A distinction without a difference. That seems to describe the effective indifference between the SuperDraft and the Supplemental Draft. Yes, it’s certainly more prestigious to be chosen in the Superdraft, but, in the end, your future contract possibilities aren’t dependent upon or restricted by the draft in which you were chosen. Now that I think about it, you don’t even need to be drafted. Just ask Bobby Boswell.

Major League Soccer invited Drew Helm to the combine, but they didn’t allow him on the list of those available for the SuperDraft. As I understand it, Helm had lost his college eligibility during his junior year following some sort of trial in Europe. With nowhere else to go he turned to MLS. Apparently, he was on the short list for a Generation Adidas contract, but for some reason he never signed or was never officially offered one.

However, MLS seems to have a rule that underclassmen cannot participate in the SuperDraft without such a contract. The rule, I take it, is in place to prevent underclassmen from abandoning college en masse in hope of joining MLS. If that’s the case then college coaches across the country better hope none of their players noticed Drew Helm’s participation in yesterday’s Supplemental Draft.

As soon as I saw that Helm would be available in the Supplemental Draft I knew Bob Bradley would take him with the opening pick. No question about it; every single MLS coach would have made the same decision. Drew Helm, by all rights, was at least worthy of a second round SuperDraft pick. He is that promising of a player. However this all happened, those lucky bastards, Bob Bradley and Chivas USA, were the happy beneficiaries. Bradley had, in effect, a second round SuperDraft pick handed to him in the Supplemental Draft.

It’s not that it was unfair. The draft order was what it was. The point is the regulations and decisions governing this matter seem completely asinine. If MLS doesn’t want underclassmen to enter the league without a Generation Adidas contract then they should prohibit them from signing otherwise. But if that’s really the rule, or at least the intention, then MLS made a mockery of itself by denying Helm participation in the SuperDraft only to turn around subsequently and allow him participation in the Supplemental Draft.

The guy was still drafted. It doesn’t contractually matter whether you got taken with the first pick or the last pick; it doesn’t matter whether you were taken in the SuperDraft or the Supplemental Draft. If MLS was going to let him in the Supplemental Draft then they should have let him participate in the SuperDraft. There seems no reason not to have made him eligible.

Maybe I’m missing something. Perhaps this was just an exceptional circumstance. Most underclassmen don’t lose their eligibility this way. That could be, and if it is I could live with that very easily. I just wish MLS would clear the air here. I wish they would divulge how and why this all went down as it did. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time MLS has suffered from a lack of daylight. And I doubt it’ll be the last.