ID clinics don't matter when there will be significantly less roster spots for the next 3 years. There will be significant impact on the 21s/22s/23s and even 24s

How so? Are you saying that most kids will stay an extra year?

5th year only applies to those who had their season canceled. However some players red shirted or deferred a year south theywill also be around longer. It's made recruiting a mess and thrown the usual planning timeliness out the window. Yes, fewer spots, less money but that doesn't mean you should give up on something you want. More so than ever, targeting the right programs will be critical to success. If you're a 22 keep hustling, make sure to video all your games, and plan on ID events this summer. Go see schools you're targeting if you can - very few have tours but you can at least walk around campus and see if you like it. All campuses look great in the online tours but it won't show you if its next to a lousy neighborhood or nothing in the way of shops and restaurants nearby

Some kids, particularly those who want to play in college, are taking PG years, thus increasing the pool of '22 players, increasing it with kids a little bit older, a little bit bigger, with one more year under their belts, and with one more year of being in conversation with coaches.

This will effect kids from 2021 down to 2024s. Every college kid in every sport was given an extra year, now what percentage take advantage of that extra year is the question. Certainly most. But freshman are basically freshman again and so on. Just a mess.

No idea how widespread this is, but it is definitely happening.
Some Freshman ‘20s deferred (covid not a surprise last fall), and some college seniors who missed last fall are returning with eligibility. Both limit spots for committed ‘21s. some 21s were asked to take PG year to be ‘22s. Now there are fewer ‘22 spots... and the cycle continues. Will be a few years to balance out in some programs

Maybe when everyone realizes that on-line education is the future in the present tense and that higher education is a bit of hoax, revenue from tuition and r&b will plummet. Institutions will de-fund non revenue producing sports, like soccer......go study.

5th year eligibility, red shirts and deferrals have all shrunk the number of spots and money. Be very careful with targeting the right programs, more so than ever

At some schools yes, others no. Big sports won't go away at some schools. Nor will parental willingness to pay top dollar for a top notch education. Lesser programs and schools are facing some critical decisions about their product offerings and pricing. NYT this weekend had a piece about how applications are way up at top schools and down at lesser ones. There will be a restructuring of the higher ed industry but it won't happen over night.

While I'm pretty confident this fall most campuses will be fully operational again, we've discussed with our graduating HS senior the what ifs. If school will be even partly on line, lots of limitations then they will defer and/or take basic credits from home or a state campus + work. Sucks when you've worked so hard for something but paying that kind of money for a very suboptimal experience isn't worth it. My college senior can't wait for it to be done. It's been pretty crappy and they already had their social and professional networks rolling

Keyword is "Experience" and "Networks". That's why families pay a premium.
Schools offering experiences, and access to a community will survive.
Sports play a big role in both of those.

The "haves" will continue to overpay for the residential college experience and the "have nots" will go the commuter student/online platform route. The equity gap will continue to expand at an exponential rate. Colleges will be fine in the end because the pandemic forced them to become more efficient, which will benefit them when the revenue starts to trickle back in.

It depends on if you are talking about D1 scholarship players or just the average D1 (full tuition) and D3 players.

On the boys side it was devastating for 2021's. 2022 will be mildly affected. I think what you will see is a lot of activity in the transfer portal. Kids that weren't selected for their top choice school because there weren't a lot of spots available had to settle at a school that they aren't excited to go to and there will be a lot of transfer activity...which will mess up college coaches recruiting.

If you are paying anywhere from $30-65k per year for your kid to go to college and play soccer then it is doubtful that you will allow your kid to stick around another year just to play soccer for that much money.

If they have professional aspirations they are usually higher D1 scholarship players and since the cost is low it makes a lot of sense to do a 5th year...but there's not a lot of those in New England.

So many assumptions here. If your 2021 player was lucky enough to be recruited at all, even at a school they weren't initially excited about, they may get on campus and love it, especially if they are able to get on the field and contribute.

Secondly, even if you go into the transfer portal, there is no guarantee you will be picked up. The transfer portal is already over-inflated and a ton of athletes are already discovering just because you played "some" college ball it doesn't mean another school will want to pick you. You're basically having to compete with a lot of other college athletes and unless you're something special, you're likely not going to get transferred to a school that would have been your top choice to begin with.

Instead, you're literally better off not accepting a spot at a school that you know you'll hate and settle with a school that you will (at the very least) enjoy, even if it means not playing soccer or coming down a level.

Because of the dead period, a ton of D1 level players are getting scholarships at D2 and NAIA. A lot of them are also committing to D3 schools because all of them are recruiting and at D3, they may be getting a better overall financial aid package with less out of pocket money than had they chose D1. The biggest scam in D1 equivalency sports in general is how much money parents are willing to pay for a D1 label at a sub-par school. If you're paying over the amount of your state flagship school with room and board and a mediocre OOS D1 school no one has heard of, I have a bridge to sell you.

Also, those D2/NAIA coaches are getting great athletes that will help strengthen their programs and those athletes are probably going to be stars on those teams. Pretty good outcome if you ask me, especially if you can walk away with a college degree with zero debt.

Here's a harsh reality rarely anyone discusses esp at P5 programs. Coaches will "recruit" players knowing they will never see anytime (or very little time) on the field if that means parents will pay a substantial amount of money to attend there when the player is on little-to-no scholarship. Why do you think some rosters are 30-40 players deep? Coaches have enormous pressure to bring in revenue for the school. If a player is offered "book money" and signs an NLI but pays $40-70k/year (even with merit aid), that is a win-win for the school, youth club, and the parents that flex they have a collegiate D1 athlete.