In the grand scheme of their season. Roanoke tying 0-0 with Lynchburg is a massive result and point on the board for Roanoke. If they can beat batten and Guilford. They'll likely make the conference tournament.

Washington and Lee with another draw falls further down the standings.

The league itself has had quite a bit of parity in results.

Quote from: Hopkins92 on October 20, 2026, 05:09:39 PMPure speculation, circling back to our earlier-season discussion about the utility and efficacy of coaches' polls... And an Occam's Razor approach to responding:

We've established the coaches are very busy and it's highly unlikely (laughable, really) to assume they've seen teams that aren't on their schedule. Beyond looking at regional rankings and/or pegging their votes closely to the preseason poll, and making slight adjustments based on week-over-week results. Now they also have a trusty "ranking tool" that fits into their limited time to fill out the stupid form before they're off to practice, the next game, a recruiting call, an AD meeting, etc., etc., and so on.

I don't really care that much about the USC poll one way or the other, but it's fun to climb on a soapbox now and then.

To your point, again speculation, but could coaches be using the NPI to formulate their opinions on the USC rankings? Little variances here and there based on seeing teams live but overall the rankings are fairly similar

Quote from: Hopkins92 on October 20, 2026, 03:48:26 PM(It's getting increasingly weird to even talk about a national poll when it's really close to being completely irrelevant with the NPI determining the at-large field... Unless I'm wildly missing the mark.)

The NPI isnt wildly different in all fairness.

Roanoke loses 4-0 to Shenandoah. What is going on down there? Stats looked even but SU scored 4 goals on their 6 shots on target (highly efficient).

Assuming W&L beats Bridgewater, Lynchburg should finish first and W&L second. Hopefully that sets up a round 3 game between the two best ODAC teams in the final

7-10 is very tight so it will be interesting to see who makes the tournament with the off-balanced schedule of the conference.

That Roanoke-Batten game in 10 days time might be the difference between one of them making the conference tournament. (they both sit at 8 and 9 right now in the standings)

In years past I don't think that would be expected from either to be in that conversation together.

Quote from: Hopkins92 on October 14, 2026, 04:33:42 PMI don't think folks posting what they think they saw at a livestreamed sporting event is going to get dragged into litigation.

Speculation about publicly viewable events isn't really ripe for defamation or libel/slander suits.

/notalawyer

Court of public opinion waits for no one, however.

Quote from: blue_jays on October 13, 2026, 03:16:46 PM

Quote from: nescacfootyfan on October 10, 2026, 05:27:04 PMJust saw the Amherst box score...  I didn't realize Amherst men's soccer was offering UFC courses this season. At what point does Amherst Athletics step in and ask some serious questions? The red cards, the continued drama, the lack of discipline, this is becoming a pattern. If I were an Amherst alum, I'd be furious. Maybe it's time to dial it down a notch and work on some passing patterns instead of taking shots at the opposition.  I didn't see the red myself, though - can someone explain what happened?!

Amherst admin obviously does not care, or this would have been nipped in the bud years ago. I'm sure it's the usual "us against the world" mentality where "everyone hates Amherst" and they circle the wagons. People have been justifiably grousing on these boards about this for years and years.

Everybody knows that if you are hated by everyone, its not you - its everyone else 

Jokes aside, they win, and as long as they are good people on campus, admin could probably care less how they go about their play on the field

Quote from: jknezek on October 09, 2026, 09:52:11 AMBridgewater's schedule has been softer than a marshmallow. Some of it is not their fault, but I could see them losing their last 4 games straight. They only play W&L, not Lynchburg thanks to the unbalanced schedule, and got both Batten and Roanoke in a year neither can remember how to play soccer.

I'll give them credit for cleaning up on the bottom of the ODAC, but there is a reason their NPI is going nowhere, despite having 8 wins.

I'm with you - but credit to them for beating those in front of them. I have not seen everyone play this season yet.

Have you see Batten and Roanoke? What are their struggles?

Quote from: stlawus on October 08, 2026, 06:35:08 PMIt's hard for me to not think these proposed changes aren't mainly ways for d1 coaches to inflate their egos and continue thinking they are Premier League coaches. What's more likely, a better professional pathway for players or coaches leveraging a season for clout, attention and other jobs as a result of showing how they perform over a professional schedule?

Really hope this proposal crashes and burns as a result of all the non power conference schools and schools that don't have the resources to keep up vetoing it. The overtime rule change already took away one of the main things that made college soccer so great and unique. And it's all because coaches want college soccer to be the premier league.

Fact of the matter is that college soccer has never been more irrelevant to the player pathway in this country than it is now. So the options were, stand by and do nothing or try something to improve that problem.

Just because something "has always been done that way" doesn't mean it has to stay the same. We should want change and growth. Whether this is the thing that does it or not will be determined but credit to the panel for trying to do something for the sport.

Quote from: jknezek on October 08, 2026, 04:47:44 PM

Quote from: CollegeSoccerFan on October 08, 2026, 04:23:40 PMAfter Lynchburg's win over HSC yesterday, it seems there's two at the top and then the field. Lynchburg-W&L round 2 should be a fun watch (hopefully get a round 3)

Yeah. H-SC dropped into the 50s in NPI. They will need to basically win out (less the conference final) to get in. Or just win the conference tournament. But no one else is really in the running. W&L and Lynchburg need to win the games they are expected to win and it will be fine.

How is Batten 1-5-5? 

On paper their schedule appears difficult. But agreed.

Full credit to Bridgewater staff, but I never thought I would see the day they are in a healthier position than some below them.

After Lynchburg's win over HSC yesterday, it seems there's two at the top and then the field. Lynchburg-W&L round 2 should be a fun watch (hopefully get a round 3)

Thanks for the breakdown. Very good information

Quote from: jknezek on October 01, 2026, 11:18:20 AM

Quote from: CollegeSoccerFan on October 01, 2026, 10:42:25 AM

Quote from: generalsfan10 on September 30, 2026, 08:57:16 PMW&L handling H-SC 3-0 with a few brilliant goals. Nice to see them scoring from open play.

Is the ODAC back to a two horse race?

Looks likely, but there is a lot of season to play. H-SC seems to like to play soft OOC schedules, but they only have 2 blemishes right now. Margin for error is slim, but a loss to Lynchburg and a deep tournament run probably would have a decent resume, though the SOS would be troublesome. Really though, the Squids look like it after W&L and Lynchburg.

Batten put a final nail in their coffin with the CNU loss. 3 losses, none to ranked opponents, isn't going to help them. Shenandoah looks better than they've been, but lots of blemishes. Losses to JHU and Dickinson don't look as good as they would have looked in years past.

R-MC is a paper tiger. The whole resume so far is resting on that tie with Lynchburg, where they were horribly outplayed. They will lose more games going forward. Bridgewater has some wins over nobodies and some losses to teams that aren't great. They haven't stepped up despite having six wins already. Roanoke has just fallen off the map since last year's fast start. Something has gone horribly wrong with that program.

Guilford, Averett, EMU, Randolph... EMU is probably the best of the bunch. Despite almost tying W&L, they aren't good. They did tie VMI, which is hilarious, though it says more about VMI's 4-8-1 team, with wins over D3 Regent, Randolph and Warren Wilson, than it does about EMU.

It seemed this league used to be Lynchburg, Roanoke, W&L, Batten (Virgina Wesleyan) on any given year. Does anyone have insight on whats happened to the parity in the league?

Also, very kind to include Averett with the bottom 4. They have been dreadful this year.

Quote from: generalsfan10 on September 30, 2026, 08:57:16 PMW&L handling H-SC 3-0 with a few brilliant goals. Nice to see them scoring from open play.

Is the ODAC back to a two horse race?

Quote from: blue_jays on September 29, 2026, 06:58:18 PM

Quote from: VASoccerDad on September 29, 2026, 06:48:19 PMKind of surprised Montclair (now 8-2) didn't receive any votes after their beatdown of Christopher Newport.

Coaches rankings (particularly USC) are a joke and not to be taken seriously. Don't even get me started on their All-American teams over the years...

The biggest problem with these rankings is its a coaches committee. The major problem with that is that each coach on the committee doesn't have the time necessary to properly evaluate the teams from their region. Yes, they might see a lot of these teams on the field but then it comes down to their opinion based on very little sample sizes from each team.