Who Needs the NCAA Anyway?

I’d like to bring attention to one of the most interesting programs in college sports—the BYU men’s soccer team.

Before 2001, the BYU Cougars were one of the most successful club college soccer teams in the nation, winning seven national titles in the previous nine years. However, despite their runaway success, the team found it impossible to convince the athletic department to promote the team to varsity status. Without the possibility of NCAA competition, the coaches decided to try something unprecedented for a college team. In 2003, the Cougars joined the Premier Development League, a soccer league with semi-professional teams that’s part of the same family of leagues as Major League Soccer.

The obstacles that the team needed to overcome were many. The most basic issue was money—to join the PDL, a team must pay a significant franchising fee. There’s also the need to overcome the image that one is pursuing this route to circumvent NCAA regulations. And finally, there is the level of competition. Despite their trophies and accolades at the college club level, BYU went 2-15-1 in their first year in the PDL.

The growing pains would prove to be lesser than the Cougars’ determination. By 2006, the team was able to finish second in their division and make the conference finals during the playoffs, all while competing against teams such as the Real Salt Lake Reserves, the development team of MLS franchise Real Salt Lake.

The Cougars are a fascinating example for the rest of college athletics to study. To be sure, not every program can emulate the choice BYU has made. For most sports, the leagues are either top level or no level, few have development leagues for college teams to slot into. Funding is also an issue—a cash-strapped athletic department may not be able to finance such an adventure for its club teams. Finally, academic standards must also be met—without NCAA guidelines, teams must police themselves with regards to the standards it holds its players to.

But in the immense and diverse world of college athletics, it’s worth considering whether a one-size-fits-all solution works for both Ohio State football and Amherst squash. Consider sports such as tennis and soccer, where teams with potential pros may get lost in the behemoth that is a major athletic department. In such special situations, perhaps competing against semi-professionals would be more viable than life as a middling non-revenue sport.

The current system of offering student-athletes an education while pursuing their athletic careers has proven its merits. It gives those who inevitably fall from the ladder to professionalism a cushion for entering life in the real world. But to insist on competition between pure amateurs may be too restrictive. Consider the US players currently on the ATP tennis tour. Many, such as Andy Roddick and Donald Young, never donned a uniform for a college team.

I believe college athletics has the choice of becoming more accommodative to the future Andy Roddicks of the world. While cynics may argue that young athletes that are that good at their sport would never want to set foot on a campus anyway, the potential media exposure of a college team is much greater than for a sports academy. If some programs were able to offer a hybrid between amateurism and competition against professionals, the offer would be enticing.

Many who observe college sports from the outside looking in contend that schools should pay the athletes that play for their teams. A wholesale switch to this approach would create chaos and dislocation. But as someone who has covered college sports for a few years, it does seem to me that incremental changes should be embraced. Programs outside of the NCAA’s jurisdiction are not necessarily exploitative of its participants. An example can be found on the soccer fields in Provo, Utah.

Charles Young is a senior in the School of Engineering and Applied Science majoring in applied math.