US College Soccer Should Have an All-Purpose College Champions League

Those of you who follow international soccer know that around the world, the top professional teams in each country are grouped into a continental league called the Champions League. The most popular Champions League is in Europe and is known as the UEFA Champions League.

All of the continents have Champions Leagues: the Asian Champions League, the CONCACAF Champions League (North America & Carribean nations), the Copa Libertadoras (South America), the African Champions League and the Oceana Champions League (New Zeland and Pacific Islands). In each continental zone, the top 3 or 4 pro teams in each country's top pro league go to play against the top teams of all the other countries in the continent (stay with me, I'm going somewhere).

I think that US College Soccer should have an all-purpose College Champions League, both Men's and Women's. You would take the top 4 teams in NCAA Div. 1, 2 and 3, the top 4 NAIA teams and the top 4 Junior College teams in NJCAA Divisions 1 and 3.

If there were such a thing, the champions of the NCAA 1,2 and 3, NAIA and the NJCAA of 2008, plus the next three best teams of all of those classifications, would play each other during the 2010 season. Since the Fall College Soccer season goes from August to December, the schools involved can adjust their schedules accordingly. The last classification to end its season is NCAA Div. l. The Men's and Women's College Cups end the first and second week in December. Div. ll ends the week before, Div. lll around the same time. The NAIA ends their championship a week before Thanksgiving.

NCAA Div. l teams involved in fighting to make the NCAA Tournament can play their Champions League games earlier in the season. The league can run during the regular season just like the pros in the international professional leagues do. Teams involved in the All-Purpose College Champions League can use these games as tune ups for post-season conference tournaments. Another option is to play a Champions League game a week before the two teams' regular season starts. It would be a great pre-season tune up for both teams. Many schools already do this in "exhibition" matches. Just think, the pride of winning the Champions League makes these "exhibitions" more meaningful.

The League's first matches would begin either a week before or the first week of the regular season. Two teams would play a 2-legged home and home series. The first leg is during one week and the second leg is the next week. When each series is finished, the next series would start two weeks later. The Pairings for the league's first round would be decided by a draw to take place sometime during the previous Spring so that the schools involved would have time top prepare for logistics and scouting purposes. The winner of each series is decided by outright wins or goal differential just like in the professional champions leagues.

What a thrill for NAIA, NJCAA Div. 1 & 3 and NCAA Div. 2 & 3 to have a chance to beat one of the top 4 NCAA Div. l teams. It would be like the March Madness concept. Also, to entice the Div. l teams to go along with it, I would not count it against them if they lost a Champions League game to a team from a lower division. The NAIA would not penalize one of their teams for losing a Champions League game to a Div 3 or NJCAA team, and NCAA Div. ll wouldn't penalize one of their teams in the league for losing to a Div. lll, NAIA or NJCAA Div. 1 or 3 team. One more thing, a Div. l team playing a Champions League game against a team from one of the other lower divisions wouldn't be penalized by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee for playing and beating that lower level team.

The champion of the All-Purpose College Champions League could be decided in October, before the conference tournaments start in November. The first few legs of the league would have teams close enough to each other playing so that they won't have to travel so far.If necessary, the Semi-Finals and Finals can be played at a neutral sight. This could be a wonderful thing for college soccer and college sports in general. I know this probably will never happen, but it's a fun thought. I'd appreciate your comments on the matter.