a very tall member of the Mount Union coaching staff, who may or may not have played in the NFL has applied and is actively going after the Louisville HS coaching job that Kappas just left...at least that's what sources have said

Quote from: Kuiper on Yesterday at 12:18:53 PM

Quote from: jknezek on Yesterday at 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.

Reminds me of COVID when you could buy a replica of yourself and put it in the stands..

Just depends on whether the school's policy is to list by academic year or athletic eligibility year.

A lot of the grad programs transfers get into these days are fully online, so they don't always have class to attend.

I think it was Chatham wbb last year who had a grad student in nursing who was working full time in a hospital while playing and attending school.  I'm quite happy d3 athletes have so many flexible options these days to pursue both paths.

He ended up taking the job as Associate Head Coach at St. Thomas to begin recruiting as they transitioned from d3 to d1.  I believe he's still there in that role.

 Yes, me, Dave McHugh, and Dean, unless Dean chooses to watch his son's team instead.

Oh good Lord you guys have ruined my day!   I did not know that Maker was a finalist and lost to DEI.   What a serious bummer for my Lord Jeffs!

Ronk:

You'll have the whole Goucher gym to yourself at 3:00. 

All of Saturday's ODAC games are now scheduled for Friday. 

My alma mater won its only WBB NCAA championship in '02-'03 having never previously won an NCAA tournament game, and they had been pretty bad prior to the then coach showing up but she had been there for about a decade when they won it all.