The Pro's & Cons Of Transferring College Soccer Programs
Caption goes here
It’s that time of year, the tail end of the season, and in terms of recruiting it’s probably the most interesting period for me as a college soccer recruiter, it’s really make or break for many clients. What I mean by ‘make or break’ is that I find that this time of the year is when most of my clients will come back to me fielding their frustrations around their respective college soccer program…and of course, on the other side of the fence, their elation at what they have accomplished throughout their inaugural season. In a tongue and cheek kind of way, this is the time I pull out the leather couch and turn on ‘sports psychologist mode’!
In the past week alone, I had 3 of my clients discuss the possibility of transferring, it happens more often than not! It’s never an easy conversation, as there are just so many factors in play when it comes to even thinking about transferring to a new college soccer program in the USA. Ultimately, it comes down to ‘fit’, and while that term gets thrown around a lot in recruiting circles by recruiters like myself, coaches and players alike, transferring is not an easy process to undertake, and the stats as you will see below are very surprising in terms of the amount of college soccer players that look toward transferring out of their respective schools each year.
The question of whether to move into a new college soccer program, or not, is loaded with a myriad of different variables, with questions being asked, such as “would I gain any further scholarship money from the move?”, or…"will I even get any playing time in the next soccer program I attend?”, among a multitude of scenarios. These are all really deep and pressing questions, and never easy to answer when you are looking at your next potential move in the college soccer system from the “outside-in”, that is, there are many unknowns to cater to if you do decide to move on from your current college soccer program.
In this article, I’ll walk through the many different variables I encounter when talking through the process of transferring into a new college soccer program with my clients. I’ll also put my 20+ years of coaching at an elite level “hat” on and give my thoughts on how I tap into my clients mental mind states, to either help them punch on in a tough competitive environment with their current college soccer program, or move onto a new college soccer program in another state in the USA.
But first…let’s uncover the surprising stats of the NCAA transfer portal….
The Transfer Portal & It’s Surprising Stats
In 2018, the NCAA initiated the college transfer portal, which gave the opportunity for college soccer players to be able to list their names and stats online in a private database that is only viewable by college soccer coaches. Basically, the NCAA transfer portal is an open shop window for college soccer coaches to recruit players looking to transfer out of their current college soccer programs directly.
Typically, it would be assumed that once on the transfer portal, you’d have a slew of opportunities opening up to you as a college soccer player, with some time in the game (for however long you’ve been at your current program), though statistically, of the many thousands (yes, thousands) of college soccer players that may list their details on the transfer portal, less than half (50%) find a new school to attend .
I came across an excellent tweet from former college soccer coach Scott Martin (you should check his blog out, it has some fantastic stats), and it showed some surprising statistics about the amount of college soccer players in NCAA D1 and NCAA D2 (over 12,000 or so), and over 19% of these players looking to transfer at some point in their college career.
It begs the question, simply, as to ‘why the move into a new college soccer program?’ Why are these college soccer players transferring? The answers lie in a variety of different variables that are sometimes out of reach for many of these student athletes to grasp, though they can be telling, and a testament to the ingrained legacy system of college soccer recruiting and how rosters are built, including the motivation of coaches.
At a high level, the two key variables that come to light from Scott’s analysis, and my own experiences managing college soccer players through their time in the college soccer system in the USA, typically come down to:
Transparency in the recruiting cycle
Coaches motivation behind building a competitive roster
I won’t say that I know every motivation about the close to 700 college soccer coaches in my direct network that I have access to for my clients. Each one of these coaches have their own processes & methods, and each prospective college soccer transfer should look at trying to answer some questions internally during their decision to potentially move to a new college soccer program, such as:
How are these college soccer programs funded?
How does a college soccer coach divvy up their mostly limited budget they are provided to recruit college soccer players?
What ways do college soccer coaches typically run their training sessions?
What is the prototype of a player that matches what any number of college soccer coaches are looking for specifically for their program?
How does a college soccer coach sell their college soccer program to prospective student athletes and their families etc.
Simply put, each and every college soccer coach has a unique way of dealing with their respective program and the way they field their recruiting activities, and it pays a college soccer recruit and their families to ask some hard, structured questions during the recruiting process, and again, the above questions could be leveraged in a recruiting cycle.
Asking those hard questions in the recruiting process can be a game changer, and even more so, analyzing any roster historically (year per year) for any college soccer program that may be interested in recruiting could show you a familiar pattern of turnover in players that can open up further questions in the recruiting process.
Why would you assume the above situation with roster churn, for example? It would assume that potentially, the quality of the coaching, or the way that a player was recruited into a program, didn’t match the expectations of the coach and coaching staff, among a myriad of scenarios.
Ultimately, as a recruiter I make sure our clients have many of these observations outlined in preparation for any recruiting call with a prospective college soccer coach, and it’s a great way to uncover whether a college soccer program will be the right fit for the client up front before making a commitment to any respective college soccer program recruiting you.
Other examples, and something that I can very easily assess, is how a college coach may build a roster over many competitive seasons, how many players do they have on these rosters, and other variables such as if they have a junior varsity team (a second team).
Both of these factors (roster size & secondary rosters) will have a potential impact on the amount of time, and or the ability to gain traction in a competitive soccer program for a college soccer player in their Freshman year and beyond.
Another variable to consider is that scholarships are competitive, and limited, and with that in mind, a college soccer player has to compete aggressively for time. Factor in that many rosters (especially in NCAA D2 and the NAIA) are housing a slew of players from international markets, and many of these coming out of top tier academy environments globally, it becomes extremely hard to compete and gain traction in any competitive college soccer program.
I’ve had national team level clients (those that represented their countries in Youth World Cups), who have entered extremely competitive college soccer programs in the USA, and have found it hard to break through to gain minutes regularly in their first year. I always tell these clients (and most of my clients in general)...“you’re a small fish in a VERY big pond” that makes up the USA college soccer landscape, and you need to know exactly that prior to wanting to enter a top tier college soccer program. For every elite player like yourself, there may be several more that you are competing for time with, and you have to accept that will be the case throughout your time in that particular college soccer program.
Sometimes, unfortunately, coaches may “sell the dream”, only to provide a very different experience when you hit the ground running, but again, it’s always about being prepared in the initial recruiting cycle, and asking the hard questions of the coaches and internally, of yourself, so that you are crystal clear of the expectations required of you to be competitive in any college soccer program that is engaging you for your services on the pitch and in the classroom. Again, transparency is extremely important in the recruiting cycle, and coaches should be up front with prospective student athletes from the get go.
The above examples are really just variables that I wanted to flesh out to give you clarity as to why a prospective college soccer player entering into the USA college soccer system, may look toward a transfer opportunity in their first year. Though, perhaps, when the chips are down, and odds are stacked against you, as per the above scenarios, can these pressure cooker environments (at least on the soccer pitch), actually build character, fortitude and resilience in adverse situations? I ponder this often, and I relay the same to any of our clients who may be thinking of transferring…that is, sometimes it’s best to stick it out, and the ‘grass isn’t always greener on the other side’.
Should I stay…should I go? The pros and cons of sticking it out.
It never really is an easy question, for any college soccer player, as to sticking it out with their current program, or moving onto ‘greener pastures’, though sometimes the answer is that we have a narrow view of where we fit in a larger competitive roster. I think every student athlete should look toward uncovering what their ‘role’ in a roster really is from the very start of the recruiting process with any college soccer coach that has interest in them.
Coaches may tell you positionally, where you’ll play any given game (or not), though you may be one of four players on a 30 man, or woman roster that plays the same position, and you’d have to compete aggressively to break through and earn playing time. Minutes simply are not guaranteed, and ‘guarantees’ should never be articulated as such in the recruiting cycle.
Simply put, you have to earn your keep, and think of this process in any given college soccer roster, as a long game of 4 years of constant ups and downs, hard work and hopefully, growth as a player and person. In those years, you will inevitably develop into a full time roster player, though, the question will remain, how much pressure will you be able to take. This above scenario runs in parallel with what you’d experience in any professional soccer environment.
It’s a hard thing to weigh up mentally for any college soccer player, given you may have been the star player in your hometown, though, in your college soccer program you have to compete against 30 others (this is the size of some competitive soccer programs) from all around the world. One of the many mental roadblocks I see many of our college soccer clients undertake is that they absolutely love their college (their education and lifestyle), though they are finding that the level of competition in a very competitive college soccer roster is making them second guess their own soccer ability.
That very same feeling of uncertainty, that pressure, is inevitably a good thing if you embrace it with a positive mindset. To give context as to why… again, I’ve been coaching soccer at an elite level for some 20+ years in Sydney, Australia, and the past two years I spent in the A-League youth system. I saw so many excellent players, tap out too early, moving from club to club if they don’t get the chance to gain minutes and play in the first team, and they end up in this constant recycling bin of local football from one club to the next, until they ultimately fade out with their careers.
In the above scenario, if these same players have been given the opportunity by a coach to stay on from one year to the next, inevitably they would be able to grow into first team players with a lot of hard work and effort. Simply put, IT’S ALL ABOUT THE LONG GAME, and we can’t expect to be playing in the highest competitive environments from day one, and nor should you rack your brain about the reason why you aren’t starting.
As a developing soccer player in any environment (professional or USA college soccer) you should ask plenty of questions, yes, but never assume that you’ll always get the answers “you want to hear” to appease your own thoughts on why you may or may not be playing from any coach. Again, the next step you may take, may not be the very best, and the same goes for college soccer. This transition will always inevitably come down to making sure it’s the right fit.
Typically, I see that the transition into a new college soccer program for our clients after two years in the system, with my support and guidance, is a better run for them, again, the caveat here is that they stuck it out for a few years at their prior program, racked up as many minutes as they could playing, learned all the tangible and intangible traits (leadership, work ethic etc...), do exceptionally well in the classroom (don’t ever overlook your grades!) that a coach is looking for, and they progress into their new college soccer roster as a senior, more tenured player who can really impact their program.
Sticking it out over four years, in a very competitive environment, can see you grow in some excellent ways, those intangible traits we spoke about in a previous article here, become amplified, especially when you’ve had to fight for your position on a roster, and then heading into your senior years, you become a dominant part of the college soccer roster, and potentially a leader on and off the field.
Again, it all comes down to how much pressure you can take over a larger amount of time, and ultimately, these kinds of environments are not always the right fit for every college soccer player, and sometimes, you will have to make your next move to a new program.
Can you turn it around (extra training, leadership traits)?
That initial Freshman year is typically always the toughest, especially for international students coming into a totally new cultural environment. I recall a recent conversation I had with a men’s D1 college soccer coach in California looking at one of our Australian college soccer recruits, tell me point blank that our client would be a great “locker room guy”, but wouldn’t get any notable minutes for at least a few years in his system.
From what the coach could take away from my clients full game footage which was provided to him and his staff to analyze, he felt the client would be paying his way on his particular roster, and that he may be able to gain “some” academic scholarship. That same coach was honest enough to mention that a better fit for that same client of mine would be at a high ranked NAIA or NCAA D2 college soccer program, and I took that information on board and relayed it back to our client and family. The client ended up in a nationally ranked NAIA program and was a big impact for that particular college soccer program, so it all ended well with some solid, no BS advice from a top tier college soccer coach.
So, if you did ever end up in a top tier college soccer program, and you found yourself being that “locker room guy”, how do you turn that around over a period of 4 years? Most players would fold, and look for the exit, some players embrace the challenge, and give back to the team dynamic in other ways, whether taking on leadership roles within the team, taking on responsibility with other parts of the team environment, and showing that they can assist in other ways that will have a marked impact on the roster. Again, it’s not for everyone, and most players want to play right away, though it’s food for thought.
In relation to the above, one of the takeaways of being in professional environments myself, or having played alongside players that went to the very top of professional world football, is that some would mention as they transitioned into elite academy environments in Europe (in particular), they would do anything…sometimes even polishing the boots of senior team players (which is the norm as a youth team player in Europe), to show that they were ‘invested’ in cracking into the team at an elite professional youth club.
I know that in college soccer the above scenario would be a bit over the top, though, It’s the little things you do and show as a player every day in these highly competitive environments outside of training that can assist you in breaking into a roster down the line potentially….it’s how you play the game! For some players, everything comes easy, for others, they have to put extra sweat equity into the experience and see what comes from it.
Another variable I see unfold early in a college soccer player's career, and this is something I see play out with many of our own Australian clients, when it comes to playing time, is that typically it’s not for a lack of their technical ability. Sometimes, it’s just the lack of physical conditioning and adaptation to the higher physical demands inherent in a highly competitive college soccer roster in the USA that sees these clients lagging behind the rest of their teammates early on in their college soccer career.
It takes time, for many international college soccer players to adapt to the demand and the load of training and playing they will encounter in the college soccer system (compressed preseason and in season play doesn’t help), and just like with players I engage and develop in ‘cub land’ here in Australia, I ask the same question of my college soccer recruits, and that is, ‘how hard are you working when no one is watching’?
The thing is, you can’t solely rely on your technical abilities, and to be not only on top of your game, rather, ahead of it and highly competitive in a college soccer roster, you should take advantage of the myriad of world class facilities and coaching resources available to be able to put in those extra hours when your season is done and your coaches aren’t around. Ultimately, volume outside of the competitive season needs to be maintained, and you always have a shot in year 2 of your college soccer journey to earn your keep if you put in the hard yards in the Spring and Summer.
In this article, I tried to give some insights, from my own personal coaching and playing experiences, and also data from other college soccer coaches, into the many layers around the college soccer transfer process, and the variables that come into play should you decide to stay on with your current college soccer program, or whether you decide to move onto a new college soccer program post your Freshman year, and what you should expect with that type of transition.
Ultimately, asking the hard questions up front, and really doing the groundwork, and not just relying on a sales pitch from a college soccer coach in the recruiting cycle sets a good first step to uncovering where you’d want to study and play in the USA college soccer system in your first year and beyond.
Always remember…the grass isn’t always greener on the other side, so be aware of why you are moving college soccer programs in the first place, should you ever decide to dip your toes into the college soccer transfer market, you may not always get the outcome you wanted…or potentially on the flip side, if you’re lucky enough, you may open up a new door and achieve some great outcomes!
