Photo Credit: Jessica Alcheh-USA TODAY Sports
Since 2012, each Friday of the annual United Soccer Coaches Convention – which is currently taking place in Chicago – was typically National Women’s Soccer League Draft day. This year, the convention center ballroom sits empty.
The NWSL eliminated all drafts, collegiate and expansion, last summer upon the ratification of a new collective bargaining agreement, which goes into full effect next week. In doing so, the NWSL became the first major U.S. professional sports league to eliminate the entry draft entirely.
Now, incoming college players are free agents just like every other out-of-contract player in the NWSL – which is also a brand-new concept as of last summer.
Everyone, from incoming professional players to coaches, general managers and agents, is trying to make sense of the new system in the first offseason in league history without a draft.
“This is the Wild, Wild West,” Racing Louisville FC interim general manager Caitlyn Milby said this week. “No one knows…
