Last month, the NCAA announced that the Division I Men’s Soccer Oversight Committee adopted legislation to lengthen the men’s soccer season to become a full-year sport starting in 2027. The change is still pending, as it is set to be reviewed by the Division I Cabinet later this month.
The change has been brewing for over a decade and has been pushed for by US Soccer along with many head coaches and players. While the season will take place over a longer period of time and the national tournament will shift to the spring, the maximum number of games, 25, will not change if the adjustment is adopted.
“[The change] makes it feel like more of a real soccer season. I played in Europe before I came to America, and we always played like that,” said Marist junior defender Gijs Verheul, who hails from the Netherlands.
A maximum of 18 games would be imposed between the start of the year and Thanksgiving, and a 10-game maximum between mid-February and the tournament in the spring. The change seeks to better the student-athlete experience by granting more recovery time, ability to focus on academics and establishing a more professional standard.
“This has been going on for 15 years, at least 10. There’s been a number of proposals, and COVID actually blew it up when it came around. But it’s something that men’s soccer coaches have been working on for over a decade,” said Marist head coach Matt Viggiano.
A MAAC—soon to be Metro Conference—school, Marist is a medium-sized, mid-major level northeastern school that often plays in cold weather and loses players to the transfer portal. As a part of this change, the window for players to enter the transfer portal and choose a new school would be shortened from 45 days across two windows to one 15-day period.
“Administratively, it makes it easier because you’re dealing with a shorter time, but for coaches, it’s definitely harder,” said Marist associate athletic director Harrison Baker.
Since the introduction of NIL deals into college sports in recent years, smaller schools like Marist, which have fewer resources to give athletes, have lost out in recruiting battles.
“It’s definitely going to change my job, which has already changed so much in the last two or three years,” said Viggiano. “It’s a resource battle at this level, but I kind of like being the underdog. With the new power structure, it’s something the ‘big boys’ have wanted for a long time, so they kind of drove it.”
One of the goals of the change, as mentioned, is a better student-athlete experience. Players would spend more time with their teams and coaches, as well as in their respective college communities. A greater focus on academics and personal growth could lead to fewer transfers.
“Hopefully, with a longer season, it leads to fewer transfers, since it leads to hopefully a better student-athlete experience,” said Baker.
A topic that invariably rises when discussing this change is facility management—not just for Marist, but for many schools around the country. Not all schools have turf, multiple training facilities, optimal weight training or recovery rooms, or the ability to play year-round. Marist, with the cold Poughkeepsie weather and limited room to operate, is at the forefront of these deficiencies.
“Facilities are definitely something we have to address. Playing games in early spring is tough, but I’m comfortable with the people we have here, and we can figure it out,” said Baker.
Tenney Stadium is currently the only facility capable of hosting soccer games at Marist, as its stadium facilities include bleachers, a press box and broadcast abilities, all things that the new turf field at Gartland Athletic Complex does not currently possess. In the spring, when both men’s and women’s lacrosse are in full swing, adding a third sport to the mix could create scheduling conflicts for the only facility able to host games.
A main quality of Gartland, and its only real use to Viggiano’s squad at the moment, is that it can host practices. Come springtime, when both men’s and women’s lacrosse will be practicing for their seasons, having two fields capable of hosting outdoor practice is important.
“There’s always a lot going on; there are definitely so many questions that need to be answered. With everything here, though, we’ll find a way,” said Baker.
According to Baker, upgrades to Gartland are on the way. The second phase of adding to Gartland will focus on setting it up to have the capacity to host games.
The new schedule would align heavily with professional soccer leagues around the world, which is particularly helpful for international players—Marist had seven foreign-born players in 2025. Verheul, who played in the Netherlands, is used to these longer seasons.
“For all the Americans, I would say they definitely need some time to prepare. It’s a really long season compared to right now. It’s more about tactics and having better practices,” he said.
Longer times between games means a heavier focus on training tactically for each opponent, with more time for film sessions, weight and skill training and recovery. It also aligns with the leagues the players are aiming to join.
“It makes sense to line up our year with what these student-athletes are aspiring to,” said Baker.
One potential side-effect of the change comes in the form of USL League Two, a summer league that relies almost exclusively on college talent to fill its rosters. The added pressure of a spring season, with competitive games and postseason tournaments, however, could put pressure on the league. The players they have been relying on will now be playing competitively for three more months, and USL2 play could interfere with the limited time off they get during the summer.
“It’s fun to play in the summer with different players from all different schools. I need some time to recover, but I would still play,” said Verheul, who is not ruling out his continued USL2 appearances. Multiple Red Foxes feature in USL2 play every summer, with plenty playing for the Hudson Valley Hammers, the local team.
By moving the NCAA tournament to the spring, conferences would be faced with a tough decision: when should conference games be scheduled, and when should conference tournaments be held? For the MAAC, a conference with 13 northeast schools, this question is especially challenging. This change could mean that every school gets to play all 12 potential opponents, which hasn’t happened in previous years due to a condensed schedule. Viggiano is explicitly on board with this idea, although he also says that this change would require the conference tournament to be held in the spring.
12 conference games is easily divisible across the fall and spring, which allows for a wide variety of potential configurations. Splitting them up could allow for teams to be competitive in both semesters, although it could also allow for teams to be eliminated heading into the warmer months. Putting all the games in a single semester could cramp the schedule and force the teams in what is a traditionally one-bid league to play nearly a full semester’s worth of non-conference games.
Regardless of conferences’ choice to arrange the season, the initial decision to extend the season to the spring has been received positively at Marist.
“If you talked to our student-athletes, it’s what they wanted. These kids are used to this now,” said Viggiano. “As a soccer purist and someone who loves the game, it’s a no-brainer.”
Edited by August Lieberman and Max Rosen
Photo from Celia Green / Marist Athletics
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