How about letting all players join the NCAA Soccer teams from any country. Ive known some good players that never see the playing field because they weren't born in the U.S but have been here most of their life.
Letting non-citizens go to college here in the US is frowned upon, unless they want to cash out international fees which are off the charts.
The only way that US soccer can take it to the next level is to start big academies where they look for talent at a young age like the do in Europe and seriously train the kids from the age of 10.
People play soccer here, but as soon as they get out of the youth league age and enter high school, they focus on the other more popular sports. There aren't any institutions that make it "cool" and profitable for a young athlete to stick with soccer like there are with other sports.
My 2 cents...