re: Spinoff Thread : Pros and Cons of your SEC school starting Men's Soccer in NCAA

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Developing a strong NCAA men's soccer league is not necessarily good for US soccer. If our players are encouraged to play college soccer, it sets our players behind other nations who have their best players playing professionally at or well before that age.

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False. It would develop fan interest, which is soccer's biggest impediment, not development. We can hire great coaches to be in MLS stadiums, but we can't get the players and fans interested at nearly the level of other places. Developing a soccer culture is more important.

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False. It would develop fan interest, which is soccer's biggest impediment, not development. We can hire great coaches to be in MLS stadiums, but we can't get the players and fans interested at nearly the level of other places. Developing a soccer culture is more important.

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I disagree. While it is a bit of a "chicken and egg" issue, fan interest in soccer is rising dramatically in recent years. If you want proof just look at the massive increase in the television contract for the MLS. EPSN's WC ratings are up almost 20% from 2010. Younger Americans are watching and going to soccer games at much higher rates than the olds. Developing the players to compete on the international level is what US soccer should and is interested in. If the US team were to make a deep run in any world cup, fan interest in domestic soccer leagues would skyrocket.

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Cons: We would all have to add another dumb arse womans sport

Pro: Maybe it will be a sport like beach volleyball where they play in bikinis.

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See South Carolina.

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I think having soccer as a men's college sport would absolutely make the US team better. Right now if you are a great athlete in the US why would you play soccer as you go in to Middle and HS? In football, basketball, and baseball there is a real opportunity for a scholarship and the dream of the pros. In soccer the avenue is much tougher to get there and you don't have a "middle ground". You really need to move to Europe as a teenager almost or try to focus completely on it giving up the chance at getting an education. That's a big risk to take.

That says nothing of the massive interest and attention of college sports.

When you think of all the ridiculous athletes this country produces it is crazy that we can't produce a WC contending Soccer team.

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This all speaks to the lack of youth development on a world class level. The MLS clubs are actively finding and developing young talent, but they're handicapped by a lot of the constructs put in place by the NCAA. American ideals of "amateurism" are unique and run somewhat contradictory to what needs to happen for US soccer development.

MLS clubs need to keep building their developmental programs and the USSF needs to continue building it's development academies to a world class level. This will be how our players develop the skill level to match the athletic aptitude.

The NCAA is just completely in the way of that and just delays the development of our players. To start, there is the notion of trying to gain a scholarship to a college to play a sport. This is great for american sports, but doesn't apply to international soccer in the slightest bit. Other issues like too much downtime (due to practice rules and going to class), game rules that do not match FIFA's rules (unlimited subs, wtf?) and too many archaic ethical rules that promote the myth of the "scholar athlete" will continue to prevent the US from developing elite soccer players.

There are a plethora of reasons why the NCAA is bad for US soccer. The USSF is completely aware of this and is trying to use the DAs to circumvent the archaic NCAA system. But until it does, the NCAA will continue to hamper our development at the international level.

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False. It would develop fan interest, which is soccer's biggest impediment, not development. We can hire great coaches to be in MLS stadiums, but we can't get the players and fans interested at nearly the level of other places. Developing a soccer culture is more important.

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this is untrue. casey keller, just the other day, said that he was at a detriment because he played collegiate soccer. the international standard is that, if you're 22 and not already starting for your professional club team, your ceiling is low.

the key to developing world-class soccer in america is totally divorcing it from public institutions and creating soccer-intensive schools, as they do in the european youth systems. and i think this is the direction that claudio reyna is steering american youth soccer toward.

Collegiate soccer is 100% detrimental to our national team. To say otherwise is ridiculous. In college, you only actually play for a few months a year while elsewhere in the world, they are playing year round. If you want to have collegiate soccer, fine, but it should only be for people without a potential future in the sport. Any kid with talent should be joining a professional academy.

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False. It would develop fan interest, which is soccer's biggest impediment, not development. We can hire great coaches to be in MLS stadiums, but we can't get the players and fans interested at nearly the level of other places. Developing a soccer culture is more important.

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Certainly not on the level of other parts of the world, but average attendance in the States:

MLS: 18,496
NHL: 17,766
NBA: 17,407

The difference I guess could be argued that NHL is at 97% capacity while MLS is at almost 88%. Fan support is already there if you ask me.