It’s an idea that has been long discussed and championed by the coaches and now the Men’s Soccer Oversight Committee has adopted legislation to change the season schedule to two semesters.
If approved by the Division I Cabinet next month, the 2027-28 schedule will see schools play a maximum of 18 games during the fall period, which will last from August to the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Then, teams will come back for a spring segment, which will have a maximum of 10 games played between mid-February
and the post-season in the spring.
Schools will be allowed to play a maximum of 25 games, but the new schedule will increase practice time and allow athletes for more recovery time as teams won’t be playing multiple games per week. Coaches have long argued that by following a more traditional calendar, we will see more player development and an increase in the talent on NCAA rosters.
More weekend games can certainly help with attendance- especially at Syracuse where students have provided a very lively home atmosphere in recent years. Now, the question for the Orange will be how to stagger their schedule to avoid the weather in February and March? Could we see Syracuse look to play more home games in the Fall, then travel to warmer climates in the spring?
We will have to see if conferences adjust their schedule so that the spring will only feature conference games, or if they will try and spread those games out to give schools more flexibility?
I think that this new schedule could allow for the development of multi-team events for soccer. The WakeMed park in Cary has been the home to a lot of post-season soccer (including the Orange’s College Cup win) and could be a location used by schools like Syracuse and Pitt to play February games in better conditions.
While the NCAA Tournament schedule hasn’t been announced, it would make a lot of sense for soccer to play their post-season between the end of basketball and the College World Series. There is a greater opportunity to get more eyes on the sport in this window so expect to see the 2028 College Cup played in this window.
What do you think of this change?
