NCAA Rule Changes

[SierraFD3soccer]

Decent summary I believe. Basically, problem is most of the other sports that may want to do this as well. Still believe that it good for men's college soccer. IMO, D1 athletes have been treated and are considered athletes first and students second. Has been like that way before NIL.

Only misleading part was that the reporter stated that

Especially at so-called mid-major schools, athletic trainers and sports information departments, for example, "are already overworked," Colbert said. And that's with each sport bound to a four- or five-month season.

By count D1 starts preseason Aug. 1st and in late Oct. the season ends. Of course some qual for conf. tourn and then the NCAAs. For men there are on 215 schools that have mens soccer and 49 qual for the NCAA tournament (26 AQ and 23 at large). NCAA's start Nov. 16th. So for over 75% teams play a 3 month season and very, very few play a "four or five month" season.

[BaboNation]

Apologies for posting a link behind a paywall, but if you have The Athletic, this is the most comprehensive article I've seen on the pro/con of the split season model.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7726710/2026/10/27/college-soccer-calendar-change-ncaa-opposition-vote/

And we were spot on about this being college soccer's grasping attempt to maintain relevance in the player development arena.

I totally buy the idea that it would be better if the calendar were to be "decompressed." I am absolutely calling bullfart on the development angle. Nonsense.

ETA - And as we discuss around tournament time every year when focused on hosting and the need for athletic departments to alternate if both men and women get a hosting gig... Athletic departments across the NCAA already stretched too thin. The money/resource angle here is not trivial.

(Apologies in advance for a regurgitating an old subject that I missed)

RE: money/resource for dual hosting

I can understand that from a personnel standpoint an AD might be stretched too thin for dual hosting, but can it actually cost more too?  I'm thinking the money to put 30+ guys up in hotels, food, and transportation would be far more than keeping both games at home.

[Hopkins92]

Decent summary I believe. Basically, problem is most of the other sports that may want to do this as well. Still believe that it good for men's college soccer. IMO, D1 athletes have been treated and are considered athletes first and students second. Has been like that way before NIL.

Only misleading part was that the reporter stated that

Especially at so-called mid-major schools, athletic trainers and sports information departments, for example, "are already overworked," Colbert said. And that's with each sport bound to a four- or five-month season.

By count D1 starts preseason Aug. 1st and in late Oct. the season ends. Of course some qual for conf. tourn and then the NCAAs. For men there are on 215 schools that have mens soccer and 49 qual for the NCAA tournament (26 AQ and 23 at large). NCAA's start Nov. 16th. So for over 75% teams play a 3 month season and very, very few play a "four or five month" season.

Yeah, on that front, it's a fairly ridiculous argument to make when you look at how long the seasons are if teams make the playoffs/bowl games in football, basketball and hockey.


Just look at basketball. Practice starts 6 weeks(!!) prior to the first game, which is typically the beginning of November. So, if a team starts practice in mid-September and makes any kind of run, they are playing/practicing for 6 months. It's roughly the same in hockey. Lacrosse they start playing February (practices in January) and if you go all the way, you are playing on Memorial Day weekend.

And the "playing year round" is a significant bit of disinformation. They obviously aren't playing in the summer and the entire point is to give the players a break during the winter months. No need to fudge the reality to make these points.

Saving player wear and tear, along with allowing them to attend classes and alleviate travel woes are fine arguments in the "pro" column.

[stlawus]

This really does come down to power conference coaches thinking they are in the Premier League.  It's very much an ego thing no matter how hard they or others try to deny otherwise. They want everyone to think they are Pep Guardiola strutting up and down the sidelines.

I still think back to sitting next to a NEPSAC soccer assistant a few years back who wasn't from the US commenting on the college soccer specific rules like substitutions being a reason why the US men's national team isn't a top team.  Of all the reasons, this is quite literally not anywhere close to being one, yet this "we must do what the euros say and want or else they will criticize us" mentality is still unfortunately very prevalent among some of the powers that be.

I will repeat what I've said a million times already, college soccer is simply a unique and niche sport.  If someone does turn pro that is great, but the sport should not be completely changed to accommodate one half of one percent (if that) of the player pool, all to satisfy coaches egos.

[SierraFD3soccer]

Funny how they got rid of overtime on soccer, because of "safety." However, field hockey (plus penalty shootout), lacrosse, basketball, football, ice hockey, wrestling and other NCAA sports still do.

Also this is only mens soccer, 215 programs. Women have 315.

Despite the recent strides in mens soccer, it will continue to be treated as a niche sport at the D1 level.

FYI, I believe UMD mens soccer gets over 4k a home game. It is very very fun.  Google said that average d1 soccer game is 627

[Hopkins92]

Can confirm, the crowd at Ludwig, especially the student section is a blast. They are akin to really good college hockey crowds, where they have very specific chants and spend a good amount of time heckling the goalie. The switch ends at half-time, which in and of itself is funny and neat tradition.

My favorite thing they do is count the goalie's steps when the ball is on the other end of the field and he is just doing that thing we goalies do... just sort of slowly marching towards the half field line. You can see the moment they clock this and start trying to mess with the students by stopping abruptly or stutter stepping.

[stlawus]

Looks like the proposal got shot down. Very happy to see it go down in flames. Aside from the idea being incredibly dumb, the proponents could not have picked a worse figure head than Cirovski who is singlehandedly responsible for the late push by schools to pass the rescind threshold due to way he conducted himself. 

[VASoccerDad]

The proponents didn't pick Cirovski as a figure-head, he WAS the figure head. He authored this proposal and was the driving force behind it for the last several years.