A Division I soccer coach discusses ideal roster size as a potential rule change to 28 players looms. He argues for around 30 players to field a full lineup, cover injuries like calf strains and hamstring pulls, and handle academic issues. Depth keeps a team competitive when players are unavailable.
What is the roster size that college coaches are looking for, specifically at the Division I level? Let's hear from a college coach right now. Now, I want to preface this with the rule that there's going to be a 28-man roster now is not completely solidified, and this college coach kind of talks about that.
In terms, in terms of the team, is there a roster size that you find is ideal that you're trying to hit each year? And, and I'm assuming that it's going to change to be 28 for next season anyway, right? Yes and no, right? Yeah. All right.
We don't really know what's going on, but I think 30 is kind of a good number. You know, I think people, they're over hyperfixated on the number sometimes. Like it's sort of my— like this sounds like an oversimplification, but if you're good enough, you should play. If you're competitive enough, you should play. If you're doing the right things, you should play, right? But if you have a roster that's 20 or below, you got an instance where you can't go full field and play 11v11, so you lose that dynamic, right? So like, if you've got 25 and 5 players are injured at one time— is sort of my experience— like calf strain or hamstring pull, or you have a season-ending injury, not to mention like if you've got an academic issue or somebody's ineligible or whatever has to happen, like you've got to plan for sort of all the stuff.
This coach is a great human being. You want to find a coach who's a great person so when you have your ups and downs you can find communication with them because it's inevitable that at some point you will end up on the bench or you will end up injured. If you want more help playing college soccer, give me a call. Links in the bio. Talk to you soon. Bye.
