A proposal to split the men’s college soccer season into two semesters starting in 2027-28 has failed after being rejected by a two-thirds majority of NCAA’s Division I schools.
The sport’s oversight committee had adopted the measure in May but because the act didn’t get more than 75% of the Division I Cabinet vote in October, it was subject to a 30-day rescission period during which it could be rejected if 241 of 361 Division I schools voted against the change.
The NCAA confirmed in a news release that the number was met by the Friday’s 5 p.m. deadline.
“As a result of the rescission, Division I men’s soccer will continue to play its championship season in the fall,” the statement added.
Most of the opposition came from low-or-mid-major athletic departments that cited a lack of administrative or facility resources to have the sport played across two semesters. Others, such as Ivy League schools and major programs such as Boston College, Kansas State and Oklahoma State, have the funds, but voted no anyway.
The Division I men’s soccer season is played in a 10-to-13-week fall window with the College Cup taking place in December.
In May, the committee, in passing the legislation, said that the fall-spring schedule would, among other things, reduce time demands and give athletes a more balanced academic and athletic experience; the potential for fewer midweek games would result in less missed class time; and more recovery time between matches would be provided.
Teams would have been allowed to schedule 18 matches from late August until the Saturday before Thanksgiving and up to 10 matches from mid-February until the start of the NCAA Tournament.
The Women’s Soccer Oversight Committee previously declined to propose a similar change in women’s soccer.
Detractors of the proposal, however, said they feared a split season for soccer would set a precedent for other sports to request one.
“Expanding the men’s soccer season will create increased costs, reduce experiential opportunities for student-athletes out of season, create facility conflicts with spring sports, heighten staffing demands, and affect competition schedules due to weather at northern institutions,” the University of Toledo wrote in voting to rescind.
“We feel this would start a massive request for other sports to make similar requests, and support staffing would be spread very thin to cover another spring sport,” the University of Idaho wrote.
Among the rescind votes were more than 100 schools that don’t have a men’s soccer program
University of Maryland soccer coach Sasho Cirovski, who has long advocated for the split season, called the current season — which requires playing as many 25 games — including a 48-team NCAA tournament — into a tight time frame “archaic.”
“It’s unsafe and unfair to the student athletes,” he said.
“This is a sport where you’re running six, seven and sometimes eight miles in a game,” said Cirovski, who has won three NCAA titles across 34 seasons with the Terrapins. “You need rest. The injury rate, when you play three games a week, is six times higher than when you play even just two games a week.”
Proponents of the measure felt that the split season could help turn the College Cup into a major event similar to the NCAA lacrosse championship, which annually sells out NFL stadiums.
Last year, men’s soccer attendance at its title game was just 10,316, with 2024 attendance at 6,057.
In 2025, a committee working on behalf of U.S. Soccer backed the split season.
