njxc500 From United States of America, joined Dec 2007, 218 posts, RR: 0 Posted (3 years 2 weeks 2 days 17 hours ago) and read 1816 times:
My niece is picking her college based on their soccer program. First off, is there such a thing in the US...and where would you go to actually make money playing in the US? This whole thing sounds off to me, I'm thinking they are engrossed in this and don't realize what they are doing.
Is there a future in soccer for a US student that doesn't want to move overseas?
Also, I want to be clear I'm not knocking soccer, I just have this group of family that live for it.
Alias1024 From United States of America, joined Oct 2004, 2643 posts, RR: 2 Reply 1, posted (3 years 2 weeks 2 days 15 hours ago) and read 1764 times:
Yes, most universities and colleges have both men's and women's teams. Traditionally the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) has been the best women's program in the country. Notre Dame and the University of Portland are also usually very strong programs, but there are many other schools with good programs.
ANITIX87 From United States of America, joined Mar 2005, 3233 posts, RR: 14 Reply 3, posted (3 years 2 weeks 2 days 11 hours ago) and read 1726 times:
It is VERY difficult to walk onto a good sports program in the USA. If she wants to play soccer here, she'll have to get recruited by a school like Chapel Hill or Notre Dame, as Alias mentioned. The top programs in the country go out into high schools and do a lot of scouting and recruiting.
If she wants to play professionally, she needs to be in the very top of the elite players in high school, and has to have a recruitment agreement with a university to ensure she gets to play. Otherwise she risks not being able to get into a top team (the most likely scenario) or, if she DOES manage to walk-on, she won't get any playing time because the other girls will be recruits.
With how competitive college sports are in the USA, I'd recommend she go to a school where she can play soccer AND get a degree she's interested in. If she ends up at a lesser Division II or III school that has a strong academic program, she may be able to have a good varsity soccer career there and finish school with a productive degree. If she does well in the soccer program she may get noticed and scouted for pro teams, but, on the chance she does not, she will be able to enter the real world knowing she worked hard, got a good degree, played 4 years of competitive soccer, and ended up a well-rounded adult.
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Yes, but it pales in comparison to football and basketball at the college level. The recognition and popularity of football and basketball is exponentially larger.
Quoting njxc500 (Thread starter): and where would you go to actually make money playing in the US?
Well, MLS I suppose, but other than the designated player, the salary cap is only about $2.5 million. Compare that to the Pittsburgh Pirates who have a 2010 payroll of about $40 million.
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