As her college graduation approached, UCLA midfielder Sofia Cook had a choice to make. Did she want to take her last year of college eligibility, or did she want to turn pro? In previous years, she could have thrown her name into the National Women’s Soccer League draft, crossed her fingers and hoped for the best. Now, thanks to the work of the NWSL Players Association’s advocacy for draft elimination, her future was entirely in her own hands.
With the abolishment of the draft, players coming out of college now have more control over their destinies, which was part of Cook’s motivation to begin her professional playing career and when NJ/NY Gotham FC showed interest, she knew it was the perfect place for her.
“It felt nice to have a say and be able to control your own destiny so you’re not ending up in a city you don’t necessarily have to live in,” Cook said, noting that Gotham’s location and style of play were significant draws for her to sign with the NJ/NY side. “I definitely wanted to play here.”
With the elimination of the draft comes not only increased opportunity for player choice, but a new ecosystem of college recruitment strategies for the various NWSL teams. Instead of the bottom-of-the-table teams getting first dibs at the best players coming out of college, teams must now attract top talent, while accounting for club identity, roster needs and the salary cap..
“We see the college draft going away as an incredible opportunity,” Gotham FC general manager Yael Averbuch West says. “College players are now being viewed and assessed in relation to the rest of the talent pool. We’re really excited about the depth of talent in the college game, and we’re watching those players.”
Building and maintaining a club identity
Bay FC’s Sporting Director Matt Potter knows a thing or two about successful NWSL rosters, having coached the Kansas City Current to an NWSL championship appearance in 2022. As he works through recruitment in the offseason at Bay FC, he is fully focused on maintaining the club identity and scouting players who will not only complement the roster, but develop and thrive.
“We already had a process in place that we were following in terms of monitoring and tracking players,” Potter says. “Once the draft went away, it was very clear that ownership saw this as an opportunity versus some people who have seen it as, ‘what are we going to do now?’”
Bay has added several new hires into its scouting department, including a head of global scouting and recruitment and two domestic leads. Between them, the club covers the whole gamut of available talent from professional to college to youth and wants to become known as a club for player development.
Some said a CBA like this would never happen. #WeSaidNow. The Players just secured freedom over their careers and made history as the first American major pro sport to eliminate the draft.
— NWSLPA (@nwsl_players) August 22, 2024
Player freedom secured. Read more about our new CBA via link in bio. #wesaidnow pic.twitter.com/3gXeEcwxlD
“We want to make sure we capture the domestic market really well and then obviously complement that with the international markets,” Potter says. “We already had these processes in place and [with the draft elimination] it’s becoming bigger and broader for us, because it’s a key point of emphasis.”
This offseason, Bay FC has brought in several college signings: midfielder Taylor Huff (Florida State), forward Karlie Lema (California) and midfielder Hannah Bebar (Duke). Without the constraints of the draft, Bay FC seized on the opportunity to be able to find out more about the player on both a performance and personal level, identifying a more well-rounded and mutually beneficial fit.
“With the draft there were four rounds and everybody fought for those top five picks, and then really it’s about a scramble for fit in the draft and what we recognize is important to us,” Potter says. “Now we’ve been able to say, we really feel the group that we have was a culture fit.”
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Angel City’s first-ever technical director Mark Wilson dove right into this off-season, thinking about building a cohesive roster from returning players, free agents, trades and college talent. So far in 2025, Angel City has signed just one player out of college, midfielder Macey Hodge (Mississippi State).
“[In prior years] we knew we were going to get to trade draft picks and select players, which narrowed down the field a bit, so I actually think it’s a good thing that the draft has gone away,” Wilson says.
Among the positives that have come with the elimination of the draft is the ability to look holistically at college players both from a data and a performance perspective, including how the players will best fit into a club’s system. Part of Angel City’s strategy is to see how players perform outside of the college environment, and utilize a robust nine step recruitment system anchored in data analytics.
From the numbers, Wilson and his team get an early indication of whether a player is relevant to the role for which they are recruiting. Then, the team moves on to the eye test, looking at film and watching the player in action and seeing their qualities. Lastly, they consider the culture fit, talking to the player and the people who have worked with them.
“You can’t just rely on the draft and a couple of calls with college coaches now,” Wilson says. “You really have to dig in deep if you’re going to make this type of investment, and that is another challenge, is where do we get accurate valuations on [college] players?”
Understanding player value in a draftless place
As teams try to attract the players who would be among the top half of the draft order in previous years, understanding how their value fits in with free agents in the league is an ongoing process for all teams. With college players now having multiple options on where to sign, salary considerations are no doubt a part of these decisions.
“Angel City as a club is not necessarily going to get into the arms race for talent,” Wilson says about Angel City’s strategy. “You’ve got talent that is unproven in the NWSL, unproven in a professional environment, so at that point, how are you predicting future growth and potential?”
For Potter and Bay FC, focusing on themselves and what they can offer as a whole is a key attribute of the recruitment process. Through this process, Potter is looking to limit turnover, develop players, and stay true to the club’s core values and identity.
“I think the challenge of what we’re seeing right now is, this is new, so the landscape probably needs to balance out in terms of the economics and finances of it all,” Potter says. “The reality is that a lot of clubs do a really good job in their recruitment process and you’re not limited to one player. You have to fit it into the salary cap. That’s the reality for everybody.”
Without the draft, the NWSL finally joins the rest of the world, including the other American D-I soccer league, USL Super League, in eliminating a uniquely American pathway to professional sports.
“It’s great for player autonomy and freedom of choice, and I think there’s going to be more investment into club scouting and recruiting,” Wilson says. “It does also align with global soccer standards as well. It makes the case for academy and development pathways, and building second teams for the NWSL.”
As clubs and players alike navigate the new landscape of a draftless NWSL, they can agree on one thing—everyone gets a chance to control their own destiny in a way the draft did not allow. On the club side, organizations can grow out their scouting and recruitment departments and identify talent for the long term. From the player perspective, they will now have more certainty over the trajectory of their careers.
For rookie defender Lilly Reale who joins Gotham FC out of UCLA, she understands just how important that opportunity is, and she credits the players that came before her for fighting for this change.
“I feel incredibly honored to be part of this first class that goes in and just has a little more autonomy over our futures,” says Reale. “Whether that means for personal development or whatever reason it is to pick the team that fits you best, you’re able to do that, which is really special.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Without the Draft, NWSL Clubs Are Navigating a Changing Landscape in College Recruitment.
