Season previews:

Carroll: https://gopios.com/news/2025/8/28/mens-soccer-2025-season-preview.aspx

Illinois Wesleyan: https://www.iwusports.com/news/2025/8/28/mens-soccer-mens-soccer-readies-for-two-game-tilt-in-kentucky.aspx

Millikin: https://athletics.millikin.edu/news/2025/8/28/big-blue-mens-soccer-gears-up-for-the-2025-season.aspx

North Central: https://new.express.adobe.com/webpage/qMUo7QLa1ZKAw

North Park: https://athletics.northpark.edu/news/2025/8/28/athletic-department-2025-north-park-mens-soccer-season-preview.aspx

Quote from: Ron Boerger on August 27, 2025, 09:00:47 AM

Quote from: WUPHF on August 27, 2025, 08:48:33 AMAs did the WIAC.

I am not sure that I see it as a blow in favor of free live streams as it really is the CCIW keeping the status quo with minor changes, though it is good news.

IMO they are deliberately saying "hell no, we won't Flo" after so many conferences have bent the knee and setting the stage for other conferences that care about their students, families, and supporters to do the same. 

That's exactly right. Many of the SIDs and ADs of the CCIW were very proactive in pushing this option while opposing Flo and the other PPV outfits. In a lot of respects, the outbreak of Flovid among D3 conferences really galvanized the creation of the CCIW Network, as much as if not more than the desire to emulate the WIAC and MIAA in creating one-stop ease of conference-wide livestream use. Remember, Carthage's two-game men's basketball experiment with the Marquee Sports Network last winter was seen as a real threat that PPV livestreaming would take over the league.

Quote from: markerickson on August 26, 2025, 11:41:41 AMNPU's head coach landed 47 freshmen for the fall 2021 season. Four academic years later, in spring 2025, I believe only 11 (23%) graduated.

You're discounting former players who left the program, stayed in school, and graduated as students at large. That describes a number of those 47 freshmen.

Quote from: markerickson on August 26, 2025, 11:41:41 AMI never previously crunched graduation numbers, but I know NPC/U has always had its football roster heavily consist of freshmen and sophomores.

It's one of the top reasons why the program had never made any headway in the past. Attrition is a fact of life for most football programs (Wheaton being a notable exception), but at North Park it's been especially acute over the decades, proof positive that just as winning begets more winning, losing begets more losing.

Quote from: markerickson on August 26, 2025, 11:41:41 AMRooker's 2025 team is no different with a roster that  comprises approximately 26% of juniors and seniors.  This is not the path to "keep momentum going," per the NPU press release, following a 5-5 season.

Disagree. Retention percentages obscure one of the two most important aspects of competitiveness, which is the raw number of returnees. (The other is the quality of returnees.) Take a look around the league, Mark. The CCIW, like a lot of D3 leagues, features supersized rosters of well over 100 players; NPU has 120 players listed on the roster, an all-time high. (Hooray for Kyle Rooker and his staff for thumbing their noses at the demographic cliff over which American higher education has just begun to plummet! ) It's been commonplace for many years now to see a few schools (Carthage and North Central especially come to mind) even top the 150 mark on the roster. The vast majority of players on those supersized rosters will never set foot on the field during a varsity game, and one by one they will gradually turn their attention away from playing college football, so the high attrition that you're complaining about is something that's endemic to D3 football and is thus hardly specific to NPU.

NPU returned 61 players from last season's team. That's a massive number of returnees by the historical lights of NPU football, and it's definitely the path to "keep momentum going."

Quote from: markerickson on August 26, 2025, 11:41:41 AMStellar WR Jereme Ombogo graduated (one year of eligibility left) with High Honors while performing extremely well in track.
https://athletics.northpark.edu/news/2025/1/28/ombogo-tabbed-as-csc-academic-all-american-first-for-npu-football-since-1987.aspx  This season's QB must learn quickly to throw the ball deep to Ombogo, a sprinter.  And not just once per half.

There's a lot more to NPU's air game than just heaving the ball downfield to their track All-American. Wesley McCloud is an outstanding talent in his own right. He was an All-CCIW second-teamer last season whose 57 catches ranked third in the CCIW, and he finished 8th in the league in touchdown receptions (4) and 4th in receiving yards (815), averaging just under 80 yards per game. McCloud had 100+ receiving yards in four different games last season. And watch out for senior Micah Catron, who had a great spring practice season and whom the coaching staff is very high on to have a breakout campaign.

The CCIW Network has been launched:

https://cciw.org/news/2025/8/26/general-cciw-partners-with-hudl-to-launch-cciw-network.aspx

This is an important read, regardless of whether you just follow a specific CCIW team, or you're a fan of CCIW sports in general.

The CCIW Network has been launched:

https://cciw.org/news/2025/8/26/general-cciw-partners-with-hudl-to-launch-cciw-network.aspx

This is an important read, regardless of whether you just follow a specific CCIW team, or you're a fan of CCIW sports in general.

Tyler's got two kids sick at home with strep throat. We've gotta extend him some grace!

The CCIW has struck a blow for maintaining free livestreams while also consolidating access to coverage among the league's member schools by creating the CCIW Network in connection with Hudl:

https://cciw.org/news/2025/8/26/general-cciw-partners-with-hudl-to-launch-cciw-network.aspx

This has been in the works for the past year; I've mentioned it a couple of times in recent months on  d3boards.com. I'm glad to see that it's finally been launched, given that the 2025-26 CCIW sports season begins on Friday.

It won't change what we're doing at North Park's Viking Sports Network, as far as I know. And I'm not sure how this affects Carthage's toe-dip into the water of PPV men's basketball games, as they put two of the Firebirds' home contests on the Marquee Sports Network last season. I'm not sure whether Carthage wanted to pursue that path, or if that was just an experiment.

North Park season preview:

https://athletics.northpark.edu/news/2025/8/21/vikings-football-look-to-keep-momentum-going-heading-into-2025.aspx

Quote from: Ron Boerger on August 22, 2025, 11:38:13 AMHeh, if Flo $port$ is watching this thread they probably will triple my cost to sign up if I'm ever forced to do so.

Seeing as how I referred to FloSports on X as "D3 livestream Covid," they'll probably charge me $1,000 per game if I ever try to sign up.

Quote from: Flying Dutch Fan on August 21, 2025, 01:48:57 PM

Quote from: WUPHF on August 21, 2025, 01:47:45 PM

Quote from: Flying Dutch Fan on August 21, 2025, 01:40:49 PMMIAA press release on an interesting approach to increasing revenue.

https://miaa.org/news/2025/8/21/miaa-launches-new-collaboration-with-brentwood-partners.aspx

The MIAA is moving to Flo Sports!  I am kidding.  Mostly.  Other conferences started with a consultants.

Bite your tongue till it bleeds please!!!  You are almost as bad as a Calvin fan

Quote from: GusD on August 19, 2025, 02:37:29 PMAs we all know much of the country, certainly including the Midwest, has been boiling under a stifling heat wave for much of summer. In conjunction with the possible ill effects of practicing/playing sports under such conditions, have heard at least one conference team has been having some practices at 11:00 PM. Presumably this will no longer be an option once classes start.

When you're a football team that has to share your field with the men's and women's soccer teams, you get used to exotic practice times every preseason, not just during preseasons that have excessive heat waves. F'rinstance, North Park was out there practicing at Holmgren even before the clock struck 6:00 am this morning -- and, thanks to the fact that at least one member of the NPU media team was out there with them, the Vikings have the Instagram photos to prove it.

Wonder if they'll be changing their nickname from the Marlins to the Hatches.

Quote from: Kuiper on August 19, 2025, 08:09:47 PMThe NCAC Men's Soccer Preseason Coaches Poll is out and Denison beats out Kenyon and Ohio Wesleyan for the top spot

2025 North Coast Athletic Conference
Men's Soccer Coaches' Poll

Place    Institution (1st Place Votes)    Total Points
1    Denison (6)    78
2    Kenyon (2)    71
3    Ohio Wesleyan (1)    62
4    DePauw    48
5    John Carroll    47
6    Wabash    33
7    Wooster    23
8    Wittenberg    22
9    Oberlin    21

Man, that just looks wrong to see John Carroll's name on an NCAC table.

Quote from: Kuiper on August 20, 2025, 12:21:51 PMCCIW has posted its Men's Soccer Preseason Coaches Poll.  North Park is chosen to finish first almost unanimously (if coaches are permitted to vote for their own team, that would explain Carroll's one vote).

2025 CCIW Men's Soccer Preseason Coaches' Poll
 Team (First-place votes)      Points
 1. North Park (8)      64
 2. Wheaton      55
 3. North Central      48
 4. Carroll (1)      45
 5. Illinois Wesleyan      31
 6. Carthage      28
 7. Millikin      25
 T8. Augustana      14
 T8. Elmhurst      14

You can't vote for your own team in CCIW coaches polls. The lone first-place vote for the Pioneers therefore belonged to NPU head coach Kris Grahn.

It's an interesting choice on Kris's part, given that North Central, Wheaton, and Carthage are the other three established powers in the league besides NPU, but it's not entirely shocking. The Pioneers finished third in the CCIW last season, and, although their number of returning starters (six) is fairly modest, one of those six is Marti Solanelles, the most electric offensive player in the league. The Barcelona native tied for the overall goal-scoring crown in 2024 with nine goals, and he achieved it in only 13 games before his season ended prematurely (injury, I assume) in the first half of Carroll's game against visiting Millikin.

The big news is that Carthage has been picked as low as sixth by the coaches -- and not that far above #7 Millikin, either. Even though Carthage hasn't posted its roster yet, a scan of the Firebirds roster from last season indicates that it's likely that Carthage will only return five starters from last year's squad, with the key being that the departed half-dozen includes Mickey Reilly and Aidan Crowder, arguably the best one-two scoring punch that the Carthage MSOC program has ever had. (If one of you old heads wants to put forth an argument for the Domin/Pryputniewicz duo back in the mid-'90s, when the Firebirds were still known as the Redmen, make your case. ) The Firebirds had a tough go of it last season, going only 6-8-2 overall and finishing out of the money in the CCIW in a seventh-place tie with Augie at 2-5-1, and I guess it's tough to envision Paul Leese being able to pick up the pieces from that down year so quickly while simultaneously losing so much firepower.

I'm interested in hearing from any Wheaton or NCC followers, if they're reading this, regarding the prospects for their respective teams in 2025.

Preseason coaches poll:

1. North Central (9)	81
2. Wheaton (1)	73
3. Washington MO	65
4. Illinois Wesleyan	53
5. Carroll	48
6. Augustana	43
7. North Park	34
8. Carthage	26
9. Millikin	14
10. Elmhurst	13