Does MLS Now Stand for Major League Students?

Does MLS Now Stand for Major League Students?

July 28, 2015

By Chris LeGates, TCS Co-Host

As July comes to a close, we at Tackling College Sports hope that you are having a great summer.  Since we just crossed the six-month mark, we wanted to take the time out to thank you for your continued support and feedback – we truly appreciate it.  In the coming months, we will continue to bring you the kind of content that you have come to expect with TCS, and we are excited to introduce some new platforms as well.  As always, we encourage you to ask questions and leave comments as we want to make this platform as interactive as possible. Now to this week’s blog!

Big props to Major League Soccer as they announced this week that they have agreed to a multi-year partnership with Southern New Hampshire University to be the league’s exclusive educational partner.

The partnership allows MLS players to pursue their degrees in higher education while they are still playing, in turn, the league will provide opportunities for SNHU students to learn from and gain experience through innovative education options.  SNHU will provide educational scholarships to MLS players and staff members that are looking for different career paths upon the completion of their playing careers.  MLS will also offer SNHU students internships with the league, and curriculums that would integrate MLS into their course work.

This can certainly be viewed as a landmark agreement.  We are seeing a major sport in the United States take the initiative to help its players plan for life after their playing career is over.  Furthermore, it allows college players who are toying with the idea of leaving school early, or, academy players that are not in college, have something to fall back upon should their careers falter.  This could go a long way in keeping the American player in MLS as opposed to leaving for careers in Europe – where they often go through a very difficult acclimation process.  THUMBS UP MLS!

TCS Tidbits:

High school juniors and seniors you should be well into your touring process of schools.  Summer is a great time to set up a tour of campuses through the admissions department or even just visiting on your own.  Seniors…you should also be contacting coaches and arranging your “official visits” and overnights to see the school and meet the team.  Remember,  you are only allowed five “official” visits (expense paid visits to college campuses. the visit to the campus cannot be longer than forty-eight hours in duration. you are not allowed to have an official visit until after your first day of classes of your senior year for Division I and II). Division III institutions that offer official visits will be permitted to offer such visits to prospects as early as January 1 of their junior year of high school. This rule change will become effective on August 1 of 2015.  This means current high school juniors will not be able to make an official visit to a Division III college until the first day of their senior year of high school next Fall. Next year’s juniors will be able to make an official visit as early as January 1, 2016.

To prepare for these visits, you must bring an official SAT or ACT score, and, the school must have a copy of your official high school transcript before your visit.  You can also make as many ‘unofficial’ visits to a college campus as you like.  Furthermore, you may also contact and speak to a college coach, if they are on campus

The summer is also a good time to remind student-athletes the following: If you are graduating in 2016 and beyond, the Division I freshmen eligibility rules are changing and everything that you need to know (and THEN SOME) can be found here.

TCS highly recommends that you bookmark this website for future reference.  If you have questions that can not be answered there, please let us know and we will do our best to help.

TCS is always here for you so please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or comments: info@tacklingcollegesports.com

We hope that you are enjoying the TCS podcasts, website, and blogs.  And if so, we ask that you please share us with your friends, family, and colleagues.

Good Luck and Always #BeYourBest

Chris