The College Soccer Guy ranks youth soccer leagues by how much exposure they give to college coaches. MLS Next and ECNL get scouted earliest, starting freshman year. Players in lower leagues can still get recruited by D-III and D-II schools through ID camps and building interest from smaller programs.
What is the youth soccer pyramid and why do you need to know in order to play college soccer? I'm the College Soccer Guy. I help you play college soccer. Let's get into it. This video is brought to you by Sweet Greens. I literally just bought 5 meals worth. That is going to be amazing and super delicious. Very excited. So we're going to start top to bottom. We're going to do boys first, then we'll do girls. So when it comes to boys, traditionally speaking, we're going to say MLS is the highest tier. The reason this mainly matters is exposure rate. Again, there are players in the NPL and E64, which we're going to talk about that might be better than MLS Next players, but it's the amount of exposure that you're receiving, and that's why it's important. So starting on the boys' side, we've got MLS Next, then it's ECNL. NAL is a new league, but it's still so new it's hard to know where it stacks up. So for the time being, we're going to call MLS Next top, ECNL number 2, then ECNL, then Boys Elite Academy, USL Academy, maybe UPSL. But the problem is UPSL doesn't get a lot of exposure. USL Academy is probably a really high level, arguably higher than ECNL, but they don't go to the same amount of showcases. So It's not just the level of like which is better, but which one gets the most exposure. And then of course, if you're winning, that plays a part of it. And if you're on the worst team in ECNL, is that better than being on the best team in ECNL RL? You know, that can vary and that gets complicated. That's why I encourage you to give me a call if you need help with that. So now you've got MLS, ECNL, then let's call it Boys Lead Academy. There's just the boys for right now. Then you have ECNL RL, NAL, then you have N64, uh, sorry, NPL, NPL Pro, E64, CCL. Those levels are You are still possible to play college soccer, but there's a lot of hurdles that you're going to have to address with those types of teams because the exposure rate is just a lot less. And you have to go to ID camps no matter what level you play. We have students who are playing MLS Next and they have to go to ID camps. We have players that play E-64, they have to go to ID camps. Now the simple thing is, if you are a sophomore, one of the things that we want to work on, and a junior, is working on playing at the higher and higher levels. It's just the reality because that's where the exposure rate is. The girls is pretty much the same except there's no MLS Next. So ECNL is the top, then Girls Lead Academy. ECNL RL is probably tied with Girls Lead Academy, and then you have DPL, and then all the other leagues that are the same. What you need to know is in the college recruiting process, when you write an email and you say, I play for MLS Next so-and-so, you're more likely to get a response. Same with ECNL. That's just the reality. Now, to combat that as somebody that's maybe not playing in MLS Next, what you want to do is get interest from lower level college teams first, because then if you email and say, I have college interest from so-and-so, that means a lot. That weighs a lot. Now, the students that I tend to work with tend to be MLS NEXT, ECNL level, because those are the types of players that have been driving longer, playing longer, and wanting to play, and frankly are more passionate about playing at the collegiate level, just like I did. Now, I really want to help students that care a lot. So regardless of what level you're playing, if you're very passionate, those are the types of students that I want to work with. If you're an MLS NEXT player with really high level GPA, you have you have to start the process earlier than everybody else because you want to go to the top, top schools and they're the most competitive. When it comes to the lesser competitive groups, say the lower tier D3s or even lower tier D1s or lower tier D2s, they will recruit through December, January, maybe even March. But the higher level ones, which are the schools kind of we all think about, they recruit so much earlier. So you need to start freshman, sophomore year. If you want more help in the recruiting process, give me a ring. Links in the bio. Talk to you soon.
