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What is a pain in the rear and the wallet is the travel to visit schools. That is a change that the ncaa could make which would really help out soccer parents.

Because all the recruiting is done before the start of senior year all of the visits are "unofficial" and on the parents' dime. If official visits could be done during the junior year then kids could more realistically check out schools with an interest, but that are out-of-state. And, you could quickly determine how interested a school was in your kid if they will willing to invest $1000 in travel costs to get them to come visit.

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If you play on a team in Las Vegas or in one of the other big showcases, those schools will probably be there, so you can get visibility without ECNL. You can also look into the large showcases back east, find out if you have any connection to a team playing there (maybe your coach knows a club back there that is playing) and you can fly out and guest. Lastly, you can go to an ID camp at those schools. I will admit, it might be more work, but you can get seen by the other Power 5 schools without ECNL. That said, ECNL is going to give you the exposure through their showcases and through the finals tournament.

Yes this is all true, I think the cost will be similar though and that seems to be the big concern with ECNL. Another issue is after the commitment too. It is nice in ECNL that my daughters future coach (not local by a long shot) watches her at every ECNL event which is a great preparation for when she plays for him in the future. I agree ECNL isn't necessary, my daughter did have offers prior to ECNL (not exactly what she wanted, but still offers) however, now that ECNL is in Oregon, the best part is players have the option and this discussion can exist. So if a player wants to play ECNL and get in that exposure without having to do the leg work on their own, they can now.

[Unregistered]

What is a pain in the rear and the wallet is the travel to visit schools. That is a change that the ncaa could make which would really help out soccer parents.

Because all the recruiting is done before the start of senior year all of the visits are "unofficial" and on the parents' dime. If official visits could be done during the junior year then kids could more realistically check out schools with an interest, but that are out-of-state. And, you could quickly determine how interested a school was in your kid if they will willing to invest $1000 in travel costs to get them to come visit.

The flip side is, that now with unofficial visits being the way it is done, even though it is spendy, it is also a way for those East Coast schools to know that a kid/family is really serious about moving across the country for school. Probably not going to spend the money if they are not. It is easy to go look if it is free and use up the school's recruiting budget. The limit of 5 official visits isn't really a deterrent either because if a player has their sites set on a local school they can do those as unofficial and get free trips out of it. I agree it would be helpful. As a parent who paid for multiple out of state unofficial visits, I would of appreciated earlier official visits a lot!

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Yes this is all true, I think the cost will be similar though and that seems to be the big concern with ECNL. Another issue is after the commitment too. It is nice in ECNL that my daughters future coach (not local by a long shot) watches her at every ECNL event which is a great preparation for when she plays for him in the future. I agree ECNL isn't necessary, my daughter did have offers prior to ECNL (not exactly what she wanted, but still offers) however, now that ECNL is in Oregon, the best part is players have the option and this discussion can exist. So if a player wants to play ECNL and get in that exposure without having to do the leg work on their own, they can now.

I agree. I know of some really good players who just can't afford ECNL and have managed to get what they want. They just can't afford it and the time committment was too much (mainly travel time to practice). For some kids, they just can't afford an hour drive to practice, an hour and a half practice, thirty to forty five minute drive home three to four nights a week. 3+ hours away is too much for them. But they ended up getting what they wanted, so that is great.

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Don't forget if your child is a power 5 quality player they could play as a discovery player on most teams. Depending on the team you might be able to pick the events and spend less on travel. At the end of the day travel expensive and if you want to be seen by schools in the power 5 outside of UO or OSU travel is a must.

Very true.

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If you play on a team in Las Vegas or in one of the other big showcases, those schools will probably be there, so you can get visibility without ECNL. You can also look into the large showcases back east, find out if you have any connection to a team playing there (maybe your coach knows a club back there that is playing) and you can fly out and guest. Lastly, you can go to an ID camp at those schools. I will admit, it might be more work, but you can get seen by the other Power 5 schools without ECNL. That said, ECNL is going to give you the exposure through their showcases and through the finals tournament.

The knock on ECNL is the travel cost. Playing as a guest player on the east coast or attending other big showcase events is costly and not any different than anything else. If you live in Oregon and what to be seen them you are going to have to get on a plane and travel

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The knock on ECNL is the travel cost. Playing as a guest player on the east coast or attending other big showcase events is costly and not any different than anything else. If you live in Oregon and what to be seen them you are going to have to get on a plane and travel

There is no doubt. I was just pointing out that you can do it without ECNL, but I agree, it will be expensive either way. One of the prices we pay for living on a coast is long travel times which means cost. For both us to travel to the Mid West or East Coast and for schools there to travel out west. From that perspective, living in the Mid West is an advantage. Even with ECNL, I really doubt that we have more than one or two girls every few years who go to an ACC or SEC or even Big Ten school. Our girls who can get offers from Pac 12 schools could also get offers to those schools, I just don't think its going to happen much. I'm a little surpised that more girls haven't gone to Big XII schools. I'm not expecting two or three every year, but I would think one every two or three years would go there. I don't recall seeing anyone in the past four years going there.

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There is no doubt. I was just pointing out that you can do it without ECNL, but I agree, it will be expensive either way. One of the prices we pay for living on a coast is long travel times which means cost. For both us to travel to the Mid West or East Coast and for schools there to travel out west. From that perspective, living in the Mid West is an advantage. Even with ECNL, I really doubt that we have more than one or two girls every few years who go to an ACC or SEC or even Big Ten school. Our girls who can get offers from Pac 12 schools could also get offers to those schools, I just don't think its going to happen much. I'm a little surpised that more girls haven't gone to Big XII schools. I'm not expecting two or three every year, but I would think one every two or three years would go there. I don't recall seeing anyone in the past four years going there.

Down the road, maybe ECNL and the access to those schools will change that. I know a couple sophomores this year that had Big12 and SEC options but when the PAC12 came knocking there was no contest. I think if you are a teenager and was born and raised here, the weight of PAC12 dwarfs the other power conferences. Living even in the Midwest would change that, but West coasters seem to be less mobile than people from farther east, not sure why that it, maybe it is our more laid back culture that makes them less adventurous, not sure!

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There is no doubt. I was just pointing out that you can do it without ECNL, but I agree, it will be expensive either way. One of the prices we pay for living on a coast is long travel times which means cost. For both us to travel to the Mid West or East Coast and for schools there to travel out west. From that perspective, living in the Mid West is an advantage. Even with ECNL, I really doubt that we have more than one or two girls every few years who go to an ACC or SEC or even Big Ten school. Our girls who can get offers from Pac 12 schools could also get offers to those schools, I just don't think its going to happen much. I'm a little surpised that more girls haven't gone to Big XII schools. I'm not expecting two or three every year, but I would think one every two or three years would go there. I don't recall seeing anyone in the past four years going there.

One girl from central Oregon is a freshman at TCU. Possibly another next year.
It will be interesting to see how ECNL changes the locations, if at all. No doubt that many of the girls who presently are going to Pac 12 schools could play all over the country. I agree that many/most still will elect to stay out west, but it will be interesting to see what happens when they are getting calls from coaches at other conferences.

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One girl from central Oregon is a freshman at TCU. Possibly another next year.
It will be interesting to see how ECNL changes the locations, if at all. No doubt that many of the girls who presently are going to Pac 12 schools could play all over the country. I agree that many/most still will elect to stay out west, but it will be interesting to see what happens when they are getting calls from coaches at other conferences.

I didn't know that anyone from the state went to TCU, good for her.

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I didn't know that anyone from the state went to TCU, good for her.

Texas Christian University impresses you? Not for the soccer I hope.

Good for them and I wish them well. I bet they get homesick. While Fort Worth is sort of cool, TCU has some ultra wealthy old family money. I would hate moving from here to there. I did it the opposite.

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Texas Christian University impresses you? Not for the soccer I hope.

Good for them and I wish them well. I bet they get homesick. While Fort Worth is sort of cool, TCU has some ultra wealthy old family money. I would hate moving from here to there. I did it the opposite.

Don't know the family or girl. TCU is a great school. I love all these soccer "elitist" that think if you don't go to a top 25 soccer school then you made a poor decision. Always love the immature morons that make stupid comments like, "TCU impresses you? not for the soccer I hope"

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Don't know the family or girl. TCU is a great school. I love all these soccer "elitist" that think if you don't go to a top 25 soccer school then you made a poor decision. Always love the immature morons that make stupid comments like, "TCU impresses you? not for the soccer I hope"

Haha, I was thinking the same thing as you, like why in the world do we need the negative comments on her choice, wow?

I think TCU is a great school and she must of had felt like it was a good fit too to choose it!

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Texas Christian University impresses you? Not for the soccer I hope.

Good for them and I wish them well. I bet they get homesick. While Fort Worth is sort of cool, TCU has some ultra wealthy old family money. I would hate moving from here to there. I did it the opposite.

I was the one who posted this and yes, it impresses me. It's in a Power 5 conference of which very very few players get offers to. I never said that it is on a level of UNC or FSU or Notre Dame. And academically, its a fine school. Coming from Central Oregon to get an offer there is pretty impressive. As to the money at the school, yes, there is a lot. But not every kid is wealthy, certainly not every soccer player I bet. My guess is that they will do fine as long as they don't mind being two time zones from home.

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I was the one who posted this and yes, it impresses me. It's in a Power 5 conference of which very very few players get offers to. I never said that it is on a level of UNC or FSU or Notre Dame. And academically, its a fine school. Coming from Central Oregon to get an offer there is pretty impressive. As to the money at the school, yes, there is a lot. But not every kid is wealthy, certainly not every soccer player I bet. My guess is that they will do fine as long as they don't mind being two time zones from home.

Don't want to stray outside of Oregon. Good God, 2 time zones away. Let your kid go or you must be the parent that still wants to drive to practice and watch even though they are in college