Nick Rodecap

Yesterday, I graduated from Indiana University. This institution helped me find my voice in sports media, introduced me to some great people and taught me valuable lessons along the way. I can’t believe it’s already over. Thank you, @IUMediaSchool.

Statements from Athletic Director Scott Dolson & Don Fischer on the passing of Joe Smith.

Very sad news today. Joe Smith, longtime & distinguished member of the IU radio network, has passed. Smith was on the IU radio network for nearly 40 years, was a Bloomington radio man for more than 50 years, covered thousands of events, high school & college, won numerous awards.

I've lost all respect sorry this is absolutely rigged for money... Or ratings in not sure which. I won't be silent. Just saw it live sry. Seriously though, it’s so obvious that FIFA is in Argentina’s pocket. What a joke.

Honored to be a part of such an esteemed group. 🤝

Should’ve been announced during the Month of May, but I’ll take it.

The U.S. soccer federation is a poor return on invested capital. I played soccer for 20+ years. Grassroots. Academy. D1 college. Pursued professionally after. And I’ll say the quiet part out loud: The US soccer infrastructure is broken. In America, we treat playing D1 soccer like it is the peak achievement. For most families, clubs, coaches, and players, the entire youth soccer machine is built around one goal: Get recruited. Get a scholarship. Play college soccer. But if the objective is to produce world-class players, D1 soccer is a terrible development path. From 18-22, some of the most important technical development years of your career, you are preparing for a 3-4 month season built largely around athleticism, direct play, set pieces, fitness, and survival. Now compare that to an 18-year-old in Spain, Argentina, Morocco, Italy, England, or France. That player has likely been in a professional environment for years. Training daily. Playing meaningful matches year-round. Competing against grown professionals. Getting thousands more touches. Learning how to solve the game under pressure. The gap is massive. And it shows. American players are usually athletic. They are usually fit. They usually compete hard. But at the highest levels, that is not enough. The biggest difference is technical comfort. We do not move the ball like Spain. We do not combine like Argentina. We do not play with the same fluidity, rhythm, and confidence you see from countries where the game is embedded into the culture from childhood. That comes down to volume. Volume of touches. Volume of street soccer. Volume of futsal. Volume of unstructured play. Volume of high-level training environments. Volume of meaningful games. In the US, youth soccer is expensive, overly organized, overly coached, tournament-driven, and too often built around winning games at 13 instead of developing players for 23. Parents spend thousands. Clubs charge thousands. Travel teams fly all over the country. Showcases become the product. Recruiting becomes the scoreboard. But the return on invested capital is poor. We probably spend more money on youth soccer than almost any country in the world, yet the technical output does not match the investment. That is a broken operating model. And like any business, if the output is weak, you do not blame the customer. You inspect the system. The US has talent. The US has athletes. The US has money. The US has facilities. But the foundation is wrong. We built a pay-to-play, college-recruiting machine and confused it for a world-class player development system. Those are not the same thing. Until we fix the grassroots layer, increase meaningful touches, make development less dependent on family income, and stop treating college soccer as the top of the mountain, the US will keep underperforming relative to its resources. I’m not saying this to trash US Soccer. I’m saying it because I lived it. And if we actually want to become a powerhouse, we have to be honest about the infrastructure first.

@promking2013 @zagnut Just because it’s the status quo doesn’t make it right. Our current system has seen us bow out in the Round of 16 again and again. In my opinion, it’s not working.

@zagnut @NickRodecap That’s the way every other sport works in this country youth➡️school ➡️college ➡️pros

Wrong. If you’re playing college soccer, you’ve already missed the boat. Top young players have already been in academies for years by the time they reach college age. Our problem is that we squeeze every last dollar out of youth soccer, diluting the talent pool.

@FOXSports Did they?

USA fought until the end

@BlairDMckee They shouldn’t be allowed on the bus

@NickRodecap It’s too late for that

Cut Matt Freese and Tim Ream immediately. Awful and inexcusable. An embarrassment.

@Colt_Hoosier Woulda coulda shoulda. Belgium showed us what a real team looks like. We wilted under the pressure despite having home field advantage.

@NickRodecap Embarrassed by Belgium? It should’ve been 2-1, but the USMNT embarrassed themselves with two hilariously gifted goals Great game to Belgium though. They were by far the better team overall

What a joke. Embarrassed by Belgium on home soil. #USMNT

@CanDoogan And when things went south, they went south really quickly

@NickRodecap IU outplayed OSU in the first half.

My gut reaction is that this feels like IU football vs. Ohio State and Notre Dame in 2024. Am I crazy?

There is a difference between getting beaten and losing. I can handle getting beaten. I can’t handle losing, especially like that. What a waste of an opportunity. #WorldCup #USMNT

Team USA had a chance to make a massive statement to the rest of the world and made a laughingstock out of themselves — on home soil, no less. Such a disappointment which, unfortunately, is par for the course for us in soccer. #WorldCup

@JackRizzoPxP If the players don’t have any passion to play the game, why should I have any passion to ruminate on it?

@NickRodecap Column followed by dozens of blocks coming?

For a guy who went to Harvard, Matt Freese sure is an idiot.

@hoosiercommish I hate that that’s one of the first memories I have of watching IU basketball

This feels like 2013 Indiana against the Syracuse 2-3 zone