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.”
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has confirmed that the upcoming tri-nation T20 series will proceed as planned despite Afghanistan’s withdrawal.
According to a PCB spokesperson, discussions are underway to include a replacement team in the tournament, and a final decision regarding the third participant will be announced soon.
The tri-nation T20 series, featuring Pakistan and Sri Lanka, is scheduled to take place in Pakistan from November 17 to 29.
The PCB reiterated its commitment to ensuring the successful hosting of the event, saying all logistical and operational preparations are continuing as per schedule.
Earlier, Afghanistan pulled out of the tri-nation series with Pakistan and Sri Lanka next month.
Liverpool face strong competition from Bayern Munich for Crystal Palace defender Marc Guéhi, while Internazionale defender Federico Dimarco has admirers at Manchester United. Join us for the latest transfer news and rumors from around the globe.
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TRENDING RUMORS
– Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Real Madrid are leading the race to sign Marc Guéhi in January, The i Paper reports. The Crystal Palace defender’s contract is set to expire next summer, meaning the reigning FA Cup holders are keen to cash in before he can depart on a free transfer. While Liverpool almost signed Guéhi back in August, a host of clubs around Europe could now rival them for his signature. Palace won’t let the England international leave on the cheap in January, despite the likes of Bayern being keen to land him “at the first opportunity.”
– Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim is a huge fan of Federico Dimarco and would like to bring him to the Premier League, according to Tuttosport. The Inter Milan full-back, whose contract expires in 2027, has been in exceptional form so far this season, with two goals and three assists from his first six Serie A matches. United could face an uphill battle to secure his signature, however, as the dynamic left-back would like to end his career at Inter, amid talk of a bumper contract extension.
– Everton will be able to sign winger Jack Grealish for under £50 million next summer, according to the Daily Mail. Despite the winger’s strong start to life on Merseyside, it is believed that his transfer value will depreciate over the course of the season — which could help Everton sign him permanently. Grealish, 30, has grabbed four assists in seven matches this season, rediscovering his best form, and presenting England manager Thomas Tuchel with a selection headache.
– Bayern Munich are set to open talks with midfielder Leon Goretzka over a new contract. The Germany international, 30, is set to become a free agent int he summer if he does not sign a new deal at the Allianz Arena. Goretzka, who is in his eighth season at Bayern since joining them from Schalke 04, has started five Bundesliga matches for the defending champions so far this season. (Christian Falk)
– Eintracht Frankfurt are “keeping a close eye” on Club Brugge midfielder Raphael Onyedika, according to Florian Plettenberg. The 24-year-old is viewed as a potential replacement for Hugo Larsson, whose future at the Bundesliga club is currently uncertain. Eintracht have a long-standing interest in Onyedika, who has been the subject of several enquiries from clubs around Europe. According to Plettenberg, a transfer next summer appears “likely”.
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OTHER RUMORS
– Liverpool view Borussia Dortmund defender Nico Schlotterbeck as a potential long-term replacement for Virgil Van Dijk. However, the Reds face competition for his signature from the likes of Manchester City, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich. (The i Paper)
– Juventus are monitoring the situation of Newcastle United midfielder Sandro Tonali. (Football Insider)
– Crystal Palace midfielder Adam Wharton is “at the very top” of Manchester United’s midfielder shortlist. (TEAMtalk)
– Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United are all interested in signing Juventus forward Kenan Yıldız. (Football Insider)
– Several clubs are monitoring Genoa midfielder Morten Frendrup. The Denmark international has recently signed with a new agency, ahead of a potential transfer in 2026. (Fabrizio Romano)
– Sunderland will not revive their interest in Bologna defender Jhon Lucumí in January, contrary to reports in Italy. (Sky Sports News)
– Olympiacos are planning on extending centre-back Lorenzo Pirola‘s current deal. (Nicolo Schira)
– RB Leipzig and Eintracht Frankfurt are battling to sign Inter Milan defender Yann Aurel Bisseck, who has a €40 million price tag. (Ekrem Konur)
– Graham Potter is getting closer to becoming the new head coach of the Sweden national team. The former West Ham United boss looks set to join on an initial short-term deal, tasked with taking the team to the 2026 FIFA World Cup. (Fabrizio Romano)
LOS ANGELES — It’s easy to take Shohei Ohtani for granted. By now, we’ve settled into the rote comfort: He is the best player on the planet, and that’s that. Ohtani’s baseline is everyone else’s peak. He is judged against himself and himself only.
And it’s human nature that when we watch something often enough — even something as mind-bending as a player who’s a full-time starting pitcher and full-time hitter and among the very best at both — it starts to register as normal.
Which is his performance on Friday — the unleashing of the full extent of Ohtani’s magic — was the sort of necessary reminder that one of the greatest athletes in the world, and the most talented baseball player ever, is playing right now, doing unfathomable things, redefining the game in real time. And that even when he starts the day mired in an uncharacteristic slump, Ohtani needs only a single game to launch himself into the annals of history.
Where Ohtani’s performance in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series ranks on the all-time list of games will be debated for years. In the celebration following the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 5-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers, though, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts stood on the field and said, “That’s the greatest night in baseball history,” and no one cared to argue.
Over the course of 2 hours, 41 minutes, in front of 52,883 fans, with millions watching domestically and tens of millions more in Japan, Ohtani threw six shutout innings and struck out 10 in between hitting three home runs that traveled a combined 1,342 feet, including one that left Dodger Stadium entirely. It was the sort of game that happens in comic books, not real life — and it was a game that completed a championship series sweep and sent Los Angeles to its second consecutive World Series. It was the kind of night that leaves patrons elated they saw it and also just a little ruined because they know they’ll never see anything like it again. Everyone was a prisoner, captive to perhaps the greatest individual game in the quarter-million or so played over the last century and a half.
It was, at very least, one of the finest displays of baseball since the game’s inception, up there with Tony Cloninger hitting two grand slams and throwing a complete game in 1966 or Rick Wise socking two home runs amid his no-hitter on the mound in 1971. And unlike those, this came in the postseason, and in a game to clinch Los Angeles the opportunity to become the first team in a quarter-century to win back-to-back championships.
It wasn’t quite Don Larsen throwing a perfect game — but Larsen went 0-for-2 in that game and needed a Mickey Mantle home run to account for his scoring. It wasn’t Reggie Jackson hammering three home runs, either — because Reggie needed Mike Torrez to throw a complete game that night to make his blasts stand up.
Ohtani is the only player who can do this, the offense and the defense — the mastery of baseball, the distillation of talent into something pure and perfect..
Hours earlier, his day had started by navigating the tricky balance of starting and hitting on the same day. His metronomic routine, such a vital piece of his three MVP seasons (the fourth will be made official in mid-November), is upended completely when he pitches. He budgets for the extra time he needs to spend caring for his arm by sacrificing his attendance at the hitters’ meeting, instead getting the intel he needs from coaches in the batting cage about an hour before the game.
Nobody could tell, when Ohtani arrived in the underground cage Friday, that he was mired in a nasty slump that had stretched from the division series through the third game of the NLCS, a jag of strikeouts and soft contact and poor swing decisions and utter frustration that got so bad earlier in the week he’d taken batting practice outside at Dodger Stadium, something he never — like, really, never — does. He had decided to do so on the plane ride back from Milwaukee, where the Dodgers had humbled the Brewers with the sort of starting pitching never before seen in a league championship series.
Game 4, his teammates were convinced, was going to be a culmination of that extra cage work and the matching of his pitching peers’ dominance.
“You guys asked me yesterday, and I said I was expecting nothing short of incredible today,” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said. “And he proved me wrong. He went beyond incredible.”
After walking the leadoff hitter Brice Turang, Ohtani struck out the next three hitters, popping a pair of 100-mph-plus fastballs and unleashing the most confounding version of his splitter seen all year. He followed by obliterating a slurve from Jose Quintana in the bottom of the inning for a home run, the first time a pitcher ever hit a leadoff homer in the game’s history, regular season or playoffs.
The strikeouts continued — one in the third inning, two more in the fourth, preceding Ohtani’s second home run, which left 50,000 mouths agape. In the stands, they cheered, and in the dugout, they whooped, and in the bullpen, they screamed: “The ball went out of the stadium!” Alex Vesia, the reliever who would come in after Ohtani struck out two more in the fifth and sixth innings, could not conceive that a person could hit a baseball in a game that far. Officially, it went 469 feet. It felt like 1,000.
“At that point, it’s got to be the greatest game ever, right?” said Vesia, who did his part to help keep it so. Ohtani allowed a walk and a hit in the seventh inning, and had Vesia allowed either run to score, the sparkling zero in his pitching line could’ve been an unsightly one or crooked two. When he induced a groundball up the middle that nutmegged his legs, Mookie Betts was in perfect position to hoover it, step on second and fire to first for a double play that preserved Ohtani’s goose egg.
In the next inning, Ohtani’s third home run of the night, and this one was just showing off: a shot to dead center off a 99-mph Trevor Megill fastball, a proper complement to the second off an 89-mph Chad Patrick cutter and the first off a 79-mph Jose Quintana slurve). If it sounds impressive to hit three different pitches off three different pitchers for home runs in one night, it is. To do so throwing six innings, allowing two hits, walking three and striking out 10 is otherworldly.
“We were so focused on just winning the game, doing what needed to be done, I’m not sure we realized how good it really was,” Dodgers catcher Will Smith said. “I didn’t really appreciate it until after. Like, he actually did that?”
Yes. Yes he did. In baseball history, 503 players have hit three home runs in a game, and 1,550 have struck out 10 or more in a game. None, until Friday, had done both. And that’s what Shohei Ohtani does, who he is. For eight years, he has transformed what is possible in baseball, set a truly impossible standard to match, and now, finally, having signed with a franchise capable of giving his talents the largest stage, Ohtani gets to perform when it matters most.
Milwaukee won more games during the regular season than anyone. Regardless of how impotent the Brewers’ offense was this series, they were a very good team, and the Dodgers flayed them. The final game was an exclamation point — and a warning for the Seattle Mariners or Toronto Blue Jays, whichever survives the back-and-forth American League Championship Series.
Shohei Ohtani awaits. Good luck.
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