2025 Schedules

[Kuiper]

https://athletics.middlebury.edu/sports/msoc/schedule/2024

That's the 2024 schedule.  Did they release the 2025 schedule somewhere else (social media etc)? 

[SKUD]

Oops!

[Kuiper]

Buena Vista

Drops Hamline, Crown, Oaks Hill Christian and Marantha Baptist and picks up Minnesota-Morris, Mount Marty University (South Dakota) (NAIA), University of Northwestern.  Looking at Buena Vista's schedule and Mount Marty's schedule the past few years and the announcement move of Luther from the American Rivers Conference, it strikes me that if DIII is going to expand, it might be in the Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota etc region.  There are so many very small NAIA schools that fit the profile of schools that are going to have difficulty surviving over the next decade or so and the stronger of those schools may decide to move to a DIII conference rather than ride the waive of instability where they are right now. Of course, in Buena Vista's case (and that of other schools), it could also decide to go in the other direction and join in with NAIA schools.

Milwaukee School of Engineering

This is perhaps the most brutal non-conference schedule I have seen thus far in 2025.  MSOE keep Wartburg and North Central and add Calvin, Hope, North Park, and University of Chicago to their pre-conference schedule and then add Wisconsin-Eau Claire as a mid-week game non-conference game in the middle of conference.  Every school except Chicago was in the NCAA tournament last season and Chicago missed out for the first time in a awhile after being in the QFs 2 years ago and a nat'l champion 3 years ago.  Plus, every non-conference game but North Park and Wisconsin-Eau Claire is away.  To be fair, MSOE had a strong schedule last season too.  Teams no longer on the schedule are Wisconsin-Plateville, Montclair, Stevens, and Carthage, where only Montclair and Carthage were not NCAA qualifiers.  This may be a comment on the NACC, where failing to get the auto bid can leave you with too little SoS to qualify under the NPI system (as Edgewood found out last season despite finishing 17-2-2, including 10-0-1 in conference).

[Kuiper]

Skidmore

Replaces Utica, Ramapo, SUNY Oswego, and SUNY Geneseo with Salem State, SUNY Poly, Plattsburgh, and VTSU Castleton.  I kind of love how almost every home game is a designated special day, often with a different local youth soccer club, especially in a place like Saratoga Springs where watching D3 soccer might as well be like watching big time pro soccer.  I also really like the specific Women's Soccer doubleheader with Plattsburgh.  I've seen other schools do it regularly and it helps to bond the men's and women's players together a bit, ensures some fan support even on an away day.

Whittier

Whittier seeks to build upon a decent season last year, finishing 4-7-1 in conference after going 1-10-1 in 2023.  They were inconsistent, but highlights included a 2-0 victory over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and a 1-0 victory over Redlands on the last game of the regular season.  Before last season, they adopted a new recruiting strategy that focused on international recruits and CC transfers, which they have continued this season (which could backfire if this Administration stops student visas).  According to their Instagram, 3 out of the 5 recruits announced thus far are from either Sweden or Norway and the 4th is a CC transfer.  This season, they drop Albion, Bethesda (NAIA) and Stanton (NAIA) for a trip to the Northwest where they play Lewis & Clark, George Fox, and Willamette after starting the season against Southern California Leadership University, a sketchy school that La Verne beat last year 3-0 in an exhibition game, and Cal Tech beat 3-1.  In conference, they play Redlands, Chapman, La Verne, and Pomona-Pitzer twice and the rest once.  The rough part is they open with CMS, but they have 10 days between their Oregon trip and that game and it's at home.

[Kuiper]

Johns Hopkins

Not at the level of 2024, but still a pretty challenging non-conference schedule.  They aren't playing Washington & Lee, Mary Washington, or Rowan, but this season has some unique challenges, in part because of the travel given that they start the season with five straight away games, including two pretty long road trips involving overnight stays.  They go to Tennessee for opening weekend and take on Rhodes and Sewanee.  Then they travel to Ohio the next weekend to take on Denison and Kenyon and then turn around and play a midweek game at St. Mary's of MD.  They finally have two home games before opening conference play, but neither are pushovers.  Rutgers-Newark only lost to JHU 1-0 last season and Lebanon Valley tied Franklin & Marshall 2-2.

[Kuiper]

Yeshiva

This schedule tells us more about Swarthmore than Yeshiva in some respects.  Yeshiva is opening at the Swarthmore Invitational, but no other opponents are identified, and then goes right into league play.  That's not atypical for them, but means it is more of a window into Swarthmore (which hasn't posted its 2025 schedule yet) than to Yeshiva. Last year, Swarthmore hosted Penn State Abington and Moravian to open the season and in 2023 it hosted Rosemont and Coast Guard, so this implies Swat isn't doing anything much different in terms of quality of opponent to open up its season.  Last year, it started out of the gate quickly, but that proved to be fool's gold as it wasn't able to sustain that success in the Centennial.  I thought it might change up its strategy, but we'll have to see.  One clear difference is that the opening games at least for Yeshiva are 12:00 Friday (presumably so they can observe the Sabbath before sundown) and 1:00 Sunday, when Swat has typically held at least the Friday game in the late afternoon/early evening and the Sunday game earlier only when the opponent was farther away and needed to drive home the same day.  I suspect Yeshiva will play Swat that first game since it's the easiest for them to play a midday game on a Friday and then an opponent from out-of-town on Sunday so they can both get home earlier.

Alvernia

Alvernia often has a pretty impressive schedule and this year is no exception.  Some teams re-load their rosters.  Alvernia re-loads their schedule.  They lose Cortland, Franklin & Marshall, and Montclair, but add Dickinson and Rowan this year and they continue to play Muhlenberg, Rochester, Stevens, and Messiah in conference.

[Kuiper]

Babson

They start with 4 straight home or close-to-home games against solid opponents.  Opening against Occidental is a great early-season test for both teams.  Both teams graduated some strong players, including their starting, regionally recognized, goalkeepers (Riley Nyhan for Oxy and Walker White for Babson) and top scorers.  Oxy graduated Oury Diane (8g/3a) and Andrew Notter (10g/2a) and Babson graduated Kento Abe (9g/6a) and James Donaldson (7g/6a).  So, they will both be placing players in positions of increased responsibility and they will need them right out of the gate. UMass Boston is also no slouch, having gone 10-1-6 last season.  The next weekend they host Wesleyan, which should be an especially spicy matchup since Wesleyan's season ended in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament in a 1-0 loss to Babson at Babson Park.  I'm sure Wesleyan will be looking for a small measure of payback.  After a short trip to Gordon College (which tied Babson last season 1-1), Babson heads to Atlanta to take on Covenant and Oglethorpe.  Both are capable of giving Babson trouble.  Covenant came out of the gate very strong last season, beating W&L 3-0, and Oglethorpe made it to the NCAA tourney before losing to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in the opening round in Colorado Springs.  Babson also hosts Brandeis, Amherst (who they tied 1-1 last season), and Tufts (who they also tied 1-1 last season) to complete what is a really challenging schedule.  The only notable omission from last season's schedule is Middlebury, who they lost to 3-1.

[Kuiper]

Covenant

The game at Washington & Lee should have added meaning as the Generals seek revenge for Covenant's 3-0 win at home last season.  They don't play Hardin-Simmons this season, but they still play a Texas team, hosting Trinity.  The odd thing is that it's a game on a Thursday in the middle of conference play (10/9).  We can only guess where that fits into Trinity's schedule since it's not out yet, but since the SAA has fewer conference games than the SCAC (6 v. 11 last season), I suspect that Trinity is going out early when it plays Oglethorpe in conference play to get in an extra non-conference game.  With Covenant also hosting Babson and adding a game at Centre (in place of Rhodes), that's a pretty big upgrade in its schedule.

Rhodes

Rhodes conference schedule is definitely more challenging in 2025 than 2024 because it exchanged Hendrix for Trinity and Southwestern and it is playing them in Texas (although it kept Hendrix as a non-conference game).  In non-conference, it doesn't play Mary Washington or Covenant this season, but it adds Johns Hopkins and Montclair on opening weekend, which is a really brutal way to start the season, mitigated only by the fact that they will be at home.  They also pick up a mid-week home game against Mary Hardin-Baylor right before conference play starts, which could be pretty challenging.  I'm guessing Mary Hardin-Baylor will play someone else on the trip.

[Kuiper]

Adrian

In 2024, Adrian mounted a dramatic turnaround, finishing 11-4-2, compared with 2023, when they finished 1-13-2.  In both years, however, the schedule was pretty weak (indeed, Adrian's lofty NPI ranking early last season suggested how little SoS mattered compared with wins under the new formula, at least when few of the undefeated teams had many distinguishing wins).  In 2025, Adrian looks like it is starting to throw off the training wheels and try to up the quality of the non-conference schedule a bit.  They still play Defiance (0-18 with .72 goals/game and 5.67 goals conceded/game) and they add Bethany (WV) (1-11-4), but they also add DePauw, Wilmington, and Ohio Northern, as well as Western Michigan (DI).

Case Western Reserve

They start slowly with Franciscan and Juniata away and Penn State-Behrend, Oberlin, Wooster, and Allegheny at home, but Case has a tough four game road trip leading into conference play against Marietta, Kenyon, John Carroll, and Otterbein that should tell us a lot about how good they will be this year.

[Kuiper]

Wash U

They drop Aurora and Ohio Northern and pick up Westminster and Illinois College, plus they get North Park and Wheaton (IL) at home.  Their most challenging travel weekend might be the last weekend in October, when they play Rochester away on Friday 10/24 and then Emory away on Sunday 10/26.  If they come down to the wire in conference, their last two games - against NYU and Chicago - are at home on successive Saturdays.

Christopher Newport

The Coast-to-Coast conference gets flak from people, but the lack of regular season conference games means that a school like Christopher Newport always has one of the most interesting, challenging, and geographically diverse non-conference schedules in the country.  They have what is a de facto conference schedule with fellow C2C members Mary Washington (x2), Salisbury (x2), and incoming member Regent and some other local-ish schools like Marymount, Virgina Wesleyan, Washington & Lee, and North Carolina Wesleyan that is probably one of the stronger "conference" schedules around, but the fun comes when they just play whomever they want to play and they seem to change it regularly.  This year, they open with 6 games at home against a crazy mix of opponents from different regions, styles of play, and levels of competition - Merchant Marine, Dickinson, William Paterson, University of Redlands, Rutgers-Camden, and Hampden-Sydney. Dickinson and Redlands alone offer contrasting styles from very different parts of the country and really challenging opposition.  Then, in late September, they travel to Abilene, Texas to play Trinity and Hardin-Simmons, which is a long trip, a pretty unique setting for boys from Virginia, and a chance to play a quality Hardin-Simmons team and a Trinity team that should once again challenge for the best in the country.  By my count, they hit teams from 8 different conferences.  Another scheduling note of interest is that the C2C conference tournament is in Newport News this year, so CNU should be well-positioned to avenge its OT loss to Mary Washington in last season's C2C finals when it was held in Fredericksburg.

One additional note that may only be of interest to me:  There may be a back story to scheduling Redlands from Region X.  Not only is it a strong team that plays a nice style of possession combined with grit, but it may hold special significance for Redlands' head coach Ralph Perez.  2025 will be Coach Perez' final season after 50+ years of coaching and more than 445 wins at DI, DII, and DIII combined (plus asst coaching at the professional level with the Galaxy and Metrostars and for the USMNT team) and a spot in the SUNY Oneonta Athletics Hall of Fame.  Perez coached at DI Old Dominion in Norfolk, VA from 1990-95, where he led the team to a program-best 18-2-2 record in 1991, with a conference championship, an NCAA tournament appearance and the school's highest ever final ranking of #9 in the country. Perez never took the school as far in the NCAA tournament as his successor Alan Dawson, but I wonder if ODU, which is only about 30 miles away from CNU, is doing anything to recognize Perez on this trip.  Even if not, it's probably an opportunity for him to visit some of his old haunts and to greet some old friends.

[Hopkins92]

(Kuiper, always assume that someone is interested in your background posts. I may not read every single word of your Region X stuff, but I absolutely read stuff like you put up about Coach Perez.)

[stlawus]

Oneonta

Very Liberty League heavy as usual and keeping Hamilton.

Much different Mayor's Cup this year with SLU not on the schedule.  I like having Oneonta on SLU's schedule for SOS purposes, but I'm sure Toshack has travel fatigue with that matchup.  They have played Oneonta on the road 7 straight times. Can't continuously unilaterally disarm in a matchup like that by never playing at home. 

[Ejay]

(Kuiper, always assume that someone is interested in your background posts. I may not read every single word of your Region X stuff, but I absolutely read stuff like you put up about Coach Perez.)

I'm simply in awe of how much Kuiper contributes. Makes for great off-season reading.

[Kuiper]

Some OAC schedules

Wilmington

Looks like a schedule upgrade for the Quakers, who went 11-6-3 last season.  Gone are Spalding, Centre, Franklin, and Asbury.  In their place are Berea, Bluffton, Adrian, and Ohio Wesleyan.  They get a soft start to their OAC schedule with Heidelberg (1-14-2) and Muskingum (4-13-2), although both games are away.  The conference has to feel just a little more wide open this season with John Carroll in the NCAC, but Wilmington has to feel a tinge of regret that they won't be able to get revenge last season after leading John Carroll 2-1 in the 53rd minute and giving up 3 straight goals in an 8 minute period to go down 4-2 and scoring a goal of its own less than 90 seconds later that gave them what turned out to be false hope they could come back

Capital

Pretty brutal opening weekend of the season, hosting Kenyon on Friday and then traveling to John Carroll on Sunday for a non-conference game after beating them in the OAC QFs last season.  In another brutal pair of games a week-and-half before opening conference play, they host Ohio Wesleyan and Denison back-to-back.  If Capital can survive both of those weekends, they have to like their chances to compete in the John Carroll-less OAC (and the NCAC for that matter).

[Kuiper]

North Carolina Wesleyan

In an odd relationship that reflects the fact that both teams have trouble filling out a schedule for different reasons, last year and again this year NC Wesleyan has played a home-and-away series with Mary Washington. It kind of puts in perspective NC Wesleyan's 9-4-4 record this year when you consider 2 of the losses were to one of the best teams in the country. This year, Bethel, Loras, Marymount, Johnson & Wales, Virginia Wesleyan, and Shaw are off the schedule and NC Wesleyan really powers up its SoS.  In addition to playing Mary Washington twice and Randolph-Macon again on opening weekend, it adds games at Emory, at Oglethorpe, home to Roanoke and Averett, at Hampden-Sydney, at Catholic, and home to Christopher Newport.  if they survive all of that, I like their chances in the USA South tournament.

Johnson & Wales-Providence

For a team that finished 15-3-3 last season, losing out on an auto bid in the GNAC championship game to St. Joseph's (CT), JWU-Providence mostly follows the same scheduling formula.  They have no illusions they can amp their NPI up high enough to get a bid that way, so they just focus on racking up wins and getting ready for conference play.  They drop Bridgewater State and Roger Williams and add Emmanuel and Rhode Island College.

Randolph Macon

Drops Rutgers-Newark, Marymount, Bethany, but gets a bunch of geographically diverse set of new opponents to travel to them in non-conference, including Ohio Northern, Kean, Washington & Jefferson, and Southern Virginia.