Only 30% of MLS NEXT players go to Division I soccer. The speaker says 40% skip college entirely, mostly because they don't contact schools or attend ID camps, not because they lack skill. He argues a top Division III school might offer more playing time than a lower-tier Division I program.
What are the statistics for you playing college soccer, say at the Division 1 level, if you play MLS NEXT? Let's look at a pie chart. So here are the statistics if you're playing MLS NEXT. This is from ChatGPT. Is if you are not playing MLS— or excuse me, 40% of those who play in MLS NEXT will not play college soccer. 30% will play Division 1, 15% will play Division 2, and 50% will play in here. Now, is this perfect? No. But what you need to understand is that most of the kids will not be playing college soccer. And the reason this is so important for you to know is it's not that the kids are not at the level. It's that they're not writing emails, it's that they're not going to ID camps, and that some of them are picky about which school they want to go to, and if they can't go to X school, they'd rather not play soccer. Which honestly is not a bad thing. I don't want anybody to go to a school just for soccer. They should be going just for academics. But if let's say you're choosing between only Division I and a top academic DIII, my argument would be you might play more minutes, have a great time, and enjoy it. On the other hand, I played Division I soccer. And didn't play a single minute for quite some time, but then eventually did. And that's 'cause that's what I wanted, and that's what I was open to. If you're not open to that, then college soccer might not be for you, and then you'll be part of the 40%. If you're an MLS Next and you want more help playing college soccer, give me a call, link's in the bio. Talk to you soon, goodbye.
