Two paths for college soccer recruits: narrow your list to dream schools and risk not playing, or stay flexible on location and cost to actually get on a team. Education matters, but willingness to compromise on where you go makes you more likely to play.
Now, if you say to me and my team, hey, you know what, I will not play college soccer unless it's at the following schools, then that's awesome. We will then help you try and play college soccer at those schools, but you must then know the consequence that there may be a chance you don't play college soccer. On the flip side, if you say I want to play college soccer and almost no matter what, I don't want to sacrifice my education ever, of course, but I'm willing to sacrifice where I live, I'm willing to sacrifice maybe the cost of the school so I can play college soccer, then you'll have a better chance of playing college soccer.
