Sub sir. College soccer players asking for a sub are now taking out a fellow player for the rest of the game after the new re-entry rule.

Once a players leave the field, they’re done for the game. I can’t think of a worse rule to implement in college soccer.

This weekend opened up both the men’s and women’s soccer seasons, introducing the international rule for both teams.

This rule is bad for so many reasons, with the most obvious being the elimination of some bench players. It creates a domino effect potentially ruining college soccer.

Players who normally get 10 minutes of action while the starting players rest will see their minutes decrease.

Those players work hard in practice all week knowing that when game time comes, they probably won’t see minutes unless the game is out of reach or they are losing by a large margin.

Over time, players become frustrated with their lack of playing time and could leave the program because their hard work in practice goes unnoticed once the whistle blows.

Soccer programs then find themselves losing some of their upperclassman because of lack of playing time from previous seasons and the increase of skill from younger players.

The NCAA’s reasoning behind the change is to become more in tune with international rules.

But the fact of the matter is, the majority of the players will never play at the national level and most are playing because they just love the sport.

I would say 99 percent of the players playing college soccer have little to no chance to play for the MLS, WUSA or the U.S. National team.

Eastern men’s coach Adam Howarth said the new rule will be tough to adjust to at first because players are not in game fitness yet, but in the long run it could produce better quality players from the United States.

Howarth’s mind set is if the our country wants to compete with the Brazils and the Germanies of the international scene, then we must have better experienced players coming from the college level.

I agree with him to an extent, but I don’t think that rule will produce 11 Peles to put on American jerseys every World Cup.

The growing popularity and success from our national teams can do that job on its own.

American soccer will thrive as long as the sport continues to gain popularity, which it does each and every year (the declining numbers of youth baseball proves that point).

The NCAA does not need to step on a few players’ toes to create another U.S. powerhouse in the sporting world.