American sports have their fair share of traditions and quirks, but there is nothing quite like a draft.
It is a tradition, that provides the foundation of American sports. In a culture where parity is king, the fates of some of sports' biggest stars are, at least initially, decided by destiny, not money.
Over the years, these events have become even bigger. Prospects now become stars long before reaching the professional ranks, adding a new element of intrigue.
As the NFL and NBA Drafts have become among the year's most anticipated events, the spectacle has only gotten bigger and more grandiose. What was once a singular event has, in the NFL's case, turned into a weekend-long holiday preceded by months and months of preparation and anticipation.
Aside from the Super Bowl and perhaps the season's kickoff, the NFL Draft is the most anticipated weekend that the league has to offer. When the Cincinnati Bengals inevitably select LSU's star quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow with the first overall pick of Thursday's draft, the franchise will begin anew led by a player that is already a household name.
The same cannot be said of the MLS SuperDraft, an event that, in recent years, has only declined in relevancy.
Unlike its basketball and football counterparts, the festivities of the MLS draft have quietened down. The event was once a pillar of the MLS calendar, alongside the All-Star Game and MLS Cup, as coaches, media, executives and players blended together as part of a weekend-long conference.
Groundwork for major moves happened at the hotel bars before and after draft day, with the event serving as one of the few where everyone involved in the league was gathered at the same location. The pinnacle of that weekend, however, was the draft, which featured the game's top college stars walking the stage and beginning their careers draped in the scarf of their new club.
For the first time, though, the 2020 edition was held exclusively via conference call. The combine, that was once a staple of the pre-draft process, was done away with. There were no gatherings, no spectacle, no show. MLS basically admitted something many had already known: the draft is no longer an important date on the MLS calendar.
Gone are the days when stars such as Clint Dempsey, Michael Bradley, Brad Guzan and Chad Marshall made the leap from college to MLS via the draft. Players of their ilk are now entering the league earlier via the homegrown player rule or, for a few, later after trying their hands in Europe.
These days, there are options to join the league via those different entry points. Many head straight for Europe at 18, or earlier if their passport allows. As the game has become more and more global, young American stars have different options and more opportunities.
Household names like Christian Pulisic, Gio Reyna or Weston McKennie may have opted to go to college if they were born a decade earlier. However, in a world where teams are investing in young talent from all over the world, those top-end players can skip right to the European phase of their careers.
Meanwhile, some are getting started even earlier, signing homegrown deals with MLS clubs. The Chicago Fire and San Jose Earthquakes each signed a 14-year-old to a professional contract this season, as the path from academy to professional is becoming even more streamlined. Youngsters are getting that professional experience even quicker than their predecessors without having to wade through the unique college soccer landscape.
Despite numerous outcries for change, NCAA soccer is still hindered by a fall schedule with limited practice hours, quirky rules and, perhaps most importantly, no pay.
As a result, the players that normally would have been studs at the top of the draft after four years at college are now several seasons into their MLS career. Dempsey would be an FC Dallas homegrown these days. Guzan, who played for the Chicago Fire Reserves, would have moved to the senior team rather than be thrown into a draft. Virtually any player with youth national team experience is being snapped up long before they head anywhere near the college system.
The players eligible for selection these days are not American soccer's version of Burrow, but rather the diamonds in the rough.
Some are late bloomers who did not draw the eye of MLS teams at a young age for whatever reason. Others went unnoticed by club and national teams based on where they lived, avoiding discovery until breaking through in the college game. Others, like 2017 MLS Rookie of the Year Julian Gressel or former NYCFC and current Leeds United winger Jack Harrison, are international imports that moved to America in search of an education when their youth careers died out back home.
Some clubs have opted to skip the draft altogether in recent years. The Philadelphia Union, a club that has developed several MLS regulars and future U.S. men's national team stars, has traded out of the draft twice over the last several years. For a club like the Union or FC Dallas, renowned for its youth development, bringing in a draft pick is taking away a spot from a player that has been in the academy system for years. Why commit resources to a 22-year-old with no professional experience when you can continue investing them into an 18-year-old that has grown with the club for years?
As clubs are less and less inclined to invest in draft picks, MLS minutes have dried up for players entering via the draft. Of the 24 players selected in the first round of 2019 draft, just nine made at least five MLS appearances. The top five picks of the 2018 draft, meanwhile, have made just 74 career appearances between them.
What was once a key way to acquire legitimate depth at an affordable cost is now something much different, as players are routinely stashed in the USL to develop. At 22, players in Europe should be edging towards becoming a finished product. The 22-year-olds drafted in the U.S., meanwhile, are often still in need of adjustment to the professional game.
It is not just depth that has been impacted, with the quality having been hit just as hard as the overall quantity of players. Over the last 10 years, a total of 10 draft picks have gone on to make MLS Best XI teams. Of those 10, only two - Axel Sjoberg and Miles Robinson - have been drafted since 2015. Since the 2014 draft, meanwhile, a total of five players have made an MLS All-Star team: Andre Blake, Aaron Long, Keegan Rosenberry, Cyle Larin and Brandon Vincent, the latter of whom retired in 2018.
While those numbers indicate that most of the league's elite are coming from places other than the college game, players like Long and Larin are the reason the draft will continue to exist. It offers teams hope of finding that diamond in the rough, that winning lottery ticket.
Larin was a can't-miss prospect out of UConn who was already involved with Canada's national team. Orlando City made him the first overall pick in 2015, and he went on to score 44 goals in 89 games for the Lions. His time in Orlando ended poorly as Larin forced a transfer to Besiktas, but the seven-figure fee the club earned from his sale made Larin a worthwhile investment.
Long, meanwhile, was unheralded after four years at UC Riverside before being selected in the second round of the 2014 draft by the Portland Timbers. He never made an appearance for the club's senior team, featuring in the USL before joining the New York Red Bulls' USL affiliate. Once there, head coach Jesse Marsch molded him from a central midfielder to a center back, with Long earning USL Defender of the Year in 2016 and MLS Defender of the Year in 2018.
Now a USMNT regular, Long very well could have joined Larin in commanding a big transfer fee if only the Red Bulls had not shunned advances from West Ham and Southampton to keep hold of their star defender.
As long as that opportunity exists, the draft will have its place. As long as the college system remains ingrained in American culture, there will be a need to disperse those that slipped through the cracks. At some point, the league's net may be able to capture each and every homegrown player in some fashion but, as things stand, there are not enough resources to find every talented player in need of a chance.
The spectacle has died down and MLS's version of Burrow will not be hearing his name called on a league-wide conference call any time soon. However, as the NFL prepares for its own virtual draft on Thursday under vastly different circumstances, college soccer's biggest stars still have hope of hearing their names called in the years to come.
