I’m not sure how much playing time will be increased for freshmen, other than early season tournaments. I’m curious to see if it will mostly eliminate redshirting, or do you redshirt and go with an even smaller roster. Only 16 make the travel roster after all.
Alex Gheorghe will be redshirting 2025 season and will not be available for Stanford.
1 Like
Might this be an indication that Flacks may be trying to position his chips for a run at the 2026 title? (just thinking out loud here)
With roster limits, I would imagine there might be a little more effort towards specific year roster construction than we’ve seen recently. But again, pure speculation on my part.
This poses the question. By redshirting in the traditional manor, he would take a roster spot. If he is just removed from the roster someone else can take his place but he still does not lose eligibility. Now to the question. If you are not on the roster, call it an invisible red-shirt, can you practice with the team? This would mean the that new roster limits are just a number of players you can play that season and list on your website. If you can still have your non-rostered redshirt kids at practice, what did this agreement change? UCLA could still have 6-8 freshmen who are not on the team but at practice in a holding pattern hoping to earn a spot the next season and still have 4 years to play. Thoughts?
I was wondering the same thing. Will the big 4 end up having a bunch of “walk ons” as a practice squad that can earn a “roster spot.”
Possibly, but those athletes will have to get in to school on their own. Especially at Stanford where Men’s WP players rarely check the right boxes for admission, it’s tough with a 4% acceptance rate. Not that easy to get in to Cal, UCLA, or USC either but maybe more likely there?
Yeah, the acceptance rates at UCLA and Cal are 9% and 11% respectively so not easy at all
Interesting question @rolled1. Based on what I’ve read about the settlement, a practice squad would seem to go against the intent of the roster limits, which is to maintain a level playing field among different schools with different budgets. One possibility we could see is schools/conferences following the SEC football model for 2025, which caps scholarships at 85, even though the proposed scholarship limit for football is 105. Ostensibly, the SEC football teams could have a 20-man practice squad of walk-ons for 2025. This will save scholarship and NIL money for those schools. If the SEC can do it, then why not MPSF?
Also I do thought you are allowed to practice in this case with the team. Of course that would just be for the regular season but national league and off season seems to be OK nowadays as they are playing as club.
Additionally, would a school allow an athlete to be on scholarship and essentially sit out a year (invisible redshirt - good name)..
That assumes the coach won’t have any sway in admissions. Who knows at this point.
It does seem pretty silly to have rules like the college coaches can’t coach the “club team” at this point also in games / tournaments.
Going back to the question of the “invisible” redshirt I’m almost certain that would not be in compliance with the current and future rules. If he were not on the roster he could not just practice with the team as it would not only violate those ncaa rules, but also open up the school to potentially huge liabilities.
If a student athlete is injured as part of their activities with the team etc, that is covered by various waivers and agreements that both parties have signed. There is no safe harbor for the school in a situation where a non-student athlete is injured while participating in team activities. Same reason that NCAA rules prohibit coaches from organizing practices for potential student athletes.
Even if a coach tried to fudge it with say “an extended tryout” for non-student athlete - tryouts are also limited by ncaa rules.
With all that said, I’m sure there will be some creativity, let’s say, but that’s a risky proposition!
1 Like
Operating as a USA water polo club give you 2 mil in liability. Most summer practices are covered by having the athletes participate as members of their club via USAWP.
UCLA: They might lose a lot of seniors but watching these national league games and the Pacific Cup. No one is touching them.
Stanford: I believe they are rebuilding this year. They definitely look strong but not as Stanford usually looks.
CAL: I was extremely interested to see Berkley at the Pacific cup and they were definitely interesting to watch. They have a lot of lefties which is not something you see these days. Wilson looked great for them. I wonder what the connection is with Berkley picking up Pepperdine players and having them become an integral part of their program (Howerton for ex). Makes me question the coaching at Pepperdine. The goalie situation at Berkley is still in trouble.
Fordham: I saw two of the graduating players are returning, two of their main players of their most recent graduating class. I also heard could be rumor that they picked up a senior team goalie from either Italy or Malta. If this becomes true then that answers your goalie question. I think we might see a much better Fordham team this next season. Toth and Provenziani have been killing it during national league. Eppel is a monster in the middle, adding an experienced senior team goalie and if two returning players come back, I would be scared of Fordham. I think the only thing I may be concern for this team would be the playmaking and facilitating. They lost Papanikolaou who did a lot of the quarterbacking, I also don’t believe they have a lefty and run all right handers.
UCI: Extremely young team that will have their time to develop and become something. Extremely fun team to watch with Johan and Wyley. I am really excited to see the performance they put on Friday against Channel Cats.
Pepperdine: Exceeded my expectations at Pacific Cup. Milo Joseph and their Hungarians really put this team on their back. I believe they had an easier route than other teams to get to the finals against UCLA but Pepperdine is an extremely gritty and grindy team. I was curious to see who would hold the middle after the departure of Wilson but it seems as if Joseph is going to be able to hold his own. He played almost every minute from all of the games I’ve watched. I see breathing room and possibility that the incoming freshmen (Burstein, Blum) to fill those gaps and get some real playing time.
Pacific: Clearly looked like their in rebuild mode. Going to be extremely interesting to see what Graham does from here. I also heard rumors that Mihailo Vukazic was transferring to USC but he was playing for the tigers.
Long Beach: They lose their goalies. Have two extremely talented centers. Long Beach is always consistently a team that opponents hate to play against. I am sure Gavin got some incoming pieces.
CBU: This team is probably my favorite team to watch right now. They have always been the underdogs but this team that Coach Rosa has put together is phenomenal. This team rides together. I think a lot of people not only myself is rooting for this team to succeed. I have strong faith and hope they win conference and make it to the NCAA’s once again. Torring Stanley is a unit and his game is beautiful.
This is a small breakdown of what I have seen so far. I cannot wait for this upcoming season!
6 Likes
Are there any noble transfers? Watching national league and pacific cup, I did not see any transfers playing for their new squads. Were there a lot of players in the portal this season? I can see it going both ways with the new roster rules. (if there are a lot or not in the portal)
The scholarship question is tricky. If the House settlement allows for cut athletes to retain their scholarships as proposed at least sometime, theoretically, players could be “cut” for a year and then potentially readded later. Sneaky!
Doubtful they could practice in the fall.
Matthew Bonello Dupuis, a goalie for the Malta national team, will play for Fordham this fall as a graduate student.
Mihailo Vukazic played for Pacific at last weekend’s Pacific Cup because he is still a student at Pacific. He will play for USC in the fall as a graduate student.
Cal’s incoming class includes freshman goalie Aran Pina from Spain. He won’t turn 18 until May. If Pina is as good as some people say, goalie will not be a weak spot for Cal in the fall. @calmwaterpolo on Instagram: "Let’s all Welcome @aranpive to Berkeley. Currently the Goalie for the @cnrubiwp Division De Honor team. Aran has been a consistent member of the Spanish National Team System, most recently representing his country at the @world_aquatics u18 Championship in Argentina. #gobears🐻"
USC’s signees
What about Hanna,Harris,Congo, and Bradley?
Does anyone know if Corbin Stanley is still playing water polo? I haven’t seen him competing or even on the bench at any of the NL weekends.