Sports
U.S. Soccer recommends extending NCAA season
A committee working on behalf of U.S. Soccer has recommended that men’s college soccer switch to a season that stretches across the full academic year beginning fall 2026.
The recommendation comes after U.S. Soccer tasked the 17-person “NexGen College Soccer Committee” with finding solutions to evolve college soccer to, among other things, better prepare players to turn professional and compete at the international level.
The committee recommended that more time is needed to evaluate the best future construct of women’s college soccer, although the result could be the same recommendation as the men’s game. Regardless of how the college game evolves, the committee said in its report, which was released on Thursday, that it “believes strongly that any of these [four proposed] options are far superior to the status quo.”
Any changes, which still need clear the major hurdle of NCAA approval, would overhaul a college soccer system that has historically served as a development pathway for American pro players — especially women — but has not evolved with the modern professional game. Longstanding issues with college soccer include a truncated season played entirely in the fall, which puts heavy demand on athletes during that time and leaves them largely without competition for most of the year.
“The recommendations were designed to be able to deliver a better student athlete experience, to be able to provide financial stability, and to provide player development opportunities — which are the three things that everyone in college sports said they wanted,” U.S. Soccer CEO and secretary general JT Batson told ESPN. “We’re optimistic for this to be able to move at pace.”
Batson was not part of the committee. Dan Helfrich, principal and former CEO of Deloitte Consulting, chaired the group, which included club and league leaders from MLS, NWSL and USL, as well as athletic directors and a school president, among other stakeholders.
Under the proposal for men’s soccer, all 213 Division 1 men’s programs would still compete for the same championship, but in place of their traditional conferences, they would play regionally and within tiers of similarly competitive teams. Those tiers could change over time in a system similar to promotion and relegation.
Preliminary estimates in the committee’s report say that such a system could save programs $25,000 to $350,000 annually in operational costs depending on their current travel. Many current conferences, driven by college football, have been realigned with disregard for geography, creating cross-country trips for in-conference games.
Helfrich said two major “pain points” for college soccer are the condensed schedules that limit athlete recovery, as well as increasing costs associated with travel and preseason starting prior to convocation of schools.
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“The ultimate solution is a response to that,” he said.
The changes would only apply to NCAA Division 1 soccer.
Preseason would begin in mid-to-late August and the regular season would run until April, with a break from games and training in December and January. Games would largely be played on weekends, rather than the current structure of jamming multiple games into each week between August and December.
A championship would be played in May, which Helfrich said would give it a greater platform by not overlapping other college championships. That, too, Helfrich said, would have commercial benefits and give college soccer a greater platform for fan support, media visibility and sponsorship.
This proposed model would be better for everyone in college soccer, Helfrich said, not just the select few who are chasing professional careers.
“The experiences and the implications on all 14,000-15,000 Division 1 American soccer players, versus the hundreds that will or could play professionally, was a dominant part of the committee’s debate,” Helfrich told ESPN. “That was front of mind always: How do we make sure the solutions that we build are thoughtful to both of those constituencies?”
The 17-person committee held mostly virtual meetings every few weeks this year to work on the proposal and analyze four different potential options for college soccer’s evolution. The most conservative option that was analyzed, which could still happen on the women’s side, is a slightly expanded fall season with an added spring competition for elite teams.
Federation president Cindy Parlow Cone, who won three NCAA titles at North Carolina in addition to winning a World Cup and a pair of Olympic gold medals, initially brought the idea to Batson & VP of strategy Emily Cosler to see how the federation could help. Cone had been speaking with University of North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham about the team’s budget and realized how unsustainable it was in the current model. That was Cone’s first “What if?” moment.
The women’s game is unique in several ways, including that it’s much larger at the college level with 350 D-1 programs — and the gap in quality between the national contenders and mid-major schools is much wider.
Batson said it is “a huge red flag” that American women’s players in that college age range (roughly 18-22 years old) are not playing the same number of minutes as their peers in Europe.
Cone and Helfrich both said they hope to have a recommendation in place to implement in women’s college soccer for the 2027-28 academic year.
“There are more challenges on the women’s side, so we feel like we needed to have more discussions, more learnings there, until we put out, ‘this is best for the women’s game,'” Cone told ESPN. “It could be different from the men’s game. It could be exactly the same. But we need to take a look at it, as Emma [Hayes, USWNT coach] likes to say, through the female lens. There’s still more to do there, so we are going to do that work.”
The next challenge in the entire process is the NCAA, which has historically been slow to evolve and included significant bureaucratic red tape, as evidenced with how women’s college basketball had to force structural changes in recent years. There have been major overhauls of late in the NIL (name, image, likeness) era, however, which has left everyone at U.S. Soccer confident that these changes could be implemented quickly. Cone said everyone in the process is “leaning in.”
Helfrich said the next step in the men’s college soccer process should be the committee holding formal conversations with NCAA soccer sub-committees in the coming weeks, and that wider group drafting legislative proposals and timelines before the end of the calendar year. The goal is to have the new system launch next August.
“I will tell you confidently that neither the conferences nor the NCAA will be surprised by this release, because we’ve been collaborative,” Helfrich said. “Part of the reason we’ve done that is to create a smoother on-ramp to governance conversations.”
Among the ideas in the proposal is increased flexibility around player eligibility, which is specifically a pain point in soccer, where players sometimes turn professional as teenagers and sacrifice their college eligibility. The ideas include a “second chance” pathway for players have a stalled professional career, as well as increased opportunities with professional teams without sacrificing college eligibility.
These proposals come at a time when development leagues continue to sprout up in the U.S. MLS Next and multiple tiers of USL already exist on the men’s side, while the NWSL has said it plans to launch a second division in the coming years, in addition to WPSL Pro — which combined would add over 1,000 new professional roster spots on the women’s side.
U.S. Soccer believes these can all co-exist with college soccer — and that the federation’s responsibility is to unite them.
“It’s an example of when you bring all of the parts of the American soccer ecosystem together, you can come up with ways to drive greater impact and greater outcomes,” Batson said. “The American soccer market has grown tremendously over the last couple of decades.
“However, there’s a lot of fragmentation. The role of U.S. Soccer here is one of a convener, an aligner, and ultimately our goal is to catalyze that great energy into the outcomes that everyone cares about. We want soccer everywhere in this country, and we want our teams to win. We are now a soccer country.”
GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Green Bay Packers are keeping Matt LaFleur as head coach, sources told ESPN on Saturday.
He has signed a multiyear contract extension that a source said is “not a prove-it deal but a real commitment.”
The two sides met early in the week to discuss the future direction of the organization. They were joined by general manager Brian Gutekunst and vice president/director of football operations Russ Ball, and the first order of business was to make sure they had the right threesome in place.
Once they all agreed to move forward, LaFleur’s contract was the first order of business. It didn’t take long, and the deal was agreed to on Friday evening and signed on Saturday. Deals for Gutekunst and Ball are also in the works, sources said.
It was the first major decision by new team president Ed Policy, who took over in July for Mark Murphy. It was Murphy who hired LaFleur in 2019 to replace Super Bowl-winning coach Mike McCarthy.
The Packers are keeping their organizational structure in place even with the new extensions, sources said, as Gutekunst and LaFleur will continue to report to Policy.
The Packers lost in the wild-card round of the playoffs for the second straight season, but this time it was in a devastating fashion. Not only did they blow an 18-point halftime lead and give up 25 points in the fourth quarter, but they did it against the rival Chicago Bears.
LaFleur and Policy spoke briefly on the plane ride home from Chicago after the loss and then again after they returned to Green Bay to discuss the coach’s future.
LaFleur had one year left on the contract extension he signed in 2022. He would not say whether he would be willing to coach the 2026 season without a contract extension, but he reiterated that he would prefer to remain as the Packers’ coach even though he would likely be a top candidate for other NFL head coaching jobs.
“This is one-of-one,” LaFleur said Sunday when he met reporters the day after the season ended. “I love this place. I love the people. … I love our players, the locker room, everybody in our organization. I mean, this is a unique place. The community has been outstanding.
“I’ve lived in other places, so I think this is a unique place, and it’s a special place. My kids love it here; my family loves it here.”
Policy said last summer that he would prefer not to have a coach or general manager work into the final year of their contract, but at that time also said he was not ready to offer any extensions.
“I’m generally opposed — I’d never say never — [but] I’m generally opposed to a coach or GM going into the last year of their contract,” Policy said last June, shortly before he officially took over as president. “That creates a lot of issues. I think normally you have a pretty good idea of where that relationship is going when you have two years left — not always, but normally.
“So I think generally speaking I would avoid lame-duck status. It’s oftentimes difficult on everybody involved. But there are certain situations that probably call for it, so I would not say never.”
That ramped up the pressure on the 2025 season, which ended with five straight losses.
LaFleur has a 76-40-1 regular-season record as the Packers’ coach, the fourth-highest winning percentage (.654) among all active NFL head coaches, and his 76 wins tied for second most in NFL history by a coach in their first seven seasons.
LaFleur received a strong vote of confidence from quarterback Jordan Love after Saturday’s loss.
“I definitely think Matt should be the head coach,” Love said. “I’ve got a lot of love for Matt, and I think he does a good job. And that’s it.”
The Packers have made the playoffs in all but one of LaFleur’s seven seasons. However, after posting three straight 13-win seasons and going to two NFC Championship Games, LaFleur is 37-30-1 over the past four seasons with only one playoff win — a wild-card game in the 2023 season.
LaFleur was hired in 2019 in part to get Aaron Rodgers back to an MVP level, and that’s exactly what happened. Rodgers won the award twice (2020 and 2021) under LaFleur. He also was charged with developing Love, who three seasons into his starting career appears to be Green Bay’s franchise quarterback.
LaFleur came to the Packers after one season as playcaller with the Tennessee Titans. Before that, he was part of the Kyle Shanahan-Sean McVay coaching family.
Perhaps the biggest issue during LaFleur’s tenure was his hiring of coordinators. He fired four coordinators in his first five seasons. He retained defensive coordinator Mike Pettine from previous coach Mike McCarthy’s staff but moved on after two seasons. Pettine’s replacement, Joe Barry, lasted three seasons before LaFleur hired Jeff Hafley in 2024. LaFleur also had three different special teams coordinators. Rich Bisaccia has been in that position since 2022 after LaFleur fired Shawn Mennenga after two seasons and Mo Drayton after one.
LaFleur said he expects to lose Hafley to a head coaching job but would not say whether he planned to make any other coaching changes.
Liverpool have completed the signing of North Carolina Courage captain and Republic of Ireland international Denise O’Sullivan, the clubs announced Saturday.
The 31-year-old midfielder departs as the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) club’s all-time appearance leader after playing in 186 games during her nine seasons in North Carolina.
O’Sullivan now joins a Liverpool team that sits bottom of the Women’s Super League (WSL), without a win in 12 matches.
“It means a lot. It’s a very proud moment for myself and also for my family, who are now only a 40-minute flight away,” O Sullivan told Liverpool’s website.
“Liverpool is a massive club and I think when you join a club as big as Liverpool it comes with massive responsibility and I can’t wait to get to work and to give 100 per cent every day.”
After joining North Carolina in its inaugural NWSL season, O’Sullivan played a part in winning seven league trophies — three Shields, two Championships and two Challenge Cups.
She had been named captain ahead of the 2023 season.
“It’s hard to put into words what this club has truly meant to me,” O’Sullivan said in a statement from the Courage. “North Carolina will always be my home, and I’m forever grateful to the Club, my teammates, and the incredible fans who supported and believed in me every step of the way,”
“I’m on to a new challenge now, but I’ll always be a part of Courage Country. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for everything.”
The arrival of O’Sullivan, who has won 128 caps with Ireland, comes a day after Liverpool announced the loan signing of Martha Thomas from Tottenham.
The Scotland international, who joined Spurs from Manchester United in 2023, has agreed to move to Liverpool for the remainder of the season.
PA contributed to this report.
After delivering a sweeping indictment that led to the arrest of 26 individuals and busted open a college basketball point-shaving scheme that tainted dozens of games over the past two seasons, U.S. Attorney David Metcalf delivered some perspective.
“There has been a spate of these gambling cases recently,” Metcalf said. “I will say that the evidence in this case shows that the monetization of college athletics, through the liberalization and proliferation of sports betting markets, as well as the normalization of compensation in athletics, furthered the enterprise …
“But it’s complicated, right?” Metcalf continued. “As we allege in the indictment, certain players were targeted because they were somewhat missing out on NIL money and they were being targeted so they could supplement their NIL compensation.
“Whether or not they would have done or not done a particular crime based on whether other athletes were being paid, I don’t know.”
Metcalf and his colleagues out of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, not to mention the FBI, appear to have done stellar work here.
Each defendant is presumed innocent in a court of law, but anyone from the court of public opinion who reads the 70-page indictment would likely concede that evidence of malfeasance is strong.
Too many participants to maintain a conspiracy, too much money wagered on obscure games to remain under the radar and way, way too many incriminating text messages.
Some of the athletes might have had their priorities warped by legalized sports wagering and the fact that college athletes can cash in on big bucks these days through name, image and likeness.
As Metcalf smartly noted, though, it’s complicated.
And not an excuse.
If what the indictment alleges is true, then every athlete involved deliberately violated well-known laws, instinctual competitive concepts and the core bonds of team play that are present from D-I basketball down to a random 2-on-2 game at the park.
You don’t need to receive the extensive education that the NCAA provides, lectures from coaches or posters in the locker room to know what’s right and what’s wrong here.
No one should try to cry that they are a victim of a changing society. The proliferation of gambling apps or the fact that some kid at Duke or Kentucky is making millions doesn’t justify bricking a bunch of shots in the first half for a kickback.
NIL gets blamed for nearly everything in college sports these days. Can we spare it from this at least?
This is about personal accountability. This is about consciously choosing alleged criminal behavior.
That’s it.
While it is likely easier to rope in a player who doesn’t have a lucrative NIL deal, recent gambling scandals have caught up NBA and MLB players making millions as well.
That’s just society — there are more than a few doctors and lawyers and Wall Street types shuffling around the prison yard.
And yes, legalized sports wagering is prevalent these days, in your face everywhere you turn, including on ESPN.
So what?
Whether legalized betting is helping or hurting here is, in Metcalf’s terms, complicated.
The increased outlets for placing bets certainly help central figures such as Shane Hennen or Marves Fairley to allegedly wager major sums on minor games — such as $458,000 across multiple sportsbooks on a 2024 Towson-North Carolina A&T contest.
In the old days, you had to walk into a Las Vegas sportsbook to make that bet. It would have been immediately rejected. Whatever amount would have been allowed, probably wouldn’t have been worth rigging the outcome.
That said, the ever-increasing integrity efforts of sportsbooks, not to mention sophisticated state and federal regulators, no doubt played a role in flagging these schemes and then leading authorities to the charges.
Point shaving isn’t new. It was just traditionally done by organized crime to impact illegal, underground betting. That operated largely in the dark, with no protections and few prosecutions.
Legalized betting may have made these schemes easier to pull off, but also easier to bust. It, in turn, should serve as a cautionary tale.
This case isn’t about legalized sports wagering or NIL deals.
It’s about, per the feds’ narrative, a clumsy group of game-fixers convincing individual players to selfishly betray their common sense, their education on existing laws, their teammates, coaches and parents and a dream opportunity to play scholarship basketball in an effort to make a quick extra buck.
They screwed up a great deal to chase a bad one.
That part isn’t complicated.
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