The NWSL’s landmark new collective bargaining agreement marks yet another stride for the league’s players, who have more freedom of movement than ever before thanks to multiple new initiatives that will be effective immediately. One of the league’s rule changes, though, could lay the groundwork for a seismic shift in the American sports landscape by doing away with a longtime staple — the college draft.
The new CBA makes the NWSL the first major American sports league to abolish the college draft, which has been part of the regular cadence in the U.S. since the NFL held their first one in 1936. That said, the writing has been on the wall for the NWSL’s version of the college draft, which has existed since the league’s inaugural season in 2013. The NWSL Players Association has pushed hard to loosen restrictions on player movement since they began negotiating the league’s first CBA in May 2021, and NWSLPA executive director Meghann Burke told CBS Sports earlier this year that the league should rid itself of its drafts.
While the league has yet to announce its new plans to recruit collegiate athletes, the choice to abolish the draft will likely pique the interest of many across American sports, especially as the landscape at youth levels changes dramatically with the introduction of name, image and likeness deals for amateur athletes in 2021. However the NWSL’s post-draft future plays out, the move forces several questions of the league itself and perhaps the American sports landscape as a whole.
A new recruitment landscape
Though few specifics are available on the NWSL’s plans to replace the draft, the NWSLPA’s announcement of the new CBA teased that young players could essentially act as free agents, empowered “to decide which team environment is the best fit for their needs and their development.” It is not necessarily unfamiliar terrain for the NWSL — the league introduced an under-18 entry mechanism in 2022, which allows teams to recruit high school athletes and stay competitive in a global soccer landscape in which identifying talent at a young age is equally as important as landing stars in their peak years.
The elimination of a pathway specifically designated for collegiate athletes, though, raises questions about the relevance of college soccer in the long run. It is currently still the best stepping stone for players who are not signed via the under-18 entry mechanism, especially considering the fact that most NWSL clubs do not have academies, which is where most European teams in the women’s game and almost all clubs in the men’s game identify the top rising talents. Whether college soccer remains an important place to scout players in the long term, though, will be worth following in the years to come, especially as the women’s game continues to evolve worldwide.
While the influence college women’s soccer has on the professional game might change, that might not be the case across the college sports landscape — for most major American sports leagues, college sports is still the best pipeline to identify top talent. The NWSLPA’s language suggesting that all amateur athletes could have more leverage at the bargaining table, though, could set a precedent that other sports may consider adopting sooner rather than later.
Increased leverage for amateur athletes
The Supreme Court’s 2021 ruling that the NCAA could not block student-athletes from receiving compensation did not just result in lucrative deals across college sports. It arguably paved the way for collegiate athletes to seek more rights as laborers, with several college sports teams currently in the midst of labor battles with their universities. Burke believes a labor battle was a natural next chapter in the name, image and likeness era of college sports.
“As you’re seeing college athletes being able to monetize their name, image and likeness and things are changing in the college game,” Burke told CBS Sports last winter, “I think you’re going to see more college athletes — basketball, baseball, football — look at that and say, ‘Wait a minute. You mean to tell me, after I was doing pretty well at whatever state university, you’re now going to stick me in this draft where I have no choice and you’re just going to decide my future? And I don’t have any bargaining power to negotiate?’ I think those questions are going to start coming up in other sports as well and they should, because we’re talking about people.”
The increased leverage for young athletes could see college sports’ competitive player recruitment tactics mirrored in professional sports sooner rather than later, and change the dialogue on going pro in the NIL era. Many (incorrectly) argued that Caitlin Clark, for example, would lose money after leaving the NCAA for the WNBA, though a new landscape could allow incoming professionals to negotiate strong deals not only with their sponsors but also with their new teams. The new reality, though, would force the U.S. major leagues to answer an existential question — how much do they actually value parity, the guiding principle behind the creation of college drafts?
The question of parity
The importance of parity is a question professional sports in the U.S. continue to wrestle with, considering the evergreen argument that relying solely on each team’s resources would see a few rise to the top and therefore create a predictable product. In theory, that could become a problem for the NWSL, which currently prides itself on being one of the most competitive major leagues in the world.
That said, there’s a growing argument that leagues that try to level the playing field hinder the overall product, especially in the women’s sports space. Take, for example, the WNBA’s years-long battle over charter flights — the New York Liberty, bankrolled by Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai’s fortune from Chinese tech company Alibaba Group, were willing to break the league’s transportation rules in 2021 because they felt they should have the right to do this on the regular. Rules that accommodate the teams that are not willing to spend that money, for them, are a punishment for the more ambitious franchises and the players across the league, hindering the progress of a league on the rise in the process.
That particular example may feel less relevant to leagues like the NFL and the NBA, where players often travel in comfort and work in state-of-the-art facilities. Amidst a widespread labor movement in the U.S., though, it is worth pointing out that there is no shortage of issues player unions are wrestling with. While the NWSL works through unchartered territory, it will no doubt be worth paying attention to see if the league’s choice to extend free agency to a new group of athletes creates a domino effect across American sports and one that results in a wide variety of outcomes.