Whether this will be the case in the future as professional soccer grows in the United States is uncertain, but for now college graduates, scorned by some as being too far behind in development, are having major impacts on their MLS clubs.

"It doesn't surprise me," said Cullen, a former All-American at Maryland, who played all but eight minutes of the Fusion's first seven games. "A lot of people doubt college soccer's ability to develop players, but I think we've proven that wrong. Obviously, college is doing a good job."

Players picked Nos. 6-9 also have made significant contributions to their MLS clubs.

South Carolina grad Clint Mathis scored the Los Angeles Galaxy's winning goal April 12 against New York/New Jersey. Josh Keller of UCLA started four games this month for Tampa Bay. Southern Connecticut State's Mike Petke stepped in to help a struggling MetroStars defense in victories the past two weeks. And South Florida's Jeff Cunningham has seen action for Columbus. The draft's 12th pick, Wade Barrett, has started three games on defense for San Jose.

Goalkeeper Matt Reis, UCLA's 1997 national championship hero, starred in the Galaxy's 2-1 win April 18 in Kansas City. He was a third-round selection.

In all, 17 players who finished their fourth years of collegiate eligibility last fall, have seen action in MLS this season.

"The message has been that the college draft was a waste of time," Indiana coach Jerry Yeagley said. "But objective numbers are telling a different story. The spin has been that staying in college is detrimental to your progress. As we've seen in this MLS season, that's not the case."

However, (Washington) D.C. United coach Bruce Arena, who won four national championships at Virginia, warns it is too soon to evaluate this year's draft class.

"None of us know what are teams are like yet and how the new players will turn out," he said. "It's kind of early to make any kind of assessment."

Arena points out that this year's class came out in a year when as many as 50 new job openings were created by expansion and several more due to World Cup commitments by MLS stars.

"This year's group has done well," he said. "But I think the group in '96, which included Eddie Pope, Frankie Hejduk and Brian Maisonneuve, was better."

Project 40, designed as a player development option for some of the top young players in the country to enter a professional environment before or during college, has been touted by MLS and U.S. Soccer as the most effective route to a professional career.

The 11 players who entered the Project-40 program combined to play at total of 786 MLS minutes in 1997.This season's top 11 draft picks had played 2,227 minutes through April 20.

Last year's Project-40 class accumulated five starts. Carlos Parra of the MetroStars, who received the most playing time of all Project 40 players last season, has not played this year.

With the exception of D.C. United's Ben Olsen, considered by many the best college player last season as a junior at Virginia, none of this year's 11-member Project 40 class has seen MLS game time. He has started three matches for D.C. United, twice at midfield, once at forward.

"College was a good transition for me," he said. "It's just a natural step going from high school to college. If the pros would have been available to me after high school, I wouldn't have been ready.''

A main selling point of Project 40 is that players will receive high-level training and game experience daily. So far, the game experience has not come. To help remedy that situation, most of this year's Project 40 players comprise a team weekends and compete in the Second Division A-League.

"Playing for the A-League team ... that's nice," Virginia coach George Gelnovatch said. "It gives them a place to continue playing when they are not playing with their MLS team. But I feel my team at Virginia could compete with any A-League team."

Project 40 was drawn up in response to what was perceived as a failure by the college-player laden 1996 Olympic team to advance beyond the first round. "The message is you can clearly accelerate your training by entering the professional environment sooner," Arena said. "Kids who go through college can improve, but not at a fast enough rate."

College coaches generally say they favor Project-40 as an option, but they don't like the February. 1 cutoff date for undergraduates to turn pro, saying it puts them in a recruiting bind, that they can't go out at that time and get replacements for their programs.

Project-40 players are paid the league minimum of $24,000 and receive an endorsement contract from Nike, reported to be in the $2,000-$3,000 range. An educational stipend of $37,500 is available to each player to be used over a 10-year period to continue their education.

"The MLS minimum is $24,000," Gelnovatch said. "The cost of a full scholarship at Virginia is $22,000. The education money they get is $37,500 . . . It doesn't add up -- $37,000 isn't going to pay for four years of college (at a Virginia)."

Maryland junior Keith Beach did the math. "The money wasn't very good," he said, adding he had the opportunity to go Project 40 but turned it down. "The tuition grant was enough to pay for about one semester of school a year. I felt I was getting good training and experience here, and getting an education is very important to me."

"Being at Indiana was great for me," Klein said. "The entire four years there was like a professional training environment. We were expected to train like pros. It really helped me to be able to stay there for four years and grow and mature while I was developing as a soccer player. You need that transition period to grow physically and mentally."

"For American kids, college is a good transition period," Cullen said. "A lot of players are babied or pampered at the youth club level. There isn't a lot demanded of them, they show up late for practice or don't work hard when they get there.

"The next step is college, which is more demanding and challenging. I learned what it was like to be committed to soccer, and I learned about the effort you have to bring every day. You learn the realities, and it helps you decide if you have what it takes to be a professional soccer player."

Said his college coach, Sasho Cirovski: "The great thing about college is it's like a four-year guaranteed contract. Players can experiment and make mistakes without the fear of getting cut."

College, with its rules restricting organized soccer during the school year and limits on the spring season, is criticized for retarding player development.

"The way you grade college soccer is, given the restrictions, college does a good job," Arena said. "But that's not good enough, and that's often misunderstood.

"The knock on college is that you only play three months," Klein said. "At Indiana we say, 'There is no off-season.' You train year-round."

Added Cullen: "The college season is long ... or it seems long when you're in it. You play 25-30 games in the fall, then you have the spring season, and all through the summer and winter you have to work to stay in shape and played-in."

A number of the top college players played last summer in the NCAA-approved adidas Summer League, a month of intense training. Many of the Indiana players, found a United Systems of Independent Soccer Leagues amateur team to play with in addition. College coaches are working on more player development options for upcoming off-seasons.

College spring seasons, once informal, have been beefed up significantly at some top programs.

"At Maryland, we train five days a week in the spring," Cirovski said. "And we lift three days. In the past 10 years, a lot of universities have made large commitments to their soccer programs in terms of coaches, facilities, budgets and equipment. A lot of American kids are benefiting."

Last year, Indiana played 24 regular-season games, one exhibition and five spring matches. Hoosier players who joined the USISL's Premier Division in the summer got another 10-15 matches, bringing the total to more than 40.

"The USISL has been helpful," Yeagley said. "Our guys were able to join adult amateur teams and play against older, advanced players."

"In any sport, if you go straight to the pro environment, you're going to do better as an athlete than if you stayed in an amateur environment," said Duke coach John Rennie, who has yet to lose a player to Project-40.

"The question is, will you make it and will it be worthwhile? The odds are very long. What MLS wants is to take a lot of amateurs and let the system sort them out. The kids who make it, fine. The kids who don't ... who cares. It's a business. And if you want to give up what you have in a college situation, just be prepared for the day when they say, `You're not good enough, goodbye."

"I think the players around the league are looking at guys like Chris Klein and Johnny Torres and saying, 'These kids just got here, and look at what they are doing'," Cullen said. "I think American kids are excited about college soccer. We can produce players, and it is good for the sport."