If this is just about soccer, then I misunderstood the point, my apologies. Here in the US, the best coaches and programs for young players are at colleges.
Exactly so. In American football and basketball, at least, the best training that a player who has finished high school can get is in college sports, and as I previously noted, the NFL and NBA effectively treat college sports as their developmental systems.
Totally, that just shows how different things are between the continents.
I go back and forth between which one makes more sense and I can’t decide.
That’s only selectively true. As far as I understand it, the American tennis system functions similarly to the European soccer system: dedicated tennis academies, not colleges.
Do most American golf pros cut their teeth in college? I legitimately do not know.
Please note that people here are talking specifically about college basketball and college football. Those are the two big-time college sports in America. Yes, some athletes in other sports might get some training for future professional play as college athletes, but it’s nothing like the system for basketball and football.
You’re right some sports (like tennis) require dedication at a younger age, and I don’t think very many college tennis players do well professionally. This more applies to football, basketball, baseball, and track.
Right. There are interscholastic college teams/leagues for soccer, as well as hockey, baseball, golf, etc., etc. (Tiger Woods played golf, collegiatelly, at Stanford University.)
As noted previously, college hockey and baseball are regionally popular in the U.S., but many aspiring pro players don’t come up through the college ranks. While they are in high school, they might play on a club team, or they might play for their school’s team, but once they leave high school, if they have a lot of promise, they may get drafted directly out of high school by an NHL or MLB team, and move right into that team’s minor league system. (And, as was noted upthread, in Canada, aspiring hockey players may be playing in a junior hockey league while a teenager.)
I’m not sure what percentage of PGA Tour pros played golf at the college level.
Okay I’ll grant that the tennis (and possibly golf?) examples don’t apply because they aren’t valuable teams.
But this thread isn’t specifically about basketball and football. There are MLB teams on the list as well, and I would guess that the best developmental baseball coaching is in the minor leagues, not college.
Could be. This article quotes a study by Bleacher Report, indicating that close to half (47%) of MLB players had played college ball. That’s a lot higher than I imagined it would be, though I suspect that that proportion is higher for MLB players who were born and raised in North America; for those from the Caribbean, Central and South America, or Asia, it’s probably a lot less.
My point was that when people mention college sports as functioning as professional developmental leagues, they are specifically referring only to basketball and football, not other sports.
People in other sports—especially baseball—might have played on college teams before going professional, but no one refers to those college sports systems as being the primary development system for professional sports. This is a phenomenon for football and basketball only, and no one with any knowledge of American sports would say otherwise.
College basketball and college football are functionally professional sports, in all but name. This is not true of other college athletics.
That checks out. College football and basketball are huge, big draws on television as well. They are a phenomenon in ways that no other college sports are in the US.
It seems to me that baseball has a different curve for age and training than football or basketball. And also a lot wider spectrum for playing professionally outside the MLB.
I’m sure the average player career is longer in baseball than football or basketball, and there are international leagues for basketball where former NBA players may go if they’re not NBA level. Football doesn’t really seem to have any lower level leagues for NFL players besides the CFL.
And baseball seems to have more, with the NPB, the KBO, and even smaller professional leagues like Australian Baseball, where a 45 year old pitcher can still play. (Another former MLB pitcher who had retired had un-retired for a game in that league at 56(?) to pitch a game) Something pretty unthinkable for a NBA or NFL player, who aren’t likely to last into their 30s.
There’ve been a lot of lower-level leagues, but few have managed to both endure and make any significant impact. The reboot of the USFL played last year, and is planning to do so again this year, as is the rebooted XFL, and there is an Indoor Football League (which mostly plays in smaller cities).
There have been a number of other failed attempts at creating “developmental” football leagues in the last few decades, several of which didn’t last more than a season: NFL Europe (a.k.a. NFL Europa and the World League), Alliance of American Football, Fall Experimental Football League, United Football League, The Spring League, plus both incarnations of the Arena Football League.
More than a few of my students have been drafted right out of high school by MLB teams. The most recent was last year, where the Mets picked up one as a shortstop. None of them have been stars, but most have had decent careers in baseball. None played for any college team.
It’s a choice. Some players have been drafted several times by different teams. They get drafted out of high school but decide to go to college then re-enter the draft a few years later. A recent famous example is Aaron Judge. He was drafted by Oakland in the 31st round in 2010 but decided to go to college. He went to the Yankees in the 1st round a few years later.
That’s a good example; I suspect that, in many cases, it’s a guy who got drafted coming out of high school, but in a low round (and, thus, isn’t considered to be a strong prospect), and figures that, if he can play well in college, that could improve his draft standing, as well as his prospects of making the majors.
Yes, and there is a very good reason for this as well. College football and college basketball predate professional game and were far more popular than the professional game for many decades. So when the professional leagues popped up, they had to deal with the popularity of the college game.
Of course this got to be mutually advantageous - the NFL doesn’t have to pay for development and college football doesn’t get its players poached too early.
No other sports had to deal with this because the college game was never that popular.
You can see this with MLS. Even though college soccer predates MLS, it was never all the big. So MLS Academies, which have really exploded in the last decade, are seen as far more important in developing players than the players MLS teams draft in the Superdraft (but even in the Superdraft you’ll find a handful of very good players every year).
And if things go to shit, they get a free college education.
Nice one! 
Hey. It happens.