The proposal for a year-round men’s soccer season passed a critical vote Wednesday, leaving only one hurdle blocking the sport from shedding its “antiquated” playing calendar, in the words of Virginia Coach George Gelnovatch.
After being affirmed by the NCAA Division I Cabinet, the move will face a 30-day rescission period, according to an NCAA press release. If it survives, it will take effect next season.
“I’ve been in support of it for more than a decade,” Gelnovatch said at his media availability last week.
The model will redistribute the men’s soccer season — currently squeezed between early August and late December — across the Fall and Spring semesters. The fall season will stretch from late August to mid-November, and the spring season will start in mid-February.
Teams will be allowed to play up to 18 games in the fall segment and 10 games in the spring segment. However, the model maintains the current limit of 25 total games per season.
Postseason dates have not been decided on, the release said. But an example calendar released in January marked May 15 as the NCAA Tournament championship date.
“The year-round playing season has long been supported by stakeholders in the men’s soccer community as a better way to develop talent in the sport,” the press release said.
In January, the NCAA Division I Men’s Soccer Committee introduced the current legislation. In its report, the committee noted that the fall-only playing season “no longer reflects the realities of the sport or the expectations placed on today’s men’s soccer student-athletes.”
In May, the committee adopted the proposal, sending it up to the Division I Cabinet. The cabinet remanded the proposal back to the committee in June. But Wednesday it passed the vote — narrowly.
Because the vote passed with less than 75 percent approval, it enters a 30-day rescission period where any eligible school or conference can submit a vote to defeat the measure. Two-thirds of members must vote to defeat the measure, or it will take effect.
High-profile college soccer coaches have long supported the measure.
“It's antiquated. I don't know how else to say it,” Gelnovatch said. “Anybody that argues otherwise, for whatever reason … doesn't know enough about the leagues and how high-level elite players — which I consider our team and most of the teams in the ACC — should be playing and want to play.”
The move will more closely align college soccer with the international soccer calendar. The MLS is making the same change in 2027-28.
“All of the players that come to us from MLS academies or from Europe or anywhere else, they play eight months out of the year,” Gelnovatch said. “They come here and they play four.”
JT Batson, the U.S. Soccer Federation’s CEO, celebrated the vote on social media, and Maryland Coach Sasho Cirovski, long a spearhead behind the idea of restructuring, chronicled the journey.
There has been pushback. When the DI Cabinet remanded the proposal in June, it noted opposition from 20 Division I conferences. They worried about the duration of the season and the strapped resources. But as of now, the two-semester season is closer to happening than ever before.
Michael Liebermann is a senior associate on the sports desk and formerly served as a sports editor for the 136th term of The Cavalier Daily. He is a fourth-year College student, majoring in English in the literary prose concentration. Michael is from Westfield, N.J., and enjoys writing about men’s soccer, basketball and lacrosse. Outside of The Cavalier Daily, Michael is involved in Men’s Club Soccer and the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity.
Read More
Even with a comeback win, it’s hard to be confident in Virginia football
By Drew Dillman | 39 minutes agoA win is a win. However, a comeback, one-score win over a team starting their backup quarterback is certainly not as indicative of success as every other win.
Men’s tennis qualifies three more for the NCAA Individual Championships
By Margaret Piatos | 6 hours agoAfter dominating a field full of local teams, the Cavaliers will have even more chances at the NCAA Individual Championships in both singles and doubles.
Women’s tennis dominates at the Wahoowa Invitational
By Margaret Piatos | 14 hours agoFacing the likes of West Virginia, James Madison and Marshall, the Cavaliers handled business.
