Our U21 team is currently completing a horrid performance in the CAC qualifiers. I listened to the interviews conducted by O'cconor, Patriot & crew and one of the things that jumped out at me was the significant number of players that we had playing in US Colleges. I have a couple questions out of curiosity, that I hope some of the knowledgeable folks on here can help me out with....or perhaps just give an opinion.
1. What are the various programs at which our overseas players play ?
2. Are any of these programs "reputable"? What are their seasonal records ? Who are the coaches and what have they won ?
3. What does our technical staff know about these programs ?
4. Were our overseas based youth more talented than our locals at the College's league level ?
5. Based on the two performances of the U21, are the overseas youth exhibiting superior ability than our local players ?
Below is the end of 2005 NCAA Mens DIV 1 top 25 ranked football/soccer programs.........there are many other good programs in the States, but just as an exercise, compare the answer to question No.1 to the list below.....might be interesting. It's good to see that we're expanding our scouting base, but I just wonder how strategic such an expansion is, and whether or not the quality of the scouting base is improving with such expansion.....food for thought.
1 Maryland
2 New Mexico
3 Akron
4 Clemson
5 Southern Methodist
6 North Carolina
7 California
8 Creighton
9 Connecticut
10 Virginia
11 Penn State
12 Indiana
13 California State-Northridge
14 St. John's
15 Duke
16 UCLA
17 North Carolina-Greensboro
18 Notre Dame
19 Wake Forest
20 Santa Clara
21 Old Dominion
22 California-Santa Barbara
23 Virginia Tech
24 (tie) South Florida
24 (tie) Wisconsin-Milwaukee