What we would like to do is to in the longer-term to have a residency academy, bring in some players from the local area and foreign players into that academy,’’ Soler told the Post. "We would like to bring him and give him education, both school education and soccer education and build the project from there.
Red Bulls explore residence academy
It seems that many teams are exploring the desire for an Academy, and what's clear from this is that Red Bull doesn't have any respect for college (or other team's Academies, as they take a shot at the Philly Union through Hertzog), so they may not desire to follow regulations that maintain NCAA eligibility.
4 months ago
Dave Clark
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Eligibility
Not sure why you think this threatens eligibility. Seems more like a boarding school with sports training ? Soler even says, this is not a professional.
A boarding school paid for by the team
Not by the players’ families. It treads on the line.
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Zakuani was provided the same benefits under the Arsenal system
and didn’t seem to have trouble qualifying
Nos audietis in somniis
Nos audietis in altum
by Seattle Coug on Jan 26, 2012 12:36 PM PST up reply actions
I wonder, and i'm no NCAA expert, if they have different rules for non-Americans
Because if the LA Lakers paid for a private tutor and coaching for a 16 year old do you think the NCAA would declare said player eligible to play college basketball?
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There must be some exception for soccer
Even playing on a team with paid professionals for basketball will get you ruled ineligible (see: Kanter, Enes).
Nos audietis in somniis
Nos audietis in altum
by Seattle Coug on Jan 26, 2012 1:40 PM PST up reply actions
The NCAA is a fickle beast
The whole dichotomy that allows young men to play minor league baseball for five or six years only to return and play football has always bugged me. “We dont care if you were a professional at one point or another, just dont be a pro in your chosen college sport.”
Go banana!
Well Guy Landry Edi only got suspended for nine games
and he was in a professional league at 16.
I met a possum.
by s0merand0mdude on Jan 26, 2012 4:08 PM PST up reply actions
Kids go to private high schools on scholarship all the time
I’m not sure how different this is.
Editor/writer at Sounder at Heart, MLS editor SB Nation. Follow me on Twitter. You'll Never Yacht Alone.
by Jeremiah Oshan on Jan 26, 2012 1:55 PM PST up reply actions
Aren't those technically need-based or academic?
Nos audietis in somniis
Nos audietis in altum
by Seattle Coug on Jan 26, 2012 1:58 PM PST up reply actions
Are those funded by pro teams?
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
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I'm not sure it matters
If the money is for education, I’m pretty sure this would be allowable for eligibility purposes. RSL runs an academy and presumably has kids go onto college.
Editor/writer at Sounder at Heart, MLS editor SB Nation. Follow me on Twitter. You'll Never Yacht Alone.
by Jeremiah Oshan on Jan 26, 2012 3:09 PM PST up reply actions
It'll depend a lot on perks
If the academy solely provides education and standard levels of private school “swag,” then it might be fine. But if they are getting really specific soccer training/equipment/support that exceeds the maximum allowed value set by the NCAA, they might be ruled inelligible. That is at least my understanding of the ruling.
In the Kanter case, it was not as much that he played with paid players as it was he was paid a small stipend (very small from what I remember) and that was deemed over the limit.
So, if the Red Bull Academy travels and plays clearly non-HS tournaments and provides clear travel stipends for food and such while on trips, and that amount exceeds the maximum, from my understanding the players would risk being inelligible.
That said, simply being at a boarding school with tuition paid for based on athletic skill won’t do it. Plenty of private schools/prep schools recruit athletes, especially basketball players that need a grade boost and a gap year, and they get scholarships to attend. So to cross the line they will have to do more than simply provide an educational and athletic opportunity.
RSL runs a residency
but clearly cares about maintaining eligibility.
There’s no evidence that Red Bull cares about the college game at all.
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
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I'm starting to wonder if that's just going to be the way it works now
Our college-based development system gets quite a bit of heat from foreign observers.
I met a possum.
by s0merand0mdude on Jan 26, 2012 4:05 PM PST up reply actions
Unforunately, I think Dave's right about RBNY not caring
And that’s bad for the kids. Not all of them are going to get signed by the Red Bulls and will probably want to go to college. Maybe they’ll be eligible. Maybe they won’t. But I wouldn’t trust the Red Bulls to prepare my kids academically.
by Dizzo on Jan 26, 2012 5:25 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs
That
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Would you trust the Red Bulls to prepare your kids academically...
…if your kids were currently attending one of the worst high schools in New York City? I wouldn’t underestimate the number of kids in the NYRB catchment area who are promising soccer players and currently in really bad academic situations.
That's a very good point
But it’s a better statement on the dysfunction and inequity of a educational system largely funded by property taxes.
Hardship
I have always wondered the ones that get into a sports school for free on a hardship…how many are legit ?
I couldn’t get a read on whether the Red Bulls were finally giving in and admitting the college system is producing players and even in the opinion of the college haters, here to stay for a long time…..OR the opposite. I get the feeling whatever side they are going for….well, they have a tradition of being on the wrong side.
College is producing much better but
the product is rarely MLS ready. The programs that have come into place in the past decade are making huge strides forward in player development, sadly there’s still a disconnect between youth club players going into college and when the kids come out of college. Until the bridges, which I believe are a lot smaller now, are closed, we’ll fail to see many players grad from school and step into an MLS (or other professional leagues) roster and have an impact.
It’s a very difficult situation since education is a very high priority for American society. As long as the college system is just a means to get an education while playing a game our turnout won’t reach full potential. Colleges need to go a few more steps and bring their levels up so that they are trying to develop professional athletes not have kids play a game while learning. It’s what’s being done with football and basketball. The NCAA promotes schools to drive top athletes, it’s not just about the education…
by Timothy Winning Voyles on Jan 26, 2012 1:36 PM PST up reply actions
I disagree
College should be about learning. I’d hate to see college soccer go the way of college basketball and football where an education is a very secondary education. Especially since the pay for professional soccer is so much lower in the US. These kids need a good education so they have something to fall back on when their playing days are done. It’s one of the reasons I love the GA system. It gives the kids the option to go back and get their degree if pro soccer doesn’t work out.
Good point
But you shouldn’t just bring up basketball and football with their worse graduation rates (they actually are NOT that bad compared to the average population )
You should be looking at all the sports like soccer which are Olympic sports. Many of their graduation rates are through the roof AND they train athletes to be tops in the world in their sport. Happens repeatedly in many, many different sports.
College sports get a bad name, when in fact they have been extremely successful in training athletes in all sports including soccer, while educating them.
I agree completely
IMHO, its the corrupting influence of money that causes many of the problems of college basketball and football.
NYRB not expending effort on Superdraft and college may work for them
NYRB catchment area is somewhere between 10-15 million people, which is larger than at least 10 of the 32 countries at 2010 FIFA World Cup. They have been successful at developing local talent and will now reap the benefits of Ream’s transfer fee. In their case, focusing on finding and developing local talent and a handful of cherry picked international youths is a viable alternative.
That said the way they blow off the Superdraft is stoopid.
let's keep in mind
That Ream was acquired through the SuperDraft. So far, they’ve successfully developed one player from their academy.
Editor/writer at Sounder at Heart, MLS editor SB Nation. Follow me on Twitter. You'll Never Yacht Alone.
by Jeremiah Oshan on Jan 26, 2012 3:10 PM PST up reply actions
Frankly, until given reason to believe otherwise I think that "assume NYRB are idiots" is a good rule of thumb
by Aaron Campeau on Jan 26, 2012 4:30 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs
I thought it was "assume NYRB doesn't know they're not in Europe any more"
Then again, that would kind of prove your point.
I'm not trying to defend NYRB
and they may well be idiots. I like to give people/entities the benefit of a doubt. The point I was trying to (unsuccessfully) make is there are multiple paths to developing the talent base for long term success. Huge cities like NY and LA have some options not available to mid-market cities.
If I was a parent I don't know if I would want my kid going to a stay-in academy
What if he doesn’t make the team, and he’s just spent his time at an academy with sub-par academics and therefore has a hard time getting into a decent college?
I met a possum.
That depends on whether you think the academy has sub-par academics
At this point, there’s no way to say how good the academics would be at NYRB’s residence academy, and surely some kids would be coming from a situation where they were stuck in a sub-par high school in the first place.
It doesn't matter if I think the school is sub-par
It matters if colleges think the school is sub-par. And if it’s a school dedicated to teaching people soccer with academics on the side I have to be concerned.
I met a possum.
by s0merand0mdude on Jan 26, 2012 4:50 PM PST up reply actions
This seems needlessly pessimistic
My main point here is that you can’t slag the NYRB academics before they’ve even instituted them. Maybe the academy will be run by horrible people who want nothing more than soccer robots, or maybe the academy will be run like a private school with a really good soccer program with graduates that get really good scores on their SATs. In reality, it’ll probably be somewhere in between, but there will be ways to guage the quality of the education, like SAT scores, and for colleges looking for diverse student bodies, it allows them the opportunity to admit someone who had a different path to college.
And anyway, presuming that soccer talent is spread equally throughout good and bad schools as it is, then about half the kids who would qualify for such a program would be coming from sub-par schools in the first place.
My bet would be that the kids who go there will probably do better than they would at most schools because they’ll probably get lots of personal attention and structured time when they have to be focused on school work. That’ll show in their test scores and they’ll have plenty of options for post-secondary education.
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