COLLEGE SOCCER COACHES WANT TO SPREAD OUT SEASON
The St. Louis University men’s soccer team starts practice Tuesday, plays its first preseason game Saturday against top-ranked Notre Dame and is aiming for a spot in the College Cup in Cary, N.C., where the NCAA champion will be determined Dec. 14.
That’s pretty much the timetable college soccer has run on since the NCAA began sponsoring a championship in the sport in 1959, with the final creeping back a couple of weeks to accommodate a longer postseason. But under a proposal working its way through the college soccer world, that schedule might soon change.
College coaches are pushing a plan to change soccer from a fall sport to a year-round sport, with the championship in June rather than December. If all goes as hoped, the plan could enter the NCAA legislative pipeline in January and, if approved, the 2016 season would become the 2016-17 season. The season would be split, with 15 games played in traditional fall season, and then after a winter break, 10 more games and the postseason in the spring.
“I think it certainly is an interesting time right now for college soccer,” said SLU coach Mike McGinty. “With the success of the World Cup, pro franchises popping up all over the place, the crowds, the TV contracts, a lot is happening right now at a really accelerated rate. lot of people trying to get us to evolve,
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