This week, the powerful National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) relaxed their rules on pre-college affilation with professional soccer development and competition. Today, FC Dallas technical director Barry Gorman, former 24-year head coach of Penn State, explained to me what that means and what to expect going forward.
An Ireland native, Gorman played in the Irish League for ten years and also in NASL, and then coached 24 years at Penn State where he won three Big Ten Championships. He's also a former president of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA).
LE: Can you expain the recent change in NCAA rules as they apply to professional soccer development?
Gorman: Basically, what the NCAA has done with the rule change is they’re permitting players to play with professionals prior to them going into their freshman year in college. What that means is that we can have an academy player and he'll be able to play even in our first team with professionals as long as he doesn’t sign a professional contract and he’s still eligible to go to any college or university of his choice.
LE: Can he compete in a professional MLS match?
Gorman: Correct.
LE: How does that work contract-wise?
Gorman: He would just be signed on a regular academy contract as long as he’s registered with U.S. Soccer and obviously, the academies are going to be through U.S. Soccer and through MLS.
LE: Will those players be compensated for those games?
Gorman: No, if they sign a professional contract in any shape or form they cannot receive any kind of payment.
LE: And if they do receive payment, it would nullify their ability to play in college?
Gorman: Correct.
LE: Does this apply across the board to all sports?
Gorman: I believe so, yes.
LE: Who at U.S. Soccer participated in this conversation with the NCAA?
Gorman: That probably would have been Dan Flynn’s [CEO/Secretary General] office.
LE: How did this decision come about?
Gorman: It’s one of those things about opening talks and dialogue back and forth and the NCAA understanding that the face and nature of youth sports across the board is changing. It’s changing in things like tennis, it’s changing in things like golf, so it’s not just the traditional team sports as we think of them. It’s also changing in terms of the internationals that are coming into the United States to study and they’re coming from environments where an NCAA doesn’t exist.
LE: Were you involved in these conversations with the NCAA?
Gorman: No, not really. I was involved a few years back when they changed to the eligibility center and I met with people in charge at that time and that was just a matter of sharing information with them. We were very active with them and the National Soccer Coaches Association.
LE: Were there any other changes made in the rules in conjunction with professional development?
Gorman: Not that I’m aware of, but this is an ongoing thing that they’re looking at. It’s just basically the whole business - take our sport like soccer – a lot of times in other countries they’re signing young men to contracts when they’re very young. They might not even be thinking about college or university let alone coming to the United States to study. So the question is, do you go back and penalize a 14 or 15 year-old for signing a contract which may be very minimal, especially in terms of American terminology? Yet, you’re going to penalize him and his chance for an education and his chance for playing collegiately. So, those are the things that they’re going to look at and going to investigate, but it’s a big area to get a true handle on.
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