DA Tiered System Next Year

Seeing some rumors in the soccer blog and twitter world that US Soccer is going to a tiered DA system next year. Meaning the MLS teams would be in Tier 1, Non-MLS teams in Tier 2, etc. Not sure if true or if it really makes any difference, other than more travel for MLS teams. But interesting none the less.

Wonder if this is pre-new president or post election? On the surface, does not seem like it would help overall competition and allow potentially unknown players to bubble up.

In my experience Texas teams tend to fare well vs most other areas of the country at DA showcases. Maybe tiers should take that into account and not just MLS status....

If this is true, I could see it leading to the end of DA for any non-MLS clubs. Why play DA (light) when you can just play Classic League, National League, Premiere League and HS soccer? If college soccer is your goal and your not in an MLS DA, you can get there from Classic League.

Who knows, the only thing constant with US Soccer is change.

Sprint wrote:If this is true, I could see it leading to the end of DA for any non-MLS clubs.  Why play DA (light) when you can just play Classic League, National League, Premiere League and HS soccer?  If college soccer is your goal and your not in an MLS DA, you can get there from Classic League.  

Who knows, the only thing constant with US Soccer is change.  

Ditto all the above.....

There were some rumors floating around that the non MLS clubs will be a feeder to the MLS DA. Don’t know what would be the exchange in return would be ?

Sprint wrote:If this is true, I could see it leading to the end of DA for any non-MLS clubs.  Why play DA (light) when you can just play Classic League, National League, Premiere League and HS soccer?  If college soccer is your goal and your not in an MLS DA, you can get there from Classic League.  

Who knows, the only thing constant with US Soccer is change.  

The way it was explained to me was that it is more about adding tier 2 DA programs that can’t meet ALL the stringent club/coaching requirements of DA due to costs. It gets those clubs/players in the system and allows the clubs to work toward tier 1 status as they grow and expand facilities, coaching licenses, scholarship requirements, etc.

TayJ6 wrote:The way it was explained to me was that it is more about adding tier 2 DA programs that can’t meet ALL the stringent club/coaching requirements of DA due to costs. It gets those clubs/players in the system and allows the clubs to work toward tier 1 status as they grow and expand facilities, coaching licenses, scholarship requirements, etc.

Incorrect,

It's the MLS only in tier 1 and non MLS in tier 2.

Tier 1 will travel and be treated as professionals. The Tier 2 clubs will simply be feeders to the local or regional MLS program.

Oh, okay.

Pitchdad wrote:

TayJ6 wrote:The way it was explained to me was that it is more about adding tier 2 DA programs that can’t meet ALL the stringent club/coaching requirements of DA due to costs. It gets those clubs/players in the system and allows the clubs to work toward tier 1 status as they grow and expand facilities, coaching licenses, scholarship requirements, etc.

Incorrect,

It's the MLS only in tier 1 and non MLS in tier 2.

Tier 1 will travel and be treated as professionals.  The Tier 2 clubs will simply be feeders to the local or regional MLS program.

I googled "you're f-cked for DA if you are not MLS" and I didn't get any hits.   Has this been decided and nobody has been told officially, or are you just implying that your version of the rumor does not agree with this other guy's version of a rumor?

Number13 wrote:

Pitchdad wrote:

TayJ6 wrote:The way it was explained to me was that it is more about adding tier 2 DA programs that can’t meet ALL the stringent club/coaching requirements of DA due to costs. It gets those clubs/players in the system and allows the clubs to work toward tier 1 status as they grow and expand facilities, coaching licenses, scholarship requirements, etc.

Incorrect,

It's the MLS only in tier 1 and non MLS in tier 2.

Tier 1 will travel and be treated as professionals.  The Tier 2 clubs will simply be feeders to the local or regional MLS program.

I googled "you're f-cked for DA if you are not MLS" and I didn't get any hits.   Has this been decided and nobody has been told officially, or are you just implying that your version of the rumor does not agree with this other guy's version of a rumor?

I'll just say it's not rumor, soon to be announced officially... And expect to see a change in the number of DA clubs in the area...

Money and control are tough things to give up...

FCD DA Reserves B doesn't sound quite as cool as Solar Chelsea.

Pitchdad wrote:
It's the MLS only in tier 1 and non MLS in tier 2.

Tier 1 will travel and be treated as professionals.  The Tier 2 clubs will simply be feeders to the local or regional MLS program.

Isn’t this pretty much how it already works at the oldest age levels? At least in NTX.

During Copa Rayados over Thanksgiving Adrian mentioned he was meeting with other non MLS DA club directors to figure this out. This isn’t anything new and they are currently working on it, if they haven’t figured it out already.

I heard talks about it earlier in 2017. That some agreement FCD. It was earlier in talks so I didn’t put much weight in the rumors but now it starts to make some sense.

This is a rumor and as they said it has been floating around for a while. From what I understand it is not a done deal. Pitchdad seems to think it is and maybe he has more insight than I do (which would not be too difficult). I just cannot see this happening with what the travel costs would amount to for a DA tier with only MLS teams. Substantial cost and time consuming trips. Doesn't make a lot of sense. I do believe, however, there will be some type of change.

ShastaTx wrote:This is a rumor and as they said it has been floating around for a while. From what I understand it is not a done deal. Pitchdad seems to think it is and maybe he has more insight than I do (which would not be too difficult). I just cannot see this happening with what the travel costs would amount to for a DA tier with only MLS teams. Substantial cost and time consuming trips. Doesn't make a lot of sense. I do believe, however, there will be some type of change.

The idea I am hearing that makes sense if they change to MLS in tier 1 and non-MLS in tier 2 is the MLS clubs will mainly play big showcases, and when they play league games they will knockout more than one per weekend to cut down on travel. Might make it more plausible.

As my Grammy Tippy used to say, "I do not have a dog in this hunt."  That being said, during the recent USSSF election, almost all (if not all) of the candidates discussed how DA needed to be changed.  In fact, some of them considered it a failure.  I have no idea if that is correct or not.  

It seemed like one of the biggest issues was exclusion and how that caused talented players to fall through the cracks.  I have heard other pundits make similar comments.  It seems like a tier system is in direct contradiction to the complaints made about exclusion.  With this change, it would appear that the USSF is completely dismissing the complaints and merely dictating from above.  

It would further evidence the argument that MLS has too much power and control over USSF.  The suggested change seems to exist to bolster MLS clubs to the detriment of non-MLS clubs.

As usual, I am probably missing something.  I have no involvement in DA and have loser nephews that will never play DA.  Accordingly, I would love to hear the thoughts of others that actually know what they are talking about.

I could see them tapering inclusion with respect to age. More DA clubs at the lower ages (similar to current, or more for even greater inclusion) and them tapering the number of clubs as the age increases to concentrate talent. The only place an MLS only division makes sense is at the U19s or so. MLS ideally should already have its own leagues for U19s and U23s, but this way USSF subsidizes it. MLS as a whole is a very strange and almost rediculous business model comparedd to all other sports, so this wouldn’t really surprise me.