"All" or Nothing

It's not too early to be thinking about the 2011 Superdraft. Last night, the Vancouver Whitecaps won a coin toss at the all star game between the two expansion teams, which means that they'll get to decide whether they want the first pick in the Superdraft or the expansion draft (or one of several other league mechanisms, like discovery ranking). I was recently looking at some of the all-conference teams via Bigsoccer, where there are several threads with all of the year's conference awards in one place. I thought it would be an interesting exercise to look at the previous drafts to see how many of the players drafted made an all-conference team (regardless of whether or not it was the 1st team; all-freshman teams don't count) the season directly before the draft. Looking at the past three Superdrafts, it turns out that it's really important: Eligible All Conf. PCT 2010 60 53 88.3% 2009 55 50 90.9% 2008 49 42 85.7% Total 164 145 88.41% Some players weren't counted due to being GA signings, and I also didn't include any below division one or independents for which an all-conference selection was impossible. Only 19 out of 164 eligible players failed to make an all-conference team right before they were drafted. In addition, when you look back at previous years to see if those 19 players had ever made an all-conference team, it turns out that 9 of them had. Which only leaves 10 players drafted in the past three years without making an all-conference team at some point, while 93.90% did. Here's the list of 19, with the players who'd made it at some point in bold: 2010 20 KC Olukorede Aiyegbusi D North Carolina State ACC 2010 30 SJ Steven Beitashour D San Diego State Pac-10 2010 51 CHI Sean Johnson GK Central Florida C-USA 2010 55 DC Jordan Graye D North Carolina ACC 2010 59 SEA Jamel Wallace M San Diego State Pac-10 2010 61 CLB Othaniel Yanez M Louisville Big East 2010 62 HOU Euan Holden D New Mexico MPSF 2009 16 SEA Evan Brown D Wake Forest ACC 2009 25 NE Denaldin Hamzagic M Saint Louis A10 2009 26 DC Lyle Adams D Wake Forest ACC 2009 30 CLB Paul Gerstenberger D Boston College ACC 2009 49 CHV Jamie Franks M Wake Forest ACC 2008 13 NE Rob Valentino D San Francisco WCC 2008 27 NE Joe Germanese M Duke MVC 2008 29 LA Julian Valentin D Wake Forest ACC 2008 39 KC Matt Marquess D Santa Clara WCC 2008 47 COL Brian Grazier M Saint Louis C-USA 2008 49 COL Scott Campbell M North Carolina ACC 2008 55 NE Spencer Wadsworth F Duke ACC Johnson and Valentino were Generation Adidas players, so they were going to be drafted regardless. Another 9 were from the ACC, while Holden was the brother of a successful MLS player. Beitashour was an honorable mention selection last year. None of the players from 2008 & 2009 are currently on an MLS roster. All conference selections & awards: 2009 2008 2007