Minutes from the Committee Meeting
October 17, 2025 — Committee Meeting # 12
This is a Special Edition of the Kickback Minutes. We will resume our normal format next Friday.
MLS Decision Day:
October 18th marks Major League Soccer’s Decision Day, with two windows of simultaneous kickoffs for the Eastern and Western Conferences. We’re going to take on a few of the headlines as the season concludes:
- The big MLS headlines of 2026? The surprise clubs atop the table. After missing the playoffs in 2024, Philadelphia Union have clinched the Supporter’s Shield. Equally or more impressive may be potential Western Conference winners Vancouver Whitecaps and San Diego FC, who have set a League record for the best expansion season in history.
- Decision Day may lack a ton of intrigue in the East, but the battle for playoff positioning in a historically competitive Eastern Conference may determine MLS Cup. Clubs like Orlando City and Nashville, sixth and seventh respectively, have the quality to win it all. Avoiding the play-in game and potentially earning home field advantage later in the tournament could have a massive impact on the playoffs.
- In the Western Conference, the two big battles are at the top and at the playoff line. Highly crucial home advantage is on the line amongst the top three of Vancouver Whitecaps, San Diego FC, and LAFC. Meanwhile, at the playoff line, FC Dallas, Colorado Rapids, Real Salt Lake, and San Jose Earthquakes are battling for the last two playoff spots.
- The most intriguing match on the calendar may be the Battle for the Wooden Spoon. The Wooden Spoon is the unofficial fan-created award for the last place team in MLS, and the D.C. United vs. Atlanta United match will determine 2025’s “winner.” This is the match of choice for the real sickos.
- Elsewhere, the MVP award seems to be on lock for Lionel Messi. His 26 goals are likely to clinch the Golden Boot, while he also leads the League in assists. If it wasn’t for the GOAT, San Diego FC’s Anders Dreyer, FC Cincinnati’s Evander, and LAFC’s Dennis Bouanga would all be deserving winners.
- The 2025 Coach of the Year candidates are assuredly the strongest class in League history. Vancouver Whitecaps’ Jesper Sorensen, who has navigated multiple tournaments to lead the club to easily their best season ever, is the favorite. But any other year, San Diego’s Mikey Varas, Philadelphia’s Bradley Carnell, and Nashville’s B.J. Callaghan would likely be favorites for the award.
The Future of College Soccer
John Parker, Kickback Soccer Media CEO
U.S. Soccer released its highly anticipated whitepaper proposing a new path forward for college soccer in the U.S.
College sports is undergoing a massive transformation. NIL and the transfer portal have transformed the player’s experience, and College Football driven re-conferencing has created massive travel requirements for competition.
Coinciding with college soccer’s role in the soccer landscape being diminished due the earlier professionalization of Men’s and Women’s players, there’s unanimity about there needing to be some changes undertaken to reinvigorate it. I will tackle some of the recommendations, and the challenges at hand, below:
#1
Problem: The first problem for college soccer, tackled by the report…the schedule. With the Fall soccer schedule, college athletes pack in matches in three months and train for less than half of the time that their peers do in the pros, in the U.S. and abroad.
Proposal: Match the European schedule, August to May. The proposal eliminates midweek matches, and increases training opportunities. The recommendation is to begin the shift for the men in 2026, and women soon thereafter.
My Take: This is a no-brainer and should be adopted for both men’s and women’s, but the question is if it’s enough. The 18-22 matches is light in comparison.
#2
Problem: Eligibility. With professional soccer in the U.S. professionalizing at younger and younger ages, Americans face a question their international counterparts don’t…do you sign a contract, but lose your eligibility for college soccer and a scholarship?
Proposal: Create a “second path” for professionals who saw their career’s stall, and allow mobility for players with their professional clubs who maintain their rights. In short? Eliminate the decision, and allow players to leverage professional development from a young age without making an arbitrary sacrifice.
My Take: This. Is. Crucial. This is not a challenge for international players, and both limit what professional clubs can invest in a youth player, and limit options for the players. This change will make a massive difference in player development in the U.S.
#3
Problem: College sports have ditched the pretense. It’s a business, and the business is College Football. Sports like soccer? Forced to incur unsustainable travel and costs.
Proposal: A regionalization model that avoids the current conference architecture, and instead creates a localized hierarchy with a Pro/Rel model. It looks a little like Brazil’s professional model, that combines matches with local teams at a similar level of the pyramid with teams at different levels in the region. This is the most comprehensive, complex recommendation in the proposal.
My Take: This will be the most difficult recommendation to execute, but I love the focus on rivalries and the innovative approach to decrease costs and travel. My only disappointment? Rumors that college soccer would be integrated into the lower levels of professional soccer (how great would it be to see the University of Washington play Spokane Velocity?).
My Final Thoughts:
These changes are all good, and desperately needed. College sports is an amazingly unique part of the American soccer tapestry, and offers thousands of young athletes the opportunity to continue playing, developing, and being a part of the American soccer community.
The recommendations are common sense, and clear improvements. The question I pose, is it enough? College soccer’s relevancy is greatly diminished on the men’s side, and increasingly so on the women’s. With college sports inviting private equity investments and reorganizing around its profit centers, soccer is under threat. With men’s and women’s soccer professionalizing at younger and younger ages, the development environment is increasingly not up to par.
These proposals are a minimum, and a necessity. I hope these recommendations are adopted, and provide the foundation to create a development platform analogous to lower division professional leagues around the world, while leveraging the amazing passion that college sports fans offer for their teams.