**Please note that this is the opinion of Joe Mauceri. More opinions from other TopDrawerSoccer.com writers will be released as the draft nears. ** 

After watching 120 live college soccer games this year, supplemented by another 63 games on tape, composed of 151 different college teams, here is my PRE-COMBINE 2012 MLS Draft Ranking.

This version includes Generation Adidas players that have signed, international players that have been reported to be attending the combine, and all seniors.

Joe's 2012 Mock Draft 

Joe's 2012 Rankings: Goalkeepers | Midfielders | Defenders 

Players that I haven't seen are generally ranked lower than players that I have seen. I'm from the East coast - so it's easier for me to see teams in the East. However, I've seen UC Irvine, UC Davis, UC Riverside, Creighton, SMU, Bradley, UCSB (3 times), Denver, New Mexico (twice), California, Bakersfield, San Jose State, Stanford, San Diego State, Washington (twice), UCLA (twice) and Drake live. I was unable to see some teams live, I've only seen on tape (e.g., Michigan State, Ohio State, UAB, Hofstra, Iona). I've reviewed a lot of tape (including the South American U20 qualification tournament. The combine will supplement my prior observations and fill the gaps where needed. I've seen every domestic combine college play live with the vast majority in 2011 and a handful in 2010.

My rankings take into account the values of Generation Adidas, international status and general assessment of the skill and how each player might fit into a MLS team. Given the 3 expansion teams in the past 2 years and the roster increase, I've made slight grade inflation and I'm considering the players with a grade of C+ have increased chances of making a roster and some of the players with higher C rankings may be able to stick, as well.

In addition to ranking each player sequentially, I'm assigning a letter grade using the following scale:

A=Can't miss prospect. Should easily make the roster and may get time with the first team in 2012. By the end of the year, could be an impact player.

B=Likely to make the team. Could make roster, may take a year or more to get to the first team.

C=Probably not going to make the team. Has significant barriers to overcome. A very select few may eventually make it, but it would need to be a perfect storm (multiple injuries, playing out of their heads, fortuitous bounces, etc.).

D=Extremely unlikely to make a team.

F=No shot.

Within each grade, I've ranked each player.

#	Pos	Grade	Name	College	Combine?
	Fwd		Brent Richards	Washington	Homegrown
	Fwd		Billy Schuler	UNC	Signed international contract
1	Fwd	A	Darren Mattocks	Akron	GA-Combine
2	Fwd	B+	Ethan Finlay	Creighton	Combine
3	Fwd	B	Casey Townsend	Maryland	Signed-Combine
4	Fwd	B-	Chandler Hoffman	UCLA	GA-Combine
5	Fwd	B-	Dom Dwyer	South Florida	GA-Combine
6	Fwd	C+	Babayele Sodade	UAB	Combine
7	Fwd	C+	Brian Ownby	UVA	Combine
8	Fwd	C	Oliver Kupe	Northwestern
9	Fwd	C	Lucky Mkosana	Dartmouth	Combine
10	Fwd	C	Colin Rolfe	Louisville	Combine
11	Fwd	C	Antoine Hoppenot	Princeton	Combine
12	Fwd	C-	Bryan Gaul	Bradley	Combine
13	Fwd	C-	Karo Okiomah	High Point	Combine
14	Fwd	D+	Yuri Gorentzvaig		Intl-Combine
15	Fwd	D+	Alec Purdie	Indiana	Combine
16	Fwd	D+	Nick Posthuma	Cal State Fullerton
17	Fwd	D+	Matt Oduaran	Maryland
18	Fwd	D+	Jack Burridge	Fairfield
19	Fwd	D+	Artur Jozkowicz	Loyola-Marymount
20	Fwd	D+	Carl Haworth	Niagara
21	Fwd	D+	Aaron Schoenfeld	ETSU
22	Fwd	D+	Tyler Witmer	Temple
23	Fwd	D	Max Touloute	IPFW
24	Fwd	D	Sean Rosa	Brown
25	Fwd	D	Chris Wheeler	Mount St Mary's
26	Fwd	D	Ibrahim Kamara	Rutgers
27	Fwd	D	Michael Roach	SLU
28	Fwd	D	Iyiola Awosika	Radford
29	Fwd	D	Cesar Diaz Pizzaro	UC Riverside
30	Fwd	D	TJ Beaulieu	Charlotte
31	Fwd	D	Andres Pullin	Winthrop
32	Fwd	D	Malcolm Alugas	St Mary's
33	Fwd	D	Garret Pettis	Lipscomb
34	Fwd	D-	Chris Bettencourt	Sacramento St
35	Fwd	D-	Ya Ya Toure	Detroit
36	Fwd	D-	Michael Nielsen	Portland
37	Fwd	D-	Jarrett Hamilton	Oral Roberts
38	Fwd	D-	Kyle Montgomery	Cal Poly
39	Fwd	D-	Josh Thiermann	Wisconsin
40	Fwd	D-	Connor Barbaree	Portland
41	Fwd	D-	Zach Mahon	Longwood
42	Fwd	D-	Kingsley Onwuka	UMBC
43	Fwd	F+	Darren Amoo	Liberty
44	Fwd	F+	Patrick Innes	James Madison
45	Fwd	F+	Parnell Hegngi	OSU
46	Fwd	F+	Waid Ibrahim	UCSB
47	Fwd	F+	Ben Berube	Boston University
48	Fwd	F+	Steven Miller	Colgate
49	Fwd	F+	Kellan Christensen	Denver
50	Fwd	F+	Eric Frazier	UIC
51	Fwd	F+	Brett Carrington	Hofstra
52	Fwd	F+	Stephen Posa	San Diego
53	Fwd	F+	Franck Tayou	West Virginia
54	Fwd	F+	Daniel Summers	Syracuse
55	Fwd	F+	Phil Da Silva	Loyola-Marymount
56	Fwd	F+	TJ Popolizio	Brown
57	Fwd	F+	Thomas Ostrander	Drake
58	Fwd	F+	Jack Scott	American
59	Fwd	F+	Nick Cashmere	SJ State
60	Fwd	F+	Heath Melugin	Missouri St
61	Fwd	F	Perez Agaba	IUPUI
62	Fwd	F	Eric Masch	Santa Clara
63	Fwd	F	Hunter Kennedy	Drake
64	Fwd	F	Sean Dreybus	Appalachian State
65	Fwd	F	Tim Bullock	Liberty
66	Fwd	F	Bryan Bartels	UNC Asheville
67	Fwd	F	Joe Puleo	Lehigh
68	Fwd	F	Connor Mitchell	Santa Clara
69	Fwd	F	Matt Schuber	Colgate
70	Fwd	F	Jimmy Simon	UMKC
71	Fwd	F	Guy Shabtay	Valparaiso
72	Fwd	F	Kevin Stoll	SIUE
73	Fwd	F	Charlie Paris	Yale
74	Fwd	F	Darnell King	Florida Atlantic
75	Fwd	F	Colin Flynn	Gonzaga
76	Fwd	F	Juan Peralta	Vermont