary Registration Choices | Three registration choices emerged as the best options
to cover participants across the country; more than three may become confusing, but a
different option could be appropriate at the recreation level
• Scouting Clarity | Regardless of the registration choice, players will need to be scouted
based on their birth year
• Member Visibility Over Leagues & Participants | Member organizations, with the
visibility of their entire sanctioned league population, can ensure leagues are
appropriately aligned via the annual affiliation / sanctioning process

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Member Visibility Over Leagues & Participants | Member organizations, with the visibility of their entire sanctioned league population, can ensure leagues are appropriately aligned via the annual affiliation / sanctioning process
Alignment of Post-Season Play & Standalone Competitions | It is generally seen that for regular seasons serving as qualifiers for post-season competitions, those seasons should be on the same registration choice as the end-state competition (e.g., national championships); for standalone competitions not part of league play (e.g., showcases), member organizations will be responsible for working with the competition organizers on clearly communicating the approved registration choice
IMMEDIATE STEPS - NEXT 60 DAYS


Does this mean showcases might be Grady year? League and nationals will be based on SY? If ECNL deceives to switch in 26/27?

Everything is open to our own interpretation. Does ECNL want to go with grad year to streamline recruitment for showcases? Really would not affect teams very much if SY cutoff in place.

But you will definitely have some parents not happy if the team loses a spot for a showcase because of a hold back.

Maybe they will allow rosters of 20 for showcases?

"Hold Back" Are you serious?

[Anonymous]

Segment-Based Considerations | Acknowledgement that registration choice may
need to differ across the recreation, competitive, and pre-professional segments


Sounds to me like Rec will go school year but the more competitive leagues would stay Birth Year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Segment-Based Considerations | Acknowledgement that registration choice may
need to differ across the recreation, competitive, and pre-professional segments


Sounds to me like Rec will go school year but the more competitive leagues would stay Birth Year?

This is what makes the most sense.

High level soccer doesn't care about rae or if you have friends from your class at school on the team.

Rec soccer probably does care about rae and having friends from school on the same team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Segment-Based Considerations | Acknowledgement that registration choice may
need to differ across the recreation, competitive, and pre-professional segments


Sounds to me like Rec will go school year but the more competitive leagues would stay Birth Year?

This is what makes the most sense.

High level soccer doesn't care about rae or if you have friends from your class at school on the team.

Rec soccer probably does care about rae and having friends from school on the same team.

Can you see the title of this thread? ECNL doesn't care about friends from school, but does deeply care about college recruitment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Segment-Based Considerations | Acknowledgement that registration choice may
need to differ across the recreation, competitive, and pre-professional segments


Sounds to me like Rec will go school year but the more competitive leagues would stay Birth Year?

This is what makes the most sense.

High level soccer doesn't care about rae or if you have friends from your class at school on the team.

Rec soccer probably does care about rae and having friends from school on the same team.

What is "high level" in the USA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Member Visibility Over Leagues & Participants | Member organizations, with the visibility of their entire sanctioned league population, can ensure leagues are appropriately aligned via the annual affiliation / sanctioning process
Alignment of Post-Season Play & Standalone Competitions | It is generally seen that for regular seasons serving as qualifiers for post-season competitions, those seasons should be on the same registration choice as the end-state competition (e.g., national championships); for standalone competitions not part of league play (e.g., showcases), member organizations will be responsible for working with the competition organizers on clearly communicating the approved registration choice
IMMEDIATE STEPS - NEXT 60 DAYS


Does this mean showcases might be Grady year? League and nationals will be based on SY? If ECNL deceives to switch in 26/27?

Everything is open to our own interpretation. Does ECNL want to go with grad year to streamline recruitment for showcases? Really would not affect teams very much if SY cutoff in place.

But you will definitely have some parents not happy if the team loses a spot for a showcase because of a hold back.

Maybe they will allow rosters of 20 for showcases?

"Hold Back" Are you serious?

What do you call them? If they repeated a grade or started school late?

[Anonymous]

High level is national team selection and pro pathway

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Segment-Based Considerations | Acknowledgement that registration choice may
need to differ across the recreation, competitive, and pre-professional segments


Sounds to me like Rec will go school year but the more competitive leagues would stay Birth Year?

This is what makes the most sense.

High level soccer doesn't care about rae or if you have friends from your class at school on the team.

Rec soccer probably does care about rae and having friends from school on the same team.

What is "high level" in the USA?

Will be fun to see what us soccer people think is high level.

To me high level is national team and professional academies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:High level is national team selection and pro pathway

It's also college recruits.

That's how MLS Next works.

[Anonymous]

SoCal going SY fall ‘26

9-1 date