Can't take seeing "UAA Soccer 2022" in 2024 anymore :P so just starting clean with an all encompassing thread.
[I'll take that as permission to re-post some things I had put on the 2022 thread]
Rochester posted its 2024 Roster (https://uofrathletics.com/sports/mens-soccer/roster)
A few observations:
- 32 on the roster, which is the same as last year
- Rochester has an embarrassment of experience at GK. GK Santino Lupica-Tondo, who has been a lock-in starter for the last three years, returns for a COVID year as a grad student. However, Ben Ziegler, who was a regular starter at Hamilton in '21 and '22, but only played 1 game in '23 as team captain (perhaps due to injury?), has also come to Rochester as a grad student. They also have a third keeper who is a senior, even though he has played very little. With new coach Ben Cross coming in off stints as a an asst coach for the first team at Columbus Crew and FC Dallas, I wouldn't be surprised if it was an open competition, with some playing time for Salvador Castaneda from Austin, Texas as well to get him ready to take over next year
- In addition to Ziegler, Rochester picked up a couple of other transfers.
- Kamuleeden Ibrahim is a grad transfer forward from Skidmore, where he was first team all Liberty League and All Region in 2022 when he scored 15 goals. Only saw action in 3 games in 2023 (injury?)
- Tomas White is a grad transfer midfielder from DI Presbyterian, where he played 14 games and started 6 last year
- 7 freshman. With 10 seniors or graduate students on the roster, that gives Cross some ability to shape his team pretty substantially next recruiting class
University of Chicago has posted its 2024 Roster (https://athletics.uchicago.edu/sports/mens-soccer/roster)
A few observations:
- 35 on the roster, compared with 31 last year
- They lose some important players from last year, including starting GK Will Boyes (although he's now an assistant coach in charge of GKs) and leading scorer and assist man Ryan Yetishefsky, plus some experienced defensive depth in Lucas Gen, Nathan Moonesinghe, and Maina Ngobia.
- One big returning player is Robbie Pino, who was second on the team in goals and assists last year as a senior and comes back as a grad student for a Covid year. Alex Lee is also back after not playing in the 2023 season.
- One very inexperienced position will be GK. Boyes was a steady, if not spectacular, GK who played just about every available minute his last two years, and the minutes he didn't play went to his fellow '24 grad Nate Drew. As a result, none of the GK options have played in college. Presumably, junior Gabriel Diaz (or maybe even senior Dhirpal Shah) will play, but it's possible it could be an open competition with the two incoming freshman, especially since Coach Philip Kroft recruited them and was not around for the recruitment of the two older keepers.
- Speaking of freshman, there are 10 on the roster, including the two GKs
- There are also two DI grad transfers, both of whom might be candidates to help to fill the gap left by Yetishefsky's departure. Alex Salvino is a 6'3" forward from Notre Dame and Julius Rauch is a 6'2" forward from Syracuse (and before that a member of the U19 and U23 teams at Borussia Dortmund Academy).
- I found it interesting that Kroft has replaced his lead assistant coach, Michael Mauro, who was a hold-over from the previous head coaches, with his own staff. Jack Curtain has a good amount of experience and Gustav Ericsson has local and int'l connections as well as DIII experience. Ericsson comes over after serving as a grad assistant last season at his alma mater North Park, where he played in the 2017 national finals, transferred to DI University of San Diego, and then returned to North Park and was a second team USC All-American as a senior in 2021. He might provide a little bit of a Swedish connection for recruiting should Kroft want to look in that direction.
Case Western Reserve has posted its 2024 Roster (https://athletics.case.edu/sports/mens-soccer/roster)
A few observations:
- 33 on the roster, compared with 29 last season
- 10 freshman on the roster
- Several upperclassmen newcomers as well. Midfielder Quinn Flaspohler, who played at Depauw for three seasons and was third team All NCAC last year as a senior is using his Covid year as a graduate student at Case. Phil Vlastaris, a defender, transferred after one season at Ohio Northern where he appeared in 15 games. Defender Eshwar Challa is a grad transfer from DI University of Tulsa where he played 8 games
- One player who is sadly out of eligibility is Matt Vatne
Recent grad and a stalker of the boards for the last couple years... now I feel comfortable putting my opinion on here.
Anyways, I guess I'll throw my two cents in for the three teams mentioned above.
First Rochester, which I am extremely interested to see their play style under a new coach. After being a team that seemed to rely on long throws & set pieces regularly, I find it hard to believe that a coach who has spent time within the top level of US professional soccer to play that brand. But I guess we'll see the brand they play... at least in their away games because paywall at home :-\
Next Chicago, they'll be fine. I remember seeing a message about them (I think) last year or a couple years ago. They don't rebuild, they reload. They'll be good, but I agree that losing Boyes/Yeti doesn't help.
Finally Case, which I'll be following closely. Non-conference has tough match-ups again (Ott, Denison, Mount, JCU...) so it will be far from easy. Last season was lead by a defense that allowed 7(?) goals in the regular season, and that will be the key to this season if they want to find themselves successful again. For what it's worth, they return their starting keeper, who arguably could challenge for best in the conference after receiving All-UAA honorable mention in his first year in the starting role as a sophomore.
Carnegie Mellon has posted its 2024 Roster (https://athletics.cmu.edu/sports/msoc/2024-25/roster)
A few observations:
- 37 on the roster, compared with 33 last season
- 9 freshman
- Several transfers, including Robert Lloyd, a midfielder from Wheaton (MA) who was first team all Region and NEWMAC Athlete of the Year, Dallan Schoenberger, a defender who was a regular starter at D1 St. Francis, playing 39 games over 3 years before graduating early, and Rohan Dhingra, a F who transferred from D1 Colgate after seeing no action (I think he suffered a knee injury at some point).
- One regular starter returns for a grad year - forward Diederik Schlingemann who was third on the team in goals scored last season
- Most notable departure is 1st team All-UAA forward Josh Baugh, who led the team with 9 goals and 5 assists last season
Quote from: Kuiper on August 09, 2024, 01:54:48 PMUniversity of Chicago has posted its 2024 Roster (https://athletics.uchicago.edu/sports/mens-soccer/roster)
- Speaking of freshman, there are 10 on the roster, including the two GKs
Fun fact: freshman Eddie Wu is the younger brother of Daniel Wu who won a national championship at Georgetown in 2019 contributing both a goal in regulation and a PK in the shootout during the final vs. UVA. The final was played in Cary, NC where the family resides. The brothers are not only talented on the field but are highly respected for academic achievements.
Eddie is a fantastic player. Look for him to do great things for the Maroons.
For anyone interested
Division 1 Eastern Illinois University begins their regular season vs University of Chicago on ESPN+ at 5 pm Central time.
Quote from: 4samuy on August 22, 2024, 04:29:12 PMFor anyone interested
Division 1 Eastern Illinois University begins their regular season vs University of Chicago on ESPN+ at 5 pm Central time.
Thanks for the heads-up! It's very odd though. It looks like Eastern Illinois is counting that as an official game, but it obviously can only be a scrimmage for University of Chicago under DIII rules, which opens it's regular season on Friday, Aug. 30, hosting Gustavus Adolphus.
I've never heard of that and I'm not sure why the NCAA would allow it as a countable game for Eastern (if they indeed are allowing it). Chicago hasn't even had a week of preseason training and has no incentive, other than pride, to go for a win. The rule allowing DI schools to schedule one game against DIII opponents that will count in its overall record is only a few years old. Did Eastern discover a loophole to give them even better odds that they can boost their record (they only won 4 games last year)? I noticed Eastern was scheduled to play Chicago on Aug. 24th last year and the game was cancelled.
I'm also not sure what the incentive is for Chicago to play Eastern under regular season DI rules. Presumably, for a scrimmage they could play all or most of the roster and they could agree on playing three 30 minute periods or something like that. If this is under D1 rules, does that mean they there is no re-entry too (which is new in 2024 I think)?
Imho the odd incentive to play lies with the division 1 institution. I just don't understand the incentive to play a regular season game against a division 3 opponent.
Maybe an attempt to inflate your record as you try to lure recruits in a rebuilding process.
It does happen at times in NCAA basketball.
I don't believe this affects Chicago at all other than taking it as an exhibition game.
Who knows.
Chicago starting Dhirpal Shah at GK, which doesn't mean he is the new starter, but might indicate he is a leading contender to take over
UPDATE: And I jinxed him because he caught a corner cleanly and a striker knocked it from his hands into the goal. I think it was called a foul, but that kind of bailed him out because at 6'5", there's no reason a striker should come anywhere near to the ball when it is in the GK's hands.
0-0 at the half. It's somewhat telling that Chicago could substitute out its entire team halfway through the first half and still look pretty even with D1 Eastern's starting lineup and probably better in terms of stringing together passes on the ground. Eastern had a couple of chances that could have gone in (one of which drew calls for a PK), but Chicago had a few dangerous sequences that forced the GK to make saves or could have resulted in goals as well.
Brandeis has posted its 2024 Roster (https://brandeisjudges.com/sports/mens-soccer/roster)
A few observations:
- 34 on the roster, compared with 25 last season, so a pretty substantial increase
- 12 Freshman
- How do they increase roster size by 9? They have only 3 seniors to replace, and they do so with 12 freshman. The problem for Brandeis is that all three seniors leaving are important departures - regular starter Nick Dunstan-Maise, 2nd Team All-UAA forward and co-leading scorer Sancho Maroto Tobias and 2nd Team All-UAA forward and co-leading scorer Roee Maor
Emory has posted its 2024 Roster (https://emoryathletics.com/sports/mens-soccer/roster)
A few observations:
- 39 on the roster, compared with 31 last season
- 10 Freshman
- Several transfers to Emory for a graduate Covid year, including two from DI Princeton, defender Whit Gamblin, who played 14 games with 13 starts in 2023 and forward Ryan Winkler, who played 15 games with 6 starts and assists while serving as team captain in 2023, one from DIII Washington & Lee - midfielder Grant McCarty, who was 3rd team All Region in 2023, one from DI Louisville - wing Ryan Nichols, who played in 3 matches in his career, and one from DI Furman - midfielder Kameron Smith, who played 2 games over two years
- One player returning for a Covid year as a grad students - defender Jake Atallah, who was 2nd team All Region last season
- Notable departures include 2nd team All Region GK Peter Wagner, who has transferred to D1 University of South Florida for his Covid year, defender Thomas Toney, and 2nd team All Region forward Colton Myers
Washington University has posted its 2024 Roster (https://washubears.com/sports/mens-soccer/roster)
A few observations for the first roster in almost 30 years where Joe Clarke isn't the head coach:
- 33 on the roster, compared with 31 last season
- 5 freshman, which is a little light for a 30+ player roster, but gives new coach Andrew Bordelon room to shape the roster going forward when he starts to have full control of the pipeline
- Bordelon makes up the roster difference with several impact transfer students doing a grad student Covid year: 6'4" defender Cole Hutson, who transfers from DI Lindenwood, where he played 28 games with 17 starts over 2 years, scoring 6 goals. He played his first two years at NAIA Central Methodist, where he played 15 games with 3 starts and scored 1 goal. Forward Jesus Tadeo, who was 1st team all region at Rhodes College, who scored 17 goals and had 16 assists over his 4 years. Midfielder Gordon Bernlohr, 2nd team All Region and Landmark Conference Offensive Player of the Year at Catholic University, where he played 60 games and started 52 in 3 seasons, scoring 32 goals and having 13 assists.
- 3rd Team All Region midfielder and leading scorer Owen Culver returns for a Covid year
- Notable departures include regular starters D Rabee Hadari and F John Daniels
Quote from: Freddyfud on August 21, 2024, 04:59:02 PMQuote from: Kuiper on August 09, 2024, 01:54:48 PMUniversity of Chicago has posted its 2024 Roster (https://athletics.uchicago.edu/sports/mens-soccer/roster)
- Speaking of freshman, there are 10 on the roster, including the two GKs
Fun fact: freshman Eddie Wu is the younger brother of Daniel Wu who won a national championship at Georgetown in 2019 contributing both a goal in regulation and a PK in the shootout during the final vs. UVA. The final was played in Cary, NC where the family resides. The brothers are not only talented on the field but are highly respected for academic achievements.
Eddie is a fantastic player. Look for him to do great things for the Maroons.
#7 Men's Soccer Knocks Off Top Ranked St. Olaf (https://athletics.uchicago.edu/news/2024/9/1/-7-mens-soccer-knocks-off-top-ranked-st-olaf.aspx)
Emory is ripping up Oglethorpe 3-0 halfway through the first half. The second goal was the result of a GK holding the ball too long in possession trying to play it out of the back, but the third goal practically involved Emory just passing the ball around the 6 yard box. Oglethorpe needs a timeout.
UPDATE: Oglethorpe gets one back 5 minutes before halftime 3-1 Emory
UPDATE: Oglethorpe gets a second goal in the 60th minute. 3-2 Emory. This game is kind of crazy considering it was 3-0 midway through the half. Major momentum shift.
FINAL: WOW! Crazy ending. Oglethorpe ties it up with 53 seconds to go on a scramble in the box. 3-3
Let's see if I can't copy Kuiper...
NYU has posted its 2024 Roster
A few observations:
- 26 on the roster, compared with 28 last season
- 6 freshman and no transfers in 2024
- NYU returns a very experienced side with 10 seniors and 10 regular starters, including 4 year starters: F Bryce Lexow (5 goals), and defenders Ben Trask and Joss Cohen. Trask was the team MVP in 2023 and Trask & Cohen were Honorable Mention All UAA
- A notable departure is 1st team All-UAA forward Arkan Tahsildaroglu, who led the team with 7 goals and 4 assists last season
Quote from: Freddyfud on August 21, 2024, 04:59:02 PMQuote from: Kuiper on August 09, 2024, 01:54:48 PMUniversity of Chicago has posted its 2024 Roster (https://athletics.uchicago.edu/sports/mens-soccer/roster)
- Speaking of freshman, there are 10 on the roster, including the two GKs
Fun fact: freshman Eddie Wu is the younger brother of Daniel Wu who won a national championship at Georgetown in 2019 contributing both a goal in regulation and a PK in the shootout during the final vs. UVA. The final was played in Cary, NC where the family resides. The brothers are not only talented on the field but are highly respected for academic achievements.
Eddie is a fantastic player. Look for him to do great things for the Maroons.
Eddie with another goal and an assist today in a 4-2 win over Aurora. Validated on UC website since I don't trust NCAA.com anymore.
UAA starting to take some shape...
Emory with two strong wins 5-2 over Wash U and 2-0 over Case Western looking the better team in both.
Wash U dominates Brandeis and Brandeis gets 88th minute winner to put Brandeis 2-0 and surprise tied top with Emory.
Chicago and Rochester has a close battle ending 0-0.
Lots of games that look even with shots both ways. Only the Emory games and Wash U/Brandeis seemed imbalanced statstically.
Next week...
Case vs. Rochester is intriguing...Case needs this one more, can't start 0-2-1 and feel good about your chances.
NYU / Wash U also interesting and should be close...both need a win.
Chicago still has to be the favorite over Brandeis.
Emory's early form has them favored over Carnegie Mellon as well.
Big question....will more than one UAA team make the NCAA this year? No one near the top 25 right now and almost guaranteed to beat each other up. Will it be a one bid / no host league in 2024?
Becoming clear that UAA is a 1-bid league this year.
Emory (12 pts) hosts Chicago (9pts) this weekend with a chance to clinch the NCAA bid with a win against the visiting Maroons.
Brandeis (9 pts) and Rochester (7pts) are still alive. A Emory/Chicago tie opens up a 3-way tie possibility with Rochester.
Games left
Emory (12 pts) - home Chicago, home Rochester
Chicago (9 pts) - away Emory, home Wash U
Brandeis (9 pts) - away Case, home NYU
Rochester (7 pts) - home Wash U, away Emory
HTH results in case of 2-way tie
Chicago/Rochester tied; Emory won over Brandeis.
Chicago won over Brandeis; Brandeis won over Rochester
Huh. Wow... Just checked Massey and, yeah, when was the last time the UAA was a one-bid conference??
20 years ago actually...2004 it was just Carnegie Mellon (only 44 bids then). In those 20 years, only three times has it just been 2 bids. Every other year is 3-5 bids.
Two seasons after winning a national championship Chicago finishes sub .500. Had a difficult schedule but in a soft UAA year, and with a number of players on their roster with rings, the year must be incredibly disappointing.
Quote from: deutschfan on November 10, 2024, 06:28:26 PMTwo seasons after winning a national championship Chicago finishes sub .500. Had a difficult schedule but in a soft UAA year, and with a number of players on their roster with rings, the year must be incredibly disappointing.
My guess from afar is that the lack of continuity among coaches over the last three years -- especially with Julianne Sitch's late arrival in Spring 2022 (too late to do a lot of her own recruiting) and her departure in Summer 2023 (too late for Philip Kroft to do a lot of his own recruiting) -- hasn't done them any favors. I don't love coaches who need very specific players for their style of play, but it's hard to build a program, let alone establish or build upon culture, when coaches change so frequently.
Can anyone explain it to me like I'm a 4th grader why NESCAC seems to have benefitted greatly from the parity in the conference and UAA has not? Does the difference in non-conference winning % account for the variance? And the overall quality of non-conference competition (where I would think UAA might edge NESCAC)?
Paul,
this year, most all of the UAA did poorly out of conference, this caused the Strength of schedule for UAA to fall across the board and then the in-conference games didn't carry any significance nationally.
the opposite was true for NESCAC, all did well out of conference so then they all are beating each other and getting bonuses for quality wins.
UAA needs to be better in the first part of the season if they hope to go another 20 years with getting multiple bids (last time with one bid was 2004).
I don't think the NESCAC teams played a tough out of conference schedule but they did win the matches they did have
Quote from: kansas hokie on November 10, 2024, 07:24:48 PMPaul,
this year, most all of the UAA did poorly out of conference, this caused the Strength of schedule for UAA to fall across the board and then the in-conference games didn't carry any significance nationally.
the opposite was true for NESCAC, all did well out of conference so then they all are beating each other and getting bonuses for quality wins.
UAA needs to be better in the first part of the season if they hope to go another 20 years with getting multiple bids (last time with one bid was 2004).
I know this isn't the test but I wonder if most folks think Wesleyan and Hamilton are better than or at least equal to every single UAA. Remember, if not for an AQ, UAA would have had zero. Rochester, for example, finished just about where they always do...9-4-4 (3-2-2) with their usual well above average non-conference schedule.
NESCAC simply benefits from geography more than the UAA. NESCAC teams can take the pick of the litter when it comes to scheduling good to ok teams in New England which has the highest concentration of division 3 teams. Way more easier for them to schedule the top GNAC and NAC type teams that will finish the season with a decent win %. They can more easily rack up the SOS benefit/win % without actually having to play a truly challenging team. Not that they don't schedule tough matchups, they most assuredly do but they greatly benefit from the aforementioned dynamic more than the UAA does.
The NPI dials also were set so that it doesn't matter at all if you win at home or win away. I know Emory's schedule the best so I'll use it as an example. Flew out west as usual, this time to Colorado College, played (now D2) UT-Dallas and won, then played CC at home in altitude the next day (dominated the match but still lost). The D2 win doesn't go into NPI and the loss is the same as losing at home. Back in the South, Emory had many more away matches than home matches. None of that travel helped the ranking at all. Unless the dials are changed, I am betting you will see teams that are in demand schedule a lot more home games.
Quote from: PaulNewman on November 10, 2024, 07:40:50 PMQuote from: kansas hokie on November 10, 2024, 07:24:48 PMPaul,
this year, most all of the UAA did poorly out of conference, this caused the Strength of schedule for UAA to fall across the board and then the in-conference games didn't carry any significance nationally.
the opposite was true for NESCAC, all did well out of conference so then they all are beating each other and getting bonuses for quality wins.
UAA needs to be better in the first part of the season if they hope to go another 20 years with getting multiple bids (last time with one bid was 2004).
I know this isn't the test but I wonder if most folks think Wesleyan and Hamilton are better than or at least equal to every single UAA. Remember, if not for an AQ, UAA would have had zero. Rochester, for example, finished just about where they always do...9-4-4 (3-2-2) with their usual well above average non-conference schedule.
Will it take the UAA teams a number of years till it becomes a premier conference again? Can it be fixed by scheduling and winning against top out of conference teams? For instance, with W&L's scheduling and success, it could be argued that it has dragged ODAC to a two or three team qualifier?
Quote from: SierraFD3soccer on November 11, 2024, 12:41:55 PMQuote from: PaulNewman on November 10, 2024, 07:40:50 PMQuote from: kansas hokie on November 10, 2024, 07:24:48 PMPaul,
this year, most all of the UAA did poorly out of conference, this caused the Strength of schedule for UAA to fall across the board and then the in-conference games didn't carry any significance nationally.
the opposite was true for NESCAC, all did well out of conference so then they all are beating each other and getting bonuses for quality wins.
UAA needs to be better in the first part of the season if they hope to go another 20 years with getting multiple bids (last time with one bid was 2004).
I know this isn't the test but I wonder if most folks think Wesleyan and Hamilton are better than or at least equal to every single UAA. Remember, if not for an AQ, UAA would have had zero. Rochester, for example, finished just about where they always do...9-4-4 (3-2-2) with their usual well above average non-conference schedule.
Will it take the UAA teams a number of years till it becomes a premier conference again? Can it be fixed by scheduling and winning against top out of conference teams? For instance, with W&L's scheduling and success, it could be argued that it has dragged ODAC to a two or three team qualifier?
The UAA's status as a multi-bid conference was artificially boosted by the Regional Ranking system of selection. It was unique among conferences in having teams in several different regions, some of which were fairly weak or lesser populated in men's soccer. That meant that a lot of UAA teams were regionally ranked pretty regularly by the time they got to conference play and UAA teams had several chances to amass wins against regionally ranked opponents that simply were not available to teams during conference play in conferences where all teams were part of the same region. Those wins against ranked teams were like the Quality Win Bonuses of today's NPI and few conferences had teams with the travel budgets to compete with the UAA in racking them up.
Under the NPI, UAA is going to have to adjust its scheduling in non-conference games in order to survive as a high-achieving conference. It no longer has a built-in advantage over other conferences. Indeed, it now has a built-in disadvantage because the back-loaded conference schedule requires them to find a lot of early non-conference games, which might be harder to do when they don't have something to offer like a regionally ranked win prospect. Now, it's just the risk of a loss against a team that might not be highly ranked for NPI purposes.
My guess is UAA will pivot from strong early schedules to more of a mix of finding wins in the first half of the season before conference play. Although the NPI was ostensibly structured by the Men's Soccer Committee to encourage strong scheduling, the reality is that if you are in a conference with strong teams, you may be better off scheduling primarily weaker non-conference opponents, with a few teams playing strong local opponents mixed in that they can beat, like NESCAC does for the most part, knowing that if everyone arrives to conference games with good records, they're going to amass NPI points during conference play. It's the strong teams in weak conferences that need to find better opponents to guard against missing out completely if they are upset in the conference tournament.
Ignominious end for the UAA with Emory being shut down in first round. Chicago has to be biggest disappointment from national champ in 2022 to sub .500 in two years. After the Emory loss the coaching staff mentioned in their press release the possibility of a NCAA bid. After the Wash U loss the coaching staff declined to even issue a recap of the game. That was total sour grapes.
Quote from: Kuiper on November 11, 2024, 01:08:13 PMQuote from: SierraFD3soccer on November 11, 2024, 12:41:55 PMQuote from: PaulNewman on November 10, 2024, 07:40:50 PMQuote from: kansas hokie on November 10, 2024, 07:24:48 PMPaul,
this year, most all of the UAA did poorly out of conference, this caused the Strength of schedule for UAA to fall across the board and then the in-conference games didn't carry any significance nationally.
the opposite was true for NESCAC, all did well out of conference so then they all are beating each other and getting bonuses for quality wins.
UAA needs to be better in the first part of the season if they hope to go another 20 years with getting multiple bids (last time with one bid was 2004).
I know this isn't the test but I wonder if most folks think Wesleyan and Hamilton are better than or at least equal to every single UAA. Remember, if not for an AQ, UAA would have had zero. Rochester, for example, finished just about where they always do...9-4-4 (3-2-2) with their usual well above average non-conference schedule.
Will it take the UAA teams a number of years till it becomes a premier conference again? Can it be fixed by scheduling and winning against top out of conference teams? For instance, with W&L's scheduling and success, it could be argued that it has dragged ODAC to a two or three team qualifier?
The UAA's status as a multi-bid conference was artificially boosted by the Regional Ranking system of selection. It was unique among conferences in having teams in several different regions, some of which were fairly weak or lesser populated in men's soccer. That meant that a lot of UAA teams were regionally ranked pretty regularly by the time they got to conference play and UAA teams had several chances to amass wins against regionally ranked opponents that simply were not available to teams during conference play in conferences where all teams were part of the same region. Those wins against ranked teams were like the Quality Win Bonuses of today's NPI and few conferences had teams with the travel budgets to compete with the UAA in racking them up.
Under the NPI, UAA is going to have to adjust its scheduling in non-conference games in order to survive as a high-achieving conference. It no longer has a built-in advantage over other conferences. Indeed, it now has a built-in disadvantage because the back-loaded conference schedule requires them to find a lot of early non-conference games, which might be harder to do when they don't have something to offer like a regionally ranked win prospect. Now, it's just the risk of a loss against a team that might not be highly ranked for NPI purposes.
My guess is UAA will pivot from strong early schedules to more of a mix of finding wins in the first half of the season before conference play. Although the NPI was ostensibly structured by the Men's Soccer Committee to encourage strong scheduling, the reality is that if you are in a conference with strong teams, you may be better off scheduling primarily weaker non-conference opponents, with a few teams playing strong local opponents mixed in that they can beat, like NESCAC does for the most part, knowing that if everyone arrives to conference games with good records, they're going to amass NPI points during conference play. It's the strong teams in weak conferences that need to find better opponents to guard against missing out completely if they are upset in the conference tournament.
Solid explainer, kuiper.
Cross-posting from the 2025 Schedules thread. A couple of UAA school schedules have dropped. At least from these two schools, I'm not seeing the shift to a few more easy non-conference wins that you might expect now that the UAA needs to build their records up before conference play and can't rely upon regional ranking points. It may be that some of these new opponents were set up before the NPI system or they think that they actually need more solid non-conference opponents because they can't count on the UAA opponents to be strong enough.
Rochester (https://uofrathletics.com/sports/mens-soccer/schedule)
Hosts Cortland to open the season and then four straight away games. Only difference in opponents between this season and last is they replace Stevens with York and Oswego State. The big difference in UAA play is that they had only three games at home last season, where they were 6-0-3, and only one after Oct 12 and they have four at home in 2025, all of which are Oct. 18 or later. They had the best overall record in the UAA last season, but the late season UAA losses/ties are what prevented them from getting the NCAA bid (their only win in their last four conference games was the only one they played at home).
Brandeis (https://brandeisjudges.com/sports/mens-soccer/schedule/2025)
Drops Vassar, Union, Western New England, and Eastern Connecticut State and picks up Coast Guard, Regis, Wesleyan, John Carroll, and Anna Maria. Seems fairly similar, depending upon how good Wesleyan and John Carroll are this year.
The shift in Emory's schedule certainly appears to be moving in the direction of more wins. There's four top 60 NPI OOC matches (once Oglethorpe is scheduled) and the rest of OOC opponents are under 150 (more wins, less ties/upsets). Gone are the 60-100 teams that are closer in strength. Overall, the UAA needs to do much better in OOC if there's a chance to go back to multiple at-large bids. Last year was first in 25 years with just one UAA team in NCAA, we'll see what this year brings.
CWRU's schedule is out.
https://athletics.case.edu/sports/mens-soccer/schedule
The out of conference schedule consists mostly of Ohio and Western PA small colleges. Nothing too strenuous.
Although several of the teams have changed, the Spartans basically used that same scheduling strategy last season as well.
And did better out of conference than in conference.
With the ODAC announcement, I thought it was worth posting the UAA announcement here, just in case anyone missed it. We're getting to the point where it's probably not if, but when, your conference is going to sign with Flo for the majority of conferences.
FloSports and UAA sign exclusive media rights deal (https://www.flosports.tv/2025/06/20/flosports-and-university-athletic-association-uaa-enter-exclusive-media-rights-agreement-bringing-ncaa-division-iii-conference-to-flocollege/)
QuoteFloSports and the University Athletic Association (UAA) have entered into an exclusive five-year media rights agreement that will begin in the fall of 2025, bringing eight elite universities to the FloCollege platform. Through the agreement, FloSports will provide a global platform to live stream over 650 regular-season and postseason events annually. The partnership further reinforces FloSports commitment to supporting Division III athletics adding a sixth to the FloCollege portfolio and the 15th NCAA conference to the platform.
The UAA is composed of eight prestigious member institutions and is the only DIII conference where all members are elite research institutions, they include: Brandeis University, Carnegie Mellon University, Case Western Reserve University, Emory University, New York University (NYU), University of Chicago, University of Rochester, and Washington University in St. Louis (WashU).
Quote"I speak on behalf of all eight UAA institutions when I say how excited we are to partner with FloSports and bring UAA content to FloCollege," commented Sarah Otey, Commissioner of the UAA. "UAA student-athletes are second to none in their academic and athletic successes – and we are grateful to have a streaming network that will give us an opportunity to appropriately promote them. This agreement will allow our institutions to ensure they can stream UAA competition and promote the UAA brand in a manner that best reflects the exceptional nature of our UAA student-athletes."
I'll post some roster analyses/season previews as they become available and I have time.
Chicago (https://athletics.uchicago.edu/sports/mens-soccer/roster)
Uncharacteristically weak season for Chicago, finishing 7-8-3 (2-2-3 in the UAA) and missing the NCAA tournament after starting the season 5-1. They lose a lot of key parts, including the last key contributing links to their NCAA title run in 2022. They still have significant talent, but the question is whether Philip Kroft can properly take advantage of that talent so they can get back to the consistency of the last decade or so.
Transfers:
Charlie Wagner is a D3 transfer from Colorado College who had eligibility because he missed his freshman year due to injury. A 6'2" midfielder/defender and 2-time All-SCAC selection in his two years of action at Colorado College, he played 37 games and started 34 of them over the last two years (although he went out with an injury early in the NCAA game against Pacific Lutheran and missed the second round game against CMS). Given his high-level experience, including in the NCAA tournament, he could be an impact player for the Maroons if he's healthy. He certainly shouldn't have trouble adjusting to the UAA travel schedule after playing with Colorado College.
Louis Bock is a D1 transfer from Coastal Carolina who is originally from Luxembourg. A 6'6" defender who played 33 games, starting 15, during his time there. He was named Male Scholar Athlete of the Year at Coastal Carolina in 2023-2024, so I'm not surprised he graduated early and decided to spend his last year of eligibility at Chicago getting a Master's in Finance. You never know how much D1 transfers are going to be focused on soccer when they come to DIII for a grad degree, but he certainly will add a size dimension for the Chicago defense.
Recruits:
D Eli Weene (6'1") - Los Angeles, CA, LA Breakers ECNL
F Giovanni Casselli (6'3") - London, England, City of London HS
D Vaughn DeRath (5'10") - Okemos, MI, Michigan Wolves MLS Next (formerly Columbus Crew Academy)
M William Stewart (5'10") - Atlanta, GA, Southern SA MLS Next
M Drake Wenger (5'6") - Jacksonville, FL, Jacksonville Armada MLS Next (formerly Orlando City Academy)
Key departures:
They lose leading scorer Danny Mendoza, but he only had 7 goals and 4 of them were scored very early in the season in blowouts against Kalamazoo and North Central. Biggest losses are most of the last contributors to the national championship run, including Lyndon Hu, who was a fixture in the midfield the last 4 years, starting 79 of 84 games in which he played, including during Chicago's national championship run. He was second in the team in minutes played last year behind GK Dhirpal Shah, who also graduated. Other key '22'ers departing include Jack Leuker, who was another key fixture on defense and, like Hu, started 79 of 84 games he played over 4 years and was UAA defensive player of the year in 2023 and midfielder Robbie Pino, who departs after finishing a disappointing grad year that was cut short by injury.
Roster analysis/season preview
Washington University (https://washubears.com/sports/mens-soccer/roster)
Wash U went 8-5-3 in Andrew Bordelon's first season after taking over from Joe Clarke, who retired after 28 years at the school. The program was adrift a little when Clarke retired, qualifying for the NCAA tournament only once since 2016 - in 2021 - and finishing .500 or below every season during that period except 2019, when they were 8-7-1. So, from that perspective, the 2024 season was a positive sign in that it was the second best record for the program in the last seven years. The most impressive victory was a 2-0 win over then-#14 Ohio Northern. They have a schedule built for success as well as a strong set of returning defenders. They just need to generate offense against the tougher teams and get more than two wins in the UAA.
Key Departures:
The only offensive contributor who departs is grad student Jesus Tadeo, a Rhodes transfer who had 2 goals and 4 assists last season in a role off the bench. On defense, they lose grad student Cole Hutson, who started 8 games. Perhaps the most meaningful loss was midfielder Eugene Heger, a two-time All UAA honorable mention player who started 14 of 16 games and had 2 goals and 2 assists.
Key returners:
The Bears had 4 players on the All UAA teams in 2024 and all four return: Quentin Gomez (D), who was named the UAA Defensive Player of the Year and 1st team All UAA, Zach Susee (F), who was the leading scorer and assist man in 2024 and was also 1st team All UAA, as well as two honorable mention all UAA players - Nathan Szpak (D) and Carter Sasser (D).
Freshman:
14 freshman, which seems like a pretty massive haul for a program that only had 7 seniors/grad students last season. It suggests Coach Bordelon is planning on upgrading or at least making the team deeper and more competitive at a bunch of positions.
Third installment of the Roster Analyses/Season Previews:
Rochester (https://uofrathletics.com/sports/mens-soccer/roster)
Rochester had a decent record last season at 9-4-4, but they suffered from the general down year of the UAA, where a winning record at 3-2-2 wasn't going to be good enough to win the auto bid or to qualify under the NPI. They have some talent returning, but they also have some question marks.
Key Returners:
First team all UAA and second team all region MF Milos Bisenic is the most critical returner, having scored 5 goals (including 3 game winning ones) and contributed 4 assists last season. Grad student and Skidmore transfer Kamal Ibrahim, who was the second leading scorer last season and a second team All-UAA player, also returns and plays a big role up top. They weren't a prolific offense, but with rising sophomore Johnny Makula and rising junior Alessio Cristanetti-Walker, they have continuity and depth up top.
Key Departures:
While they will have vets on offense, they have some glaring holes on defense. GK Santino Lupica-Tondo, a four-year starter and All-UAA players, departs and they really never developed a goalkeeper to take over for him. Last season, he played every single minute. The only returning goalkeeper with any college experience is Hamilton transfer Ben Ziegler, who played 1 game at Hamilton in 2023 before getting injured and didn't play at all in 2024. He did have 24 starts in 2021 and 2022 and was decent, so they may be hoping he is healthy and can fill the GK shoes while they develop a homegrown GK. Making things worse, they lose defender Jeremiah Anandarajah, who started all 17 games last season and was second in minutes to only Lupica-Tondo. Kol Bassuk may have to pick up the slack on the backline. They also lose first team All UAA midfielder Nick Swanger.
Transfers/Grad students:
No transfers for the first time in a few years, but they do have Ziegler, Ibrahim, and regular MF starter Tyler Moran returning for grad years.
Freshman:
They have 8 freshman coming in to replace the 7 players who left. Surprisingly, it doesn't look like any of them are goalkeepers, which will leave only one GK on the roster next year, which suggests they will be bringing in some in the next recruiting class.