I have been writing for a couple of months about some of the problems DCU are facing in the expansion draft. For me, the biggest issue is what I expect will be the international player problem. Past drafts have allowed teams to expose only a limited fraction of their international status players -- basically using an x -3 formula. DCU have 4 internationals right now, which means they could only expose one. Having to protect Porter and Inkoom over starting players is a lousy result for United. I'm firmly behind Adam Taylor's suggestion that the team should try to use the one-day trading window to deal Porter and/or Attakora to a Canadian team that wouldn't have that same problem with them on their roster.

That's one problem that D.C. United might be able to fix on its own, but there's another thing the league could -- and SHOULD do to help out United...and the New England Revolution, as well. Under the rules that have applied to prior expansion drafts, Homegrown players have been excepted from the drafts. There's some confusion as to whether that's because they have that particular status or just because that status means they're not included in the salary cap budget roster.

The past rules aren't entirely clear on this point:

• Players on a club’s Off-budget Roster, other than Generation adidas players who have not been graduated at the end of the 2011 MLS Season or Homegrown Players on a Club’s Off-budget Roster, will be part of the expansion draft.

• Generation adidas players who have not been graduated at the end of the 2011 MLS Season and Homegrown Players on a club’s Off-budget Roster at the end of the 2011 MLS Season are automatically protected (Clubs do not have to use a protected slot on them).

The first rule seems to carve out a special exception for HGPs. That parallels what the 2010 rules said on the point -- where all the players on the developmental roster were included in the draft, except GA players and HGPs.

So, the question now arises, for the very first time, what is the expansion draft status of a player who used to have off-budget Homegrown status, but who has since signed a new, better deal that placed him on the budget roster?

Out of all the Homegrown Players that have signed with MLS over the last 5 seasons, only Bill Hamid and Diego Fagundez have 'graduated' -- signing new deals that moved them to their team's salary cap budget roster. Even though I have been predicting that DCU would have to include Bill Hamid on the protection list, I agree actually with the idea that he should get draft exemption protection automatically, without inclusion on DCU's 11-man protected list.

Otherwise, the team is kinda being penalized for giving him a new deal -- in this case, DC United would be penalized for giving Bill Hamid a new deal -- a negative result that is especially glaring considering that Hamid's first Homegrown deal would not have expired until the end of this year. The point of the new deal was to hang on to him, to keep him from going abroad to get some more money. Ditto for New England Revolution and the renegotiated contract they gave Diego Fagundez. It’s a bad outcome if that means their teams have to protect these guys and then lose another veteran to expansion, when teams with less successful homegrown players don’t have this concern.

I’d go as far as to say this result would be perverse. The league should be creating every incentive to keep Homegrown talent in the league, and with their original teams.

On the other hand, I can also see why the league wouldn’t make that distinction. The bright line the league has drawn for these things in the past has been between those on HGP and GA deals, and everyone else. I feel fairly certain that the rules were written the way they were in contemplation of the possibility of Homegrown players moving from the "off-budget roster," and that the intention was that such players would be exposed to expansion drafts. However, that was done before this situation arose, and, if I'm right about the original intention, I think it was misguided. Without directly facing the situation, it was easy to limit the rule to the HGPs on the "off-budget" half of the roster. In any case, I am arguing here that new circumstances offer the opportunity to do a little tweaking of the prior draft rules -- and that the league should tweak the rules to exempt even those homegrown signings that have since signed "senior" deals.

MLS certainly could -- and I really think they should -- carve out an exception for ALL homegrown players -- even those for homegrowns no longer under their original HGP deal. One might argue this might actually incentivize teams to sign their Homegrown Players to new deals in advance of an expansion draft, but really it would not do that. All it would do is remove a potential disincentive. If the team didn’t want to expose a player to the expansion draft, they might not offer him a new deal. That's an outcome I think could backfire in future years. There are going to be two more expansion drafts, and there will be a lot more former HGP homegrown players. Putting in rules that incentivize teams to try and keep players on their original, developmental deals is not a recipe for long-term success in keeping those players in the league.

If the rules allowed for signing a player to a new deal and still keeping him out of upcoming expansion drafts, it still shouldn’t expand the number of players a team could protect — not unless the team used that to open another off-budget slot to sign another homegrown or to draft a GA player. This would involve an absurd level of gamesmanship. Really, It would just reward the player a little — making it easier for the team to hang on to him. That's something the league should be encouraging.

I’m not making the rules, of course — and I expect them to be the same as before, There were no former homegrowns on a second deal then, so it wasn’t an issue. Maybe, now that it is, they will carve out an exception. I just have my doubts that MLS will act on this.

One reason the league should consider continuing the special "Homegrown" status in this respect is that it would be consistent with the way the league is expected to treat players like Hamid and Fagundez if and when they get transferred overseas. Though I believe the rules have never been publicly confirmed, it's well understood that teams get 2/3 of a transfer fee, but get 3/4 of the fee for a Homegrown player. Again, though it's never been spelled out in a public document, there's every reason to believe that the 3/4 percentage would apply to the transfer of a player like Hamid, who is no longer on his original Homegrown deal. Everyone who has ever written about this has assumed that would be the case -- and for good reason. It makes sense.

The 3/4 transfer fee bonus exists to reward teams for cultivating talent in their academies. It creates an incentive to invest in those academies, and it also provides more funds for that purpose. This goal is best served by maintaining that fee bonus rule regardless of how many deals the Academy product signs with his original club. Just as I have argued in connection with the expansion draft rules, reducing the % teams would get from a future transfer would be a big disincentive to signing a new deal with your academy product player. The league should be encouraging teams to try and hold on to their best young Homegrown players, rather than creating unfortunate disincentives.

That's why I'm hoping that whoever is setting the rules for the Expansion Draft sees this post, and works up a proposal to exempt all Homegrown players, even the ones now on the budget rosters. Someday, Gyasi Zardes will get a new deal. I'm sure the LA Galaxy don't want to have to choose between locking him down to a new deal and having to leave another player off their protected list in the next expansion draft. Don't penalize D.C. United and the New England Revolution now for coming up with really good Homegrown players and rewarding them with new contracts. They've had to put them on the budget roster. That cuts into the cap and the available budget slots. Beyond that, the league should continue to give their teams the same perks that other teams have with their less accomplished or less well-established Homegrown players