holding out for the Simple Coach AA list. Until then:
https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/2025-united-soccer-coaches-ncaa-division-iii-mens-and-womens-all-america-teams-announced/
Quote from: SKUD on December 04, 2025, 02:45:47 PMholding out for the Simple Coach AA list. Until then:
https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/2025-united-soccer-coaches-ncaa-division-iii-mens-and-womens-all-america-teams-announced/
interesting the first NESCAC'er isn't until the third team......admittedly haven't seen them but with the amount of teams ant talent I think it's hard to comprehend any teams have two players on the first team list...let alone two
Agreed. Could be my bias but seems a bit wild the best league in the nation has only 3 guys on the entire list...and that it's one on the third team and two on the fourth team. Not really buying that the success is purely a function of coaching and a summation of the parts in this case. Let me know
Crazy how few NESCAC players are represented on the men's side. Tyler Huck NESCAC player of the year is only 3rd team All America?
Tufts GK Nikola Antic has 0.51 GAA which is better than the 1st Team All America GK (0.52)? Freshman Augsburg GK is 2nd team All America after giving up 21 goals and 0.88 GAA? That GAA would be 7th in the NESCAC!
Are the selections always this wonky? I've never followed closely prior to this year.
Ok glad to see others with similar questions.
Augsburg and Lynchburg have 3 players apiece on Teams 1 and 2... while the entire NESCAC has 4 players and they're all Team 3 and Team 4.
Quote from: Sandon Mibut on December 04, 2025, 04:04:43 PMCrazy how few NESCAC players are represented on the men's side. Tyler Huck NESCAC player of the year is only 3rd team All America?
Tufts GK Nikola Antic has 0.51 GAA which is better than the 1st Team All America GK (0.52)? Freshman Augsburg GK is 2nd team All America after giving up 21 goals and 0.88 GAA? That GAA would be 7th in the NESCAC!
Are the selections always this wonky? I've never followed closely prior to this year.
There are always some odd selections, some who are really deserving but they don't play at schools that other people watch, while others are real head-scratchers based on their stats. No coaches watch all these players and most of them never play each other in a way that a fair comparison can be rendered. That said, I usually accept that there are many more outstanding players around the country than could be properly watched and recognized. I tend to think the conference awards are probably more accurate than the national awards.
With that as context, 4 is a pretty standard number for NESCAC schools
Here are the number of NESCAC players that have been named All Americans in past years
2024 - 5
2023 - 3
2022 - 4
2021 - 4
2019 - 5
Absolutely no value, but interesting to see (at least to me)...
| Hometown | K | D | M | F | Total |
| OH | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 7 |
| PA | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| CA | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| IL | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| NY | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| TX | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| VA | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| FL | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| MA | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| MD | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| NJ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| WI | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| DC | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| KY | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| LA | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| MN | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| NC | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| ND | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| NV | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| OR | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| WA | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| England | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
couple thoughts on how these teams are made up....teams from "weaker" conferences can rack up stats against lower competition (goals, assists, shutouts) and when it comes to comparing across conferences those stat differences stand out. This is especially true for teams that dominate their conference play.
Another factor is that for schools in NESCAC & UAA, they have top teams across the board and individual accolades are more common historically. For some of the teams with top level AA's, these are shooting stars that dont' happen all the time, so their coaches and SID's advocate more for them as they should. IT matters more to those programs.
My two pennies.
My biggest gripe with AA selection is the (I'd argue) excessive value placed on the team's success.
Here (https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/2024-United-Soccer-Coaches-Senior-College-All-America-Voting-Procedures-Coaches-3.pdf) is the 'formula' use to calculate the AA teams (I know it says 2024 but this has been in place for years). I understand the rational to include team success in an individual player's overall rating, but I do think it hurts the top players in the better conferences (NESCAC, UAA, etc.) since it it much more difficult to end the season with a record that is among the highest winning percentage.
A solution to this? I don't know... maybe a different weighting on the team index, maybe include SoS somehow? But it will always be nearly impossible to pick the true top 45 players in a landscape so large and subjective.
This doesn't take anything way from those who made up the AA teams, congrats and well done!
I think I was watching a different Division III. Clearly, I am not watching ... or valuing the same players.... even with the crazy rules I place on my Top XI.
SC.