Quote from: Kuiper on May 20, 2026, 02:42:17 PM

Quote from: blue_jays on May 20, 2026, 02:25:59 PM

Quote from: Kuiper on May 20, 2026, 12:09:53 AMCross-posted from the 2026 Schedules Thread

Tufts

They trade out Husson for Thomas College and MIT for WPI, which are both probably like-for-like, and  Emerson for Westfield State, which is harder to peg since Westfield State had a much better record than Emerson last season, but in a weaker schedule.  The biggest challenge for Tufts might be the road trip to Amherst and Hamilton on 10/3-10/4.  It's under 2 hours to get to Amherst, but over 3 hours to get from Amherst to Hamilton and then over 4 hours to get home to Tufts from Hamilton.  That's called doing errands in some parts of Texas, but will be the most Tufts has to travel during the regular season. I doubt it will matter much though.  As New Englander said [in the 2026 Schedules thread], with 10 out of 15 games at home, including all the non-conference games, this is a very friendly schedule from a travel perspective.

Amherst

UChicago's closest conference opponent is 4.5 hours away.

The UAA, like the C2C, is a different animal for sure.  Some would argue, though, that flying to conference games (as a number of schools have to do, including the UAA schools, but also SAA schools now that Trinity and Southwestern have joined), is easier than long bus rides.

Honestly, the travel is one of the reasons my son chose to play at a UAA school. Plus the cities the UAA competes in are pretty cool for a college kid, even if they don't get to spend a whole lot of time there.

UAA announces a new logo and identity...

https://uaasports.info/news/2026/4/16/general-uaa-announces-new-logo-first-refresh-since-1987.aspx

Quote from: SierraFD3soccer on April 16, 2026, 09:18:50 AM

Quote from: Chargers96 on April 15, 2026, 06:33:24 PMI wish there was a solution for CNU, UMW, and Salisbury.  All solid programs -- probably too solid which is why they can't find a stable conference situation (and geography).  Kinda surprised recruiting doesn't seem to be impacted.  Honestly, in Virginia, I still don't understand how Radford and Longwood remain Div. 1 soccer programs.  If they dropped to DIII, I could see CNU, UMW, Salisbury, Radford, Longwood, and add St. Mary's MD as a good conference as far as soccer goes.

Son played at Radford for his first 2 years and had a decent experience. Radford soccer is part of a the Big South which is 3rd tier D1 conf whose teams primarily has 50% int'l players in most programs. Only one team qualifies for the NCAA tournament.  What you see at the top tier D1 trend with int'l players has been going on in the Big South for years. Longwood = 2025 18 int'l, Radford- 13 int'l, Gardner-Webb 20 int'l. Marshall broke that barrier which primarily has int'l players who play almost all the minutes.

IMO, Radford is never going D3. It is a state school with over 6000k enrolled. However has little resources across its sports programs. Several of the other programs do decently like its basketball program.

VMI imo will never go D1. Despite doing poorly in almost every sport and a smaller school, the school vision of itself would suffer substantially. 1500-1700 students with 86% men. I went to W&L literally next door. The alumni base would not allow this.

My comments on Radford is that it is a regional university with absolute no pretension. In fact, it seemed to be the most diverse college I have ever seen, literally. Not something they had to aspire to. Mostly I think because it was reasonably inexpensive even for out of state kids. Very accessible. Overall, just a bunch of poor kids trying to get educations and where sports has little to do as to why they attended there. Lot's of positives.

Correction...VMI is already D1, has been for a while now.

Quote from: Chargers96 on April 15, 2026, 06:33:24 PMI wish there was a solution for CNU, UMW, and Salisbury.  All solid programs -- probably too solid which is why they can't find a stable conference situation (and geography).  Kinda surprised recruiting doesn't seem to be impacted.  Honestly, in Virginia, I still don't understand how Radford and Longwood remain Div. 1 soccer programs.  If they dropped to DIII, I could see CNU, UMW, Salisbury, Radford, Longwood, and add St. Mary's MD as a good conference as far as soccer goes.

You could throw VMI in with Radford/Longwood. VMI and Radford have been 2 of the worst D1 teams over the last 5 years.

Anybody have any recruiting info or expectations for the upcoming season? Transfers in/out, incoming freshmen, coaching changes, anything? I know there are several people here that seem to have intimate knowledge of some of the UAA programs, let's hear it (without giving away secrets). Or better yet, give them away !

The UAA board has been pretty quiet for a while now, just looking to get it going again.

Quote from: Kuiper on January 21, 2026, 12:18:53 PM

Quote from: jknezek on January 21, 2026, 11:12:23 AMYeah. I don't think there is a D3 soccer equivalent. Indiana is a byproduct of the massive shift in D1 athletics, especially football and basketball, and a fantastic coaching hire. The ingredients required for this kind of rags to riches shift, impossibly fast roster turnover, traditional power becoming irrelevant by dollars, and a coach that learned what Calipari struggled to learn... strong, proven men all over the playing surface are better than outstanding young talented boys.

But without the earthquake of changes to how FBS football works, it doesn't happen like this. I'm not saying Indiana couldn't have improved, I'm saying the lightning shift doesn't happen without the transfer portal, the importance of dollars, and a brilliant coach.

If FBS programs have any sense, the value for proven 20+ year old players should have just blown past the value for flashy 5 star incoming freshman. Honestly, the G5 has become AAA. They should be able to recruit better young players now, but they are going to get picked clean for any of them that actually develop after a year or two.

Interestingly, there are some parallels in DIII to the kind of changes that propelled Indiana to the top - roster limits in DI, the transfer portal, the creation of the NPI (which potentially allows some underrated teams to climb the rankings more quickly than they would have under the regional ranking system), expanded recruiting georgraphically, retirements/removals of chronically underperforming coaches as DIII schools recognize the importance of athletics in enrollment, expanded international recruiting in DIII, etc. 

As I said in the original post, there probably are no actual Indiana stories in DIII men's soccer.  There are some pretty quick turnarounds in records in recent years, but none of these teams made any noise in the NCAA tournament:

TCNJ (2-12-15 in 2024; 11-5-5 in 2025)
Caltech (1-12-1 in 2021; 8-7-3 in 2024)
Haverford (2-11-5 in 2024; 10-0-10 in 2025)
Lake Forest (4-13-1 in 2021; 19-2 in 2025)
Edgewood (1-15-1 in 2022; 17-2-2 in 2024)

There are probably other good examples of this.
   

I think these are some good potential examples, however like you said, they died quickly in the tournament. They each had great regular seasons but did nothing after that. Indiana not only went undefeated in the regular season, but also made the tournament (playoff) run to win it all.

Haverford went undefeated but then faded once they got to the tournament/playoffs. They would have needed to win it all (what, 4-5 more games?) before we could consider them in the same level as an IU football story.

Maybe if Dickinson won it all last year, it could have been similar? But they had a great season the year before as well.

I think it's going to be tough to really get a good D3 soccer comparison because of the lack of NIL/$$$. Unless an NYU (UAA) or Trinity (CT) (NESCAC) or similar type school starts buying players, I don't think we're going to see it.

Vilardo is an interesting case (at Case, haha)...played GK first 3 years then switched to forward his senior year because of their inability to put the goal in the net. Like Ejay said, 0 goals on 2 shots. He did play a fair amount but little to no production (like most of Case's forwards this year, unfortunately for them). Probably the academy connections...

Anyway, sounds like Case is going after attackers this year- I think 5 commits so far and 4 are forwards (2)/attacking mids (2), plus a GK.

I know this is the men's board, but congrats to the UAA women's teams on making the final four, and now the championship game.

3 out of 4 final four teams- WashU, Chicago, Emory .

WashU and Emory competing for the women's title.

And Emory with a chance at the men's /women's sweep.

Quote from: SierraFD3soccer on December 04, 2025, 10:40:02 PMTufts will not sweep the womans and mens as the women lost in the semis. Either way that is pretty impressive they even had a chance.

So is Tufts now the D1 version of Connecticut basketball (2014 and 2004)?

No, but Emory still can.

Glad you all are here with updates, tried following on the ncaa website and they have Chicago winning.

Quote from: Ejay on December 01, 2025, 01:35:24 PMMy Junior year we won the ECAC tournament. It was awesome. My senior year, nobody wanted to play in it. It was a frustrating year and we just wanted it over. We made the finals and it was 38 degrees, raining, with 30 MPH winds. The absolute worst game to finish your career on. I was never so happy to be subbed off in the second half. With about 15 minutes to play, coach asked me to go back in. I said, "nah, I'm good. Let one of the younger kids play".

In the moment you were fine giving it up because of the weather, frustration, etc., but looking back on it (not now, but back then) would you want one more game? I would say probably yes...

I know in my case I would.

Quote from: Hopkins92 on December 01, 2025, 10:56:31 AMI'm not disagreeing with you Sierra, but at least with soccer, it's not hard to find highly competitive teams/leagues that you can play with/in for MANY years after college. I was able to latch onto a team that made it to the Over 30 final four that was held in Orlando. (humble brag ;-))

The guys I feel for are football players. More than any other sport, it's really difficult to keep playing after college. Just too expensive and to much chance for serious injury.

I agree with this to a point...but playing for your school is sooo much different than playing for a random club/team. Even my high school senior son right now says that...he has a lot more fun playing for his high school than he ever does playing for his highly competitive ECNL team. His ECNL team has made the national playoffs the last 2 (hopefully 3) years and he's gotten to travel all over the world with different teams, and his high school team sucks. But ask him which one he prefers and it's his HS team- all because of his friends. That's who he grew up with, been friends for years with. His club team doesn't offer that.

I know that changes as you get older, but we're talking college kids- I think when they really think about it, they would want one more game with their school team.

Quote from: Kuiper on November 23, 2025, 09:10:52 PMFINAL:  Juniata 2 - Rutgers-Newark 1

Juniata pulls off what seems like an upset, scoring in the 85th to break a 1-1 tie after Rutgers-Newark had tied it up in the 78 the minute.  Juniata takes home the ECAC championship by winning three straight to end the season at 10-5-7.  Rutgers-Newark finishes 11-9-2.

I kind of wish more schools would participate in these kind of regional post-season tournaments during the time DIII already allows for teams to practice and play together.  I know some players are probably tired and would rather move on to finishing up the semester and getting to the holidays, but it's a nice way to get a few more licks in and end on a high note.

I agree, but I know a lot of D3 coaches are already out recruiting for next season as well as 2027. Should they play in a meaningless tournament or work on next year? Probably a different answer if you ask players versus coaches. As a player, I would have loved to keep playing, but as a coach I might be ready to end this season and work on next season.

I am really interested in the Scranton team- been following them from a distance all year. My son got an offer from them earlier this year but decided to go elsewhere. Great defense and scoring some goals- excited to see how far they go.

Welp...4-0 on the day, not bad. And if you throw the women's teams in, the UAA was 10-1 (NYU women lost).

Still say it's too bad WashU and Chicago play each other tomorrow. Also think Brandeis loses to Tufts. Emory wins. UAA goes 2-2 tomorrow.