The 2016 Boys IMG Academy Top 150 fall update is out today. Benny Swanson and Daniel Barbir each move up a couple of spots into the second and third overall after successful international trips with youth national teams in October. Swanson is the only member of the 2016 class to see minutes with the U18 MNT at the Limoges Tournament in which the USA took second place, while Barbir helped the U17 MNT to a 1-0-2 result in three friendlies with Spanish clubs.

BW Gottschee midfielder Conor McGlynn and New York Red Bulls forward/midfielder Dantae Greer impressed our staff at recent TDS Combines in New York and Philadelphia, and saw their rankings rise as a result. McGlynn, who climbs from #95 to #56, is a hardworking, creative midfielder with a good eye for a pass, and received multiple recommendations for his ranking. Greer, who was not previously ranked, was quick, smart, and dangerous at the Combine and debuts at #145.

In addition to the IMG Academy 150 update, we have made key changes to the regional rankings which will be unveiled throughout the week. Some of the additions include Bethesda-Olney center back Alonzo Clarke, Shattuck St. Mary’s midfielder Jasper Malamud, Virginia Rush goalkeeper Duncan Wrenn, and United German Hungarians defender/forward Jacob Kemery.

As far as how we arrive at the rankings, it’s no simple task.

We keep a national database of players as the starting point for our rankings (if you’re not in it, enter a profile here).

We track an extensive list of selections to national team camps and other honors including USSF Development Academy (Boys), ECNL (Girls), and U.S. Youth Soccer National League event and season awards, plus U.S. Soccer Training Centers, ODP, id2 and other player identification programs.

From there we look at additional signs of top player performance in a club environment, with the help of an extensive network of observers around the country. The priority here is for club, college, national team and other select team coaches on the ground, but especially when we can gain corroborating opinions. The more layers of opinions we can gain accumulate the better, as our role is primarily to aggregate those viewpoints, rather than making our own determination as to a player’s quality.

As a matter of policy, we never share which coaches said what about whom so that coaches will be freer to share their assessments. Another policy is that parents’ opinions about their own children are not considered, but you are welcome to provide feedback about honors and other details that may be of help to us in keeping their profiles up to date as well as our challenge of sifting through thousands of players nationwide. That kind of data can be helpful, but the: “How can you not have rated my kid? He is awesome” communique, while compelling, will be consigned to the virtual trash.

In the end, there’s always some level of subjectivity about players, because after all, how good someone is relative to someone else is largely a matter of opinion, but we do our best to make our rankings as educated an opinion as can be.

The rankings will be updated every quarter. Keeping current rankings for 8 classes of 150 players each is no small task, and it is counterintuitive to think the rankings would change daily or weekly. We will announce each update.

So that’s it. You can see the newest version of the rankings here.