How the NWSL’s decision to eliminate the college draft will impact the entire US sports landscape

The NWSL’s historic new collective bargaining agreement is another step forward for the league’s players, who have more freedom of movement than ever before, as many of the new initiatives will be implemented immediately. However, one of the league’s rule changes could lay the groundwork for a bigger shift by eliminating a long-standing staple of the American sports landscape — the college draft.

The new CBA makes the NWSL the first major American sports league to eliminate the college draft, which has been part of the regular cadence in the US since the NFL held its first in 1936. That said, the rules were written 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 ease restrictions on player movement since beginning negotiations on the league’s first CBA in May 2021, and NWSLPA executive director Meghan Burke told CBS Sports earlier this year that the league should get rid of its draft.

While the league has yet to announce its new plans for recruiting collegiate athletes, the choice to eliminate the draft will likely pique many people’s interest in American sports, especially as the landscape changes dramatically at the youth level with the introduction of name, image and likeness deals for amateur athletes in 2021. Regardless of how the NWSL’s post-draft future plays out, though, the move raises many questions about the league and perhaps the entire American sports landscape.

A new hiring landscape

While there aren’t many specifics available on the NWSL’s plans to replace the draft, the NWSLPA’s announcement of the new CBA indicated that young players could essentially act as free agents who have the right to “decide which team environment best suits their needs and their development.” This isn’t necessarily unfamiliar territory 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 just as important as bringing in stars in their peak years.

However, eliminating a pathway specifically designated for collegiate athletes raises questions about the relevance of college soccer in the long term. It is still the best move for players who are not contracted through the under-18 entry mechanism, especially given the fact that most NWSL clubs do not have academies, where most European teams in the women’s game and nearly all clubs in the men’s game identify top emerging talent. However, whether or not college soccer will remain an important venue for player discovery in the long term will be worth watching in the coming years, especially as the women’s game continues to grow around the world.

While college women’s soccer may have an impact on the professional game, that may not be the case in the college sports landscape — for most major U.S. sports leagues, college sports are still the best pipeline for identifying top talent. The NWSLPA’s language suggesting that all amateur athletes may have more leverage at the bargaining table, however, could set a precedent that other sports may soon consider following.

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Increased benefits for amateur athletes

The Supreme Court’s 2021 ruling that the NCAA cannot prevent student-athletes from receiving compensation not only led to lucrative deals in college sports. It also arguably paved the way for collegiate athletes to gain more rights as laborers, as many college sports teams are currently embroiled in labor battles with their universities. Burke believes the labor battle was a natural next chapter in the era of college sports’ name, image and likeness.

Burke told CBS Sports last winter, “As you see college athletes being able to monetize their name, image and image and things changing in college sports, I think you’re going to see more college athletes — basketball, baseball, football — look at this and say, ‘Wait a minute. You want to tell me that I was doing really well at whatever state university I went to, now you’re going to put me in this draft where I have no choice and you’re just going to decide my future? And I have no power to negotiate?’ I think those questions are going to start coming up in other sports, and they should, because we’re talking about people.”

The increased benefits for young athletes could see the competitive player recruitment strategies of college sports soon mirrored in professional sports as well, and the conversation on turning professional in the NIL era could change. Many argued (wrongly) that Caitlin Clark, for example, would lose money after leaving the NCAA for the WNBA, however a new landscape could allow up-and-coming professionals to secure stronger deals not only with their sponsors but also with their new teams. However, the new reality will force the US major leagues to answer an existential question – how much do they really value equality, which is the guiding principle behind the creation of the college draft?

The question of equality

The importance of parity is a question that professional sports in the US continue to grapple with, given the evergreen argument that relying solely on each team’s resources will lead to a few rising to the top and therefore produce a predictable product. In theory, this could become a problem for the NWSL, which currently prides itself on being one of the most competitive major leagues in the world.

That being said, there is a growing debate that leagues trying to level the playing field hinder the overall product, particularly in the women’s sports sector. Take, for example, the WNBA’s years-long battle over charter flights — the New York Liberty, funded by Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai’s fortunes 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 so on a regular basis. Rules that accommodate teams that aren’t willing to spend that money are, to them, a punishment for more ambitious franchises and players across the league, hindering a league’s progress in the process.

That particular example might seem less relevant to leagues like the NFL and NBA, where players often travel in comfort and work out in state-of-the-art facilities. However, amid the wider labor movement in the U.S., it’s fair to point out that there’s no shortage of issues that player unions have to contend with. While the NWSL operates in uncharted 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 results in a variety of consequences.