CPL General

[ATM]

1 hour ago, Ansem said:

 The draft!
https://twitter.com/CPLsoccer/status/1595885115166572545?s=20&t=i5aFV62UGaCuH1wQVfr1iw

 

Still believe players in the CCAA should be included. Not all Canadian student athletes want to go to university to study philosophy in the hopes to make $100,000 a year. We know how many corporations are looking for History majors. Many great athletes take the college path to take practice courses which will land them a high paying job and still allow them to play soccer.

How many agree with CCAA students being considered.?

[MM3/MM2/MM]

22 minutes ago, ATM said:

Still believe players in the CCAA should be included. Not all Canadian student athletes want to go to university to study philosophy in the hopes to make $100,000 a year. We know how many corporations are looking for History majors. Many great athletes take the college path to take practice courses which will land them a high paying job and still allow them to play soccer.

How many agree with CCAA students being considered.?

I guess it is up to the CCAA to come to an agreement with CPL like U-Sport has done.  Unlike most North American drafts, this is a draft for undergraduates only.  Seniors are free agents who can sign with anyone.   

[ATM]

1 hour ago, MM3/MM2/MM said:

I guess it is up to the CCAA to come to an agreement with CPL like U-Sport has done.  Unlike most North American drafts, this is a draft for undergraduates only.  Seniors are free agents who can sign with anyone.   

So my question is, did U-Sports approach CPL or vice-versa.  If CPL arranged the initial arrangement, they need to do the same for CCAA.

[Shway]

2 hours ago, ATM said:

So my question is, did U-Sports approach CPL or vice-versa.  If CPL arranged the initial arrangement, they need to do the same for CCAA.

I’ve been saying this.
There’s no reason or excuse for the separation. 

But in the same breathe, those same guys can just freely sign with a team that scouted properly. 

[MM3/MM2/MM]

The purpose of the CPL draft is to allow University players to continue their studies while gaining professional experience, if the player returns to school the next year, the CPL team retains their rights, so there is a developmental aspect to this.

I think most college programs are 2 years and most rookies at the college level might not be ready for CPL, so less of a development opportunity.

As @Shwaymentioned CPL has signed a # of CCAA free agents.  If CPL/CCAA haven't signed a deal, I assume there is a good reason for that.  Maybe CCAA isn't interested.

 

[EnigMattic1]

So, we know the date of the U-Sports draft, how long do you think it will be before they release the list of draft prospects?

On the topic of the CCAA, would a second draft be a bad thing? I mean, the MLS has, what? 3? Not including expansion drafts. You could have the U-Sports draft and then a CCAA draft maybe a few weeks later or something. Or one in December and one in January.

[ATM]

9 hours ago, MM3/MM2/MM said:

The purpose of the CPL draft is to allow University players to continue their studies while gaining professional experience, if the player returns to school the next year, the CPL team retains their rights, so there is a developmental aspect to this.

I think most college programs are 2 years and most rookies at the college level might not be ready for CPL, so less of a development opportunity.

As @Shwaymentioned CPL has signed a # of CCAA free agents.  If CPL/CCAA haven't signed a deal, I assume there is a good reason for that.  Maybe CCAA isn't interested.

 

Canadian Colleges  offer 3year Advanced diplomas and universities have 3 year Bachelors. As many are aware , several colleges now offer university degrees, as per George Brown and Humber websites.

So I say open it up.

[FC_Hali]

Could the simple solution be to include CCAA players in the CPL draft and perhaps host some regional combines beforehand?

I’m sure the top few colleges each year could compete with CIS tournament caliber universities but I doubt the talent pool is deep enough to warrant its own draft.

[RJB]

5 hours ago, ATM said:

Canadian Colleges  offer 3year Advanced diplomas and universities have 3 year Bachelors. As many are aware , several colleges now offer university degrees, as per George Brown and Humber websites.

So I say open it up.

Or how about ditch the draft all together and allow players to sign wherever they can agree a deal.  I think it's ridiculous that a player could be from Halifax, get drafted by Vancouver, and have no option but to move across the country.  (I think that for all sports btw, not just CPL)

[Bison44]

1 minute ago, RJB said:

Or how about ditch the draft all together and allow players to sign wherever they can agree a deal.  I think it's ridiculous that a player could be from Halifax, get drafted by Vancouver, and have no option but to move across the country.  (I think that for all sports btw, not just CPL)

I think they can now, cant they?  I thought the whole idea was to allow these kids to sign with CPL then return to school and still be able to pay their USPORTS?? Thats why its for undergrads, who wouldnt be eligible to play Uni/college sports after turning professional?  Or maybe I am getting this confused???  

[RJB]

1 minute ago, Bison44 said:

I think they can now, cant they?  I thought the whole idea was to allow these kids to sign with CPL then return to school and still be able to pay their USPORTS?? Thats why its for undergrads, who wouldnt be eligible to play Uni/college sports after turning professional?  Or maybe I am getting this confused???  

I won't pretend to know the ins and outs of the CPL draft, but typically how they work across sports is that an amateur player is selected, and the pro team owns their rights for a period of time.  This essentially binds them to the team even without a contract.  Hopefully CPL does something different as I think that system is pretty archaic.  

[Bison44]

Yeah its not like the other drafts at all, Its designed to help the player with a "summer job" ie development contract as an undergrad while you are continuing school and your usports carerr.  you dont have to sign, you can re-enter the draft next year etc, and its not for seniors, as a senior you are off to sign real deals and can sign anywhere etc.  Its acutally a good system, I dont think its holding guys back, but letting these kids test the waters in CPL while they are still in school.  

[Unnamed Trialist]

8 hours ago, ATM said:

Canadian Colleges  offer 3year Advanced diplomas and universities have 3 year Bachelors. As many are aware , several colleges now offer university degrees, as per George Brown and Humber websites.

So I say open it up.

In fact, in the alternative to U-Sports, CCAA, there are numerous degree granting universities competing. One in PacWest is Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo, which made the national championship a few weeks ago. So while, as you say, some of the technical colleges are expanding so you could get players for 3-4 years now, other participants don't have that problem. I'm not sure why U-Sports West wouldn't be a goal of for them, maybe it's like a US university preferring to stay in Div 2… costs, scale.

VIU had Merriman now at Pacific (or was that his father? brother?), Blasco was also there, they feed some roster to Pacific.

Maybe by not having them draftable we're allowing the CPL teams to pick up more local players to avoid these travel/distance issues.

NB very few U-Sports draftees have been signed or even gotten minutes. The leap is still wide from Canadian universities to CPL.

Edited November 26, 2022 by Unnamed Trialist

[MM3/MM2/MM]

8 hours ago, Bison44 said:

Yeah its not like the other drafts at all, Its designed to help the player with a "summer job" ie development contract as an undergrad while you are continuing school and your usports carerr.  you dont have to sign, you can re-enter the draft next year etc, and its not for seniors, as a senior you are off to sign real deals and can sign anywhere etc.  Its acutally a good system, I dont think its holding guys back, but letting these kids test the waters in CPL while they are still in school.  

Correct and to other points above, there doesn't seem to be retention rights, Ongaro was drafted by Cavalry and signed with FC Edmonton the same year.  Last year Matteo De Brienne was expected to be the first overall pick in the draft but signed a full professional contract with Valour days before the draft.   Third players have to declare for the draft and last year well over 100 did.

and as @Unnamed Trialistmentioned that with a few exceptions very few sign or get many minutes.  last year Colin Gander of Guelph played 1100 minutes for HFX , HFX has, by far given the most minutes to Draft picks over the years.

Edited November 26, 2022 by MM3/MM2/MM

[phil03]

9 hours ago, Bison44 said:

Yeah its not like the other drafts at all, Its designed to help the player with a "summer job" ie development contract as an undergrad while you are continuing school and your usports carerr.  you dont have to sign, you can re-enter the draft next year etc, and its not for seniors, as a senior you are off to sign real deals and can sign anywhere etc.  Its acutally a good system, I dont think its holding guys back, but letting these kids test the waters in CPL while they are still in school.  

Yeah, obviously its not a blanket solution to the issue since you can't make a whole league out of CCAA players but its one way to help dealing with the impact of low wages in the CPL. As a main source of income a year's pay in the CPL is all too often not so great sadly, but as defacto summer job for a University student? Meh, it can do.

Edited November 26, 2022 by phil03

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

...which is the economic model of PDL (USL League Two) along with running lots of soccer camps as a way to get around NCAA rules. The reason they have a U-sports draft is probably mainly because the league is strongly influenced by the CFL and that's how the CFL does things. Typical suburban Canadian kid excels for his high school then his university then enters a By Canadians For Canadians league with a domestic quota that guarantees he'll get playing time even if there are imports that are better.

Not sure that really works as the pathway in a soccer context. Canadian universities don't take their soccer programs all that seriously in an NCAA sort of way compared to what happens with their gridiron teams so I've never seen much of an indication that the quality of soccer involved is anything particularly spectacular compared to what you'll find being played by recent immigrants in local amateur leagues, who will mainly be in construction jobs etc rather than pursuing a tertiary education. That admittedly is an opinion formed twenty to thirty years ago now.

[MM3/MM2/MM]

14 minutes ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

...which is the economic model of PDL (USL League Two) along with running lots of soccer camps as a way to get around NCAA rules.

I don't think PDL teams are (were) paying 12 to 15 thousand for the summer, not the same economic model at all.

[Bison44]

To me its less about quotas and running things old school like NCAA and pro football drafts and more of a modern internship.  Any CDN Usports (but not necessarly CDN ie Schale/Bent) kid good enough can spend the summer in CPL and still be able to go back and continue playing in college.  Which is exactly what everyone else can do eh?  We all got summer jobs in our fields and then went back to school in the fall with no stigma attached, so why not sports kids?  Like UT said its only a couple dozen get drafted and only a fraction of them actually sign and play, but with this as an incentive maybe we get more robust Usports programs and widen the choke points and further kids development in Canada.  Its a good move even if its not expanded to colleges yet.  Another reason why a CDN league is nice, we can create our own solutions tailored to CDN needs instead of having the american way (modelled off NCAA football/basketball drafts) shoved down our throat.  

[Unnamed Trialist]

1 hour ago, Bison44 said:

To me its less about quotas and running things old school like NCAA and pro football drafts and more of a modern internship.  Any CDN Usports (but not necessarly CDN ie Schale/Bent) kid good enough can spend the summer in CPL and still be able to go back and continue playing in college.  Which is exactly what everyone else can do eh?  We all got summer jobs in our fields and then went back to school in the fall with no stigma attached, so why not sports kids?  Like UT said its only a couple dozen get drafted and only a fraction of them actually sign and play, but with this as an incentive maybe we get more robust Usports programs and widen the choke points and further kids development in Canada.  Its a good move even if its not expanded to colleges yet.  Another reason why a CDN league is nice, we can create our own solutions tailored to CDN needs instead of having the american way (modelled off NCAA football/basketball drafts) shoved down our throat.  

And on top of that, in Canada you actually get an education, while NCAA is a disgrace.

[ted]

6 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

The reason they have a U-sports draft is probably mainly because the league is strongly influenced by the CFL and that's how the CFL does things.

LOL, no. The CanPL has a "draft" for the same reason that the CFL has a draft: because that's how the NFL did it starting in 1935 and the other major leagues followed suit eventually. It's simply copying "big brother" because we as a nation have an inferiority complex.

[DoyleG]

On 11/25/2022 at 5:14 PM, ATM said:

Canadian Colleges  offer 3year Advanced diplomas and universities have 3 year Bachelors. As many are aware , several colleges now offer university degrees, as per George Brown and Humber websites.

So I say open it up.

Or because you should do a little background check.

CCAA players can go back to playing for their college teams within 30 days with the usual loss of eligibility. U Sports have to sit out a year before they can rejoin their teams with loss of eligibility.

The only ones that can keep their eligibility are those under developmental contracts. Both the CCAA and U Sports have it in their by-laws (specific ones on soccer).

[TGAA_Star]

On 11/25/2022 at 8:18 AM, MM3/MM2/MM said:

The purpose of the CPL draft is to allow University players to continue their studies while gaining professional experience, if the player returns to school the next year, the CPL team retains their rights, so there is a developmental aspect to this.

I think most college programs are 2 years and most rookies at the college level might not be ready for CPL, so less of a development opportunity.

As @Shwaymentioned CPL has signed a # of CCAA free agents.  If CPL/CCAA haven't signed a deal, I assume there is a good reason for that.  Maybe CCAA isn't interested.

 

But I do have a serious question to ask though very serious but as far as the CPL academies I wonder if that also extends to kids and or teenagers too in elementary/ high school? Because if we train our youth early in these CPL academies, you develop more future stars for our men's program and they too are eligible to be drafted in the CPL Draft provided they are good enough.

[Aird25]

What percentage of our World Cup 2026 squad is likely to have spent some time in CPL?

[Watchmen]

5 minutes ago, Aird25 said:

What percentage of our World Cup 2026 squad is likely to have spent some time in CPL?

I don't think as high as people think, because the current core is still very young and didn't go through the CPL. But it will likely be more than 2 players.

[Aird25]

3 minutes ago, Watchmen said:

I don't think as high as people think, because the current core is still very young and didn't go through the CPL. But it will likely be more than 2 players.

I don't really have a sense of what people think. I guess that's why I'm asking. Currently I think 2 of the registered squad, and 3 of the extended squad at Qatar already have time in CPL. So we're hovering around the 10 % line. I suspect that will increase, but I really don't know