Anonymous
10/28/2025 13:41
Subject: Mls Next going to school year?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Any updates for the 26-27 season?
I think you missed the announcement, they will shift to a new age-bracket for the 27-28 season. It won't be a school year bracket, it will be a new 12 month window (1-August to 31-July). That grouping does not line-up with most school years at all.
It's amazing how much discussion happens over stuff like this. There's always going to be a cutoff date. I remember years ago when the switch to calendar year happened, my kids' teams all got broken up and they were no longer playing with many of their peers from school. It was very disruptive. Now they are thinking about changing it again? Sheesh! Why did they change it in the first place?
Apparently, most European football youth academies use school-age grouping with a cutoff of September 1st. I think that used to be what we did before they changed it all several years ago. Pointless tinkering rather than addressing any real challenges.
England does school year, not Europe
Thank you for clarifying this. The SY proponents like to paint with a wide brush implying certain things. In this case that Europe is all SY when in reality its only England. Everyone else is BY
The irony of England being SY is that top EPL Acadamies buy players from other clubs that most of the time are BY.
Most of Europe groups grade by BY so by grouping soccer ages by BY it also aligns with grade. England groups grade by 9/1 so also groups soccer by 9/1.
There is nothing magic about an age range. Good development can occur with ages that are 1/1 or 8/1 or 9/1.
This seems to me to be the most relevant point: Europeans align their soccer club age groupings with whatever they use for school year age groupings.
If the USA used birth year for school grouping, it would make sense to stick with birth year for sports grouping. But we don't - we group school kids by a September-to-September year. It would make the most sense to align the sports grouping with the school grouping just like successful soccer nations do.
School isn't where the highest quality coaches and players are. That's club soccer.
So why the importance to align with school year?
So kids are playing club sports with the same cohort of kids they are in class with and playing school sports with. To encourage greater participation in club sports where kids can play with/against their classmates. And because that's what the successful soccer nations do.
The real question to ask is: Why have one cutoff for school/school-sports and a completely different cutoff for club sports?
GY Guy is sneaking into the chat again.
Nobody wants GY in club soccer.
Your kid is welcome to play HS soccer where they can play down 2 years if you hold them back.
Anonymous
10/28/2025 13:37
Subject: Mls Next going to school year?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Any updates for the 26-27 season?
I think you missed the announcement, they will shift to a new age-bracket for the 27-28 season. It won't be a school year bracket, it will be a new 12 month window (1-August to 31-July). That grouping does not line-up with most school years at all.
It's amazing how much discussion happens over stuff like this. There's always going to be a cutoff date. I remember years ago when the switch to calendar year happened, my kids' teams all got broken up and they were no longer playing with many of their peers from school. It was very disruptive. Now they are thinking about changing it again? Sheesh! Why did they change it in the first place?
Apparently, most European football youth academies use school-age grouping with a cutoff of September 1st. I think that used to be what we did before they changed it all several years ago. Pointless tinkering rather than addressing any real challenges.
England does school year, not Europe
Thank you for clarifying this. The SY proponents like to paint with a wide brush implying certain things. In this case that Europe is all SY when in reality its only England. Everyone else is BY
The irony of England being SY is that top EPL Acadamies buy players from other clubs that most of the time are BY.
Most of Europe groups grade by BY so by grouping soccer ages by BY it also aligns with grade. England groups grade by 9/1 so also groups soccer by 9/1.
There is nothing magic about an age range. Good development can occur with ages that are 1/1 or 8/1 or 9/1.
This seems to me to be the most relevant point: Europeans align their soccer club age groupings with whatever they use for school year age groupings.
If the USA used birth year for school grouping, it would make sense to stick with birth year for sports grouping. But we don't - we group school kids by a September-to-September year. It would make the most sense to align the sports grouping with the school grouping just like successful soccer nations do.
School isn't where the highest quality coaches and players are. That's club soccer.
So why the importance to align with school year?
So kids are playing club sports with the same cohort of kids they are in class with and playing school sports with. To encourage greater participation in club sports where kids can play with/against their classmates. And because that's what the successful soccer nations do.
The real question to ask is: Why have one cutoff for school/school-sports and a completely different cutoff for club sports?
Anonymous
10/28/2025 13:27
Subject: Mls Next going to school year?
Anonymous wrote:Because the age cutoff change isn't meant to solve whatever someone feels is all else wrong with youth soccer.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Not clear why you think that switching to SY is meant to create a world cup winner. Too low of a percentage of Americans care about a world cup winner for this to be a goal for U.S. to put more effort into, at least on the men's side.Anonymous wrote:BY or SY or GY or YY
We'll have the same exact everything else
Not sure what miracle some people expect to happen with age cutoff changes
How did you leap to translate what was said to creating a world cup winner?
They are basically saying what's the point of the changes to age cutoff when all else that's wrong with youth soccer stays the same
Again, so what's the point if its not to resolve an existing problem or improve something?
Anonymous
10/28/2025 13:26
Subject: Mls Next going to school year?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Any updates for the 26-27 season?
I think you missed the announcement, they will shift to a new age-bracket for the 27-28 season. It won't be a school year bracket, it will be a new 12 month window (1-August to 31-July). That grouping does not line-up with most school years at all.
It's amazing how much discussion happens over stuff like this. There's always going to be a cutoff date. I remember years ago when the switch to calendar year happened, my kids' teams all got broken up and they were no longer playing with many of their peers from school. It was very disruptive. Now they are thinking about changing it again? Sheesh! Why did they change it in the first place?
Apparently, most European football youth academies use school-age grouping with a cutoff of September 1st. I think that used to be what we did before they changed it all several years ago. Pointless tinkering rather than addressing any real challenges.
England does school year, not Europe
Thank you for clarifying this. The SY proponents like to paint with a wide brush implying certain things. In this case that Europe is all SY when in reality its only England. Everyone else is BY
The irony of England being SY is that top EPL Acadamies buy players from other clubs that most of the time are BY.
Most of Europe groups grade by BY so by grouping soccer ages by BY it also aligns with grade. England groups grade by 9/1 so also groups soccer by 9/1.
There is nothing magic about an age range. Good development can occur with ages that are 1/1 or 8/1 or 9/1.
This seems to me to be the most relevant point: Europeans align their soccer club age groupings with whatever they use for school year age groupings.
If the USA used birth year for school grouping, it would make sense to stick with birth year for sports grouping. But we don't - we group school kids by a September-to-September year. It would make the most sense to align the sports grouping with the school grouping just like successful soccer nations do.
School isn't where the highest quality coaches and players are. That's club soccer.
So why the importance to align with school year?
Anonymous
10/28/2025 13:21
Subject: Mls Next going to school year?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Any updates for the 26-27 season?
I think you missed the announcement, they will shift to a new age-bracket for the 27-28 season. It won't be a school year bracket, it will be a new 12 month window (1-August to 31-July). That grouping does not line-up with most school years at all.
It's amazing how much discussion happens over stuff like this. There's always going to be a cutoff date. I remember years ago when the switch to calendar year happened, my kids' teams all got broken up and they were no longer playing with many of their peers from school. It was very disruptive. Now they are thinking about changing it again? Sheesh! Why did they change it in the first place?
Apparently, most European football youth academies use school-age grouping with a cutoff of September 1st. I think that used to be what we did before they changed it all several years ago. Pointless tinkering rather than addressing any real challenges.
England does school year, not Europe
Thank you for clarifying this. The SY proponents like to paint with a wide brush implying certain things. In this case that Europe is all SY when in reality its only England. Everyone else is BY
The irony of England being SY is that top EPL Acadamies buy players from other clubs that most of the time are BY.
Most of Europe groups grade by BY so by grouping soccer ages by BY it also aligns with grade. England groups grade by 9/1 so also groups soccer by 9/1.
There is nothing magic about an age range. Good development can occur with ages that are 1/1 or 8/1 or 9/1.
This seems to me to be the most relevant point: Europeans align their soccer club age groupings with whatever they use for school year age groupings.
If the USA used birth year for school grouping, it would make sense to stick with birth year for sports grouping. But we don't - we group school kids by a September-to-September year. It would make the most sense to align the sports grouping with the school grouping just like successful soccer nations do.
Anonymous
10/28/2025 12:35
Subject: Mls Next going to school year?
Because the age cutoff change isn't meant to solve whatever someone feels is all else wrong with youth soccer.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Not clear why you think that switching to SY is meant to create a world cup winner. Too low of a percentage of Americans care about a world cup winner for this to be a goal for U.S. to put more effort into, at least on the men's side.Anonymous wrote:BY or SY or GY or YY
We'll have the same exact everything else
Not sure what miracle some people expect to happen with age cutoff changes
How did you leap to translate what was said to creating a world cup winner?
They are basically saying what's the point of the changes to age cutoff when all else that's wrong with youth soccer stays the same
Anonymous
10/28/2025 12:06
Subject: Mls Next going to school year?
Anonymous wrote:Not clear why you think that switching to SY is meant to create a world cup winner. Too low of a percentage of Americans care about a world cup winner for this to be a goal for U.S. to put more effort into, at least on the men's side.Anonymous wrote:BY or SY or GY or YY
We'll have the same exact everything else
Not sure what miracle some people expect to happen with age cutoff changes
How did you leap to translate what was said to creating a world cup winner?
They are basically saying what's the point of the changes to age cutoff when all else that's wrong with youth soccer stays the same
Anonymous
10/28/2025 11:48
Subject: Mls Next going to school year?
Not clear why you think that switching to SY is meant to create a world cup winner. Too low of a percentage of Americans care about a world cup winner for this to be a goal for U.S. to put more effort into, at least on the men's side.Anonymous wrote:BY or SY or GY or YY
We'll have the same exact everything else
Not sure what miracle some people expect to happen with age cutoff changes
Anonymous
10/28/2025 10:24
Subject: Mls Next going to school year?
Anonymous wrote:BY or SY or GY or YY
We'll have the same exact everything else
Not sure what miracle some people expect to happen with age cutoff changes
Same P2P system with same unqualified and under-qualified U-littles coaches. Same culture of most parents lacking soccer knowledge and on and on
Changing BY to SY makes no difference except shifting who are Q1 and who are Q4 in maturation development
Anonymous
10/28/2025 09:49
Subject: Mls Next going to school year?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:England is SY and haven't won a major competition since Henry the 8th 🤔
And we’ve had both BY and SY with no success at either. This change back to SY isn’t going to improve soccer in the US as much as it is going to correct problems created by the switch to BY less than 10 years ago. As far as improving soccer in the US, that would be a lengthy discussion…
Please don't associate us and our issues with the countries with real football cultures
My apologies. That’s my point though, we could pick whatever age groupings we want and without a real football culture it won’t matter.
Anonymous
10/28/2025 09:48
Subject: Mls Next going to school year?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Any updates for the 26-27 season?
I think you missed the announcement, they will shift to a new age-bracket for the 27-28 season. It won't be a school year bracket, it will be a new 12 month window (1-August to 31-July). That grouping does not line-up with most school years at all.
It's amazing how much discussion happens over stuff like this. There's always going to be a cutoff date. I remember years ago when the switch to calendar year happened, my kids' teams all got broken up and they were no longer playing with many of their peers from school. It was very disruptive. Now they are thinking about changing it again? Sheesh! Why did they change it in the first place?
Apparently, most European football youth academies use school-age grouping with a cutoff of September 1st. I think that used to be what we did before they changed it all several years ago. Pointless tinkering rather than addressing any real challenges.
England does school year, not Europe
Thank you for clarifying this. The SY proponents like to paint with a wide brush implying certain things. In this case that Europe is all SY when in reality its only England. Everyone else is BY
The irony of England being SY is that top EPL Acadamies buy players from other clubs that most of the time are BY.
Most of Europe groups grade by BY so by grouping soccer ages by BY it also aligns with grade. England groups grade by 9/1 so also groups soccer by 9/1.
There is nothing magic about an age range. Good development can occur with ages that are 1/1 or 8/1 or 9/1.
I agree about nothing magic with the different groupings. When you get to the highest pro levels players could have been born on the moon and it wouldn't have mattered. They have some kind of freak of nature talent thats is just beyond everyone else.
Q1 tend to have the most success. In Spain that’s Jan-march and in England that’s sept-nov. of course there are exceptions like the freak of nature talent that could have been born at the end of Q4 and would still be successful.
Anonymous
10/28/2025 09:38
Subject: Mls Next going to school year?
BY or SY or GY or YY
We'll have the same exact everything else
Not sure what miracle some people expect to happen with age cutoff changes
We'll have the same exact everything else
Not sure what miracle some people expect to happen with age cutoff changes
Anonymous
10/28/2025 09:33
Subject: Mls Next going to school year?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:England is SY and haven't won a major competition since Henry the 8th 🤔
And we’ve had both BY and SY with no success at either. This change back to SY isn’t going to improve soccer in the US as much as it is going to correct problems created by the switch to BY less than 10 years ago. As far as improving soccer in the US, that would be a lengthy discussion…
Please don't associate us and our issues with the countries with real football cultures
Anonymous
10/28/2025 09:28
Subject: Mls Next going to school year?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Any updates for the 26-27 season?
I think you missed the announcement, they will shift to a new age-bracket for the 27-28 season. It won't be a school year bracket, it will be a new 12 month window (1-August to 31-July). That grouping does not line-up with most school years at all.
It's amazing how much discussion happens over stuff like this. There's always going to be a cutoff date. I remember years ago when the switch to calendar year happened, my kids' teams all got broken up and they were no longer playing with many of their peers from school. It was very disruptive. Now they are thinking about changing it again? Sheesh! Why did they change it in the first place?
Apparently, most European football youth academies use school-age grouping with a cutoff of September 1st. I think that used to be what we did before they changed it all several years ago. Pointless tinkering rather than addressing any real challenges.
England does school year, not Europe
Thank you for clarifying this. The SY proponents like to paint with a wide brush implying certain things. In this case that Europe is all SY when in reality its only England. Everyone else is BY
The irony of England being SY is that top EPL Acadamies buy players from other clubs that most of the time are BY.
Most of Europe groups grade by BY so by grouping soccer ages by BY it also aligns with grade. England groups grade by 9/1 so also groups soccer by 9/1.
There is nothing magic about an age range. Good development can occur with ages that are 1/1 or 8/1 or 9/1.
I agree about nothing magic with the different groupings. When you get to the highest pro levels players could have been born on the moon and it wouldn't have mattered. They have some kind of freak of nature talent thats is just beyond everyone else.
Anonymous
10/28/2025 09:24
Subject: Mls Next going to school year?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:England is SY and haven't won a major competition since Henry the 8th 🤔
And we’ve had both BY and SY with no success at either. This change back to SY isn’t going to improve soccer in the US as much as it is going to correct problems created by the switch to BY less than 10 years ago. As far as improving soccer in the US, that would be a lengthy discussion…
Its an easy issue to solve get rid of MLS where clubs are franchises of the league and have clubs that run their own Acadamies and are their own independent entities.
Its interesting to me that some moneybags Saudi hasn't setup shop in America and put together a super team that would destroy any MLS team. Also Im surprised EPL hasn't branched out to America. Just do one test market and its games would probably outsell all the MLS games combined. I bet the issue is that no EPL clubs want to do an 8 hour flight once every month or two.