A recruitment advisor tells a high school junior with a 3.7 GPA that MLS NEXT exposure helps with Division I recruitment, especially at top academies and national tournaments. Coaches contact players from sophomore year on, with key windows in November and February-March. A 3.7 GPA typically unlocks $60-80k in athletic aid at Division I schools.
Should I play MLS NEXT? I'm a junior with a 3.7 GPA. Can I play Division I college soccer? Let's break this down. So first of all, MLS NEXT is fantastic. That means you're going to get exposure. It does depend on what level of MLS NEXT play are you playing. Are you playing MLS NEXT with an academy like FC Cincinnati? Are you playing MLS NEXT that's a little bit lower tier like a TFA, which have done really well in many tournaments? Or are you playing in a Barça residency? So it does kind of depend, but I will tell you, let's just say overall MLS NEXT usually means you're going to get exposure, especially if you're going to FEST. Or flexed or playoffs or Generation Adidas. So that is a good sign. So now I would tell you Division I soccer is in the cards because the exposure could be there. Now, are you good enough? That's another discussion. I would need to see your video. But number 2, as you said, you're a junior. So as a junior, I would tell you at this stage it is late in the process. Juniors typically, if you're going to the top 50 schools, have had multiple discussions with college coaches because remember, they could have been talking to you since June 15th of your sophomore year. And if they want to get a hold of you, they could have done so. On the flip side, I would also argue that it's certainly not too late. Most Division I schools are not going to be done, especially with this new roster cap, which is still coming out with different schools, until probably February or March. Now the scary part of me telling you that is you go, oh, I have all this time. Well, you don't have February and March to get recruited. At that point, you're either saying yes or no, and now you're competing with transfers and internationals. The only time you're not really competing with transfers because they don't know who's going to be transferring, is before the fall season. So once November 15th hits, which is typically when most seasons are done and ED1 is finished, that's when things become problematic because now the transfers are thinking about transferring and now the coaches might want to wait for them and it's a whole disaster. High school kids, you get the sole attention of college coaches during that entire time beforehand. And remember, most players in college soccer are still high school kids from the United States. There's a large international community. There's a large transfer community, but it is not larger than the high school kids. Most kids are still in high school. So all of that is to tell you that I think you could play Division I soccer. I would need to see your video. 3.7 GPA does allow you a lot of opportunities and a lot of scholarship potential of $60,000 to $80,000. We even had a kid get a $300,000, which is amazing. Reminder, most of the academic scholarships are in Division III, not in Division I. If you want the most scholarship, you should aim for Division III. If you want more help playing Call Talker, give me a call. Links in the bio, and I will talk to you soon.
