The State of College Soccer

This is a very informative and interesting piece of the current range of dilemmas facing elite Division I men's soccer (they frame it as all of college soccer, though). It's definitely worth your time to read to get a sense of what college soccer is like on the athletes themselves. I miss this long form journalism...

http://www.espn.com/sports/soccer/story/_/id/22869596/2018-world-cup-college-soccer-too-much-risk-rising-us-talent

SouthCarolinaPilot wrote:This is a very informative and interesting piece of the current range of dilemmas facing elite Division I men's soccer (they frame it as all of college soccer, though). It's definitely worth your time to read to get a sense of what college soccer is like on the athletes themselves. I miss this long form journalism...

http://www.espn.com/sports/soccer/story/_/id/22869596/2018-world-cup-college-soccer-too-much-risk-rising-us-talent

It's a very interesting piece, but something bothers me.  The main interviewee in the piece takes the position that college men's soccer players are playing three games a week frequently.  But when I looked at his team's schedule for 2017, they're playing two games a week, not three.  For me, that makes all the other rationales he gives for changing the soccer season to a truly split Fall/Spring season suspect.  And, I'm shocked that the writer of the article apparently didn't even check to be sure that one fact was true.

This is not an obscure fact for those of us who follow college soccer.  It's common knowledge that teams regularly play twice a week.  Yes, some conference tournaments have teams playing three games in a week, but that's just plain stupid and it isn't a function of the NCAA season.  It's a choice the conferences have made.

I'm not saying it's good to play two games a week. But, it's BS to claim that teams regularly play three games a week.

I agree 100% UPSoccerFanatic. I found that to be strange as well.

Soccer was not a sport that I ever played in a competitive setting. So, it was enlightening to read about the toll that one game takes on the body. It makes me feel that it is unsafe to continue to play multiple games in a week. But, I feel that both sides make compelling arguments regarding the objective of college sports, emphasis on academic excellence, and quality of the short versus extended soccer season.