NWSL sets college draft order; Chicago Red Stars get top pick

Major League Soccer isn’t the only league having a draft in Indianapolis this week. The new National Women’s Soccer League will hold their first college draft on Friday, and since there was no 2012 season to determine the picking order, U.S. Soccer (who are running the league) used their judgement to decide where teams slotted:

1. Chicago Red Stars
2. Washington Spirit
3. FC Kansas City
4. Sky Blue FC
5. Boston Breakers
6. Western New York Flash
7. Seattle Reign FC
8. Portland Thorns FC

The draft will go four rounds, and while the original plan was to make the order serpentine, the federation changed to a conventional order. Instead of Chicago having picks 1, 16, 17, and 32, the Red Stars will have the first pick in each eight-selection round.

The club’s four college picks will be added the seven players (or in Western New York’s case, six players) assigned to rosters through Friday’s allocation. Those 11 players are expected to make up roughly half of each team’s roster, with the rest of the team to be filled through free agency.

The strength of that allocation seems to have influenced the college draft’s order (EDIT: It was via weighting the lottery to determine order). Portland was judged the main beneficiaries from Friday’s announcement, Thorns FC awarded all of Alex Morgan, Christine Sinclair, Tobin Heath, Rachel Buehler, and Karina LeBlanc. Seattle was also highly rated, being awarded Hope Solo, Megan Rapinoe, Amy Rodriguez, Kaylyn Kyle and Emily Zurrer. Those two teams have the final picks in the draft.

If that was the standard for deciding the college draft order, the league seems to have fallen in line with most pundit’s feelings on allocation (here’s ours). The only exceptions would be FC Kansas City and Western New York.

“FCKC” was generally judged to have made out well in Friday’s allocation, but perhaps the lack of a truly huge name gave them a favorable college draft slotting. For Western New York, they seem to be paying an Abby Wambach tax, not only getting only six players but also getting a low college draft spot.

We’ll try to circle back a little later with some names to watch for on Friday.