2025 D3 Men's Soccer National Perspective

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Quick question - is it at all typical fro D3 schools to play D1 in soccer (and not as an exhibition game)?   Was surprised to see Hope played at #23 Notre Dame on Tuesday, losing 3-2 on an ND goal at the 82:36 mark. 

[VASoccerDad]

Quick question - is it at all typical fro D3 schools to play D1 in soccer (and not as an exhibition game)?   Was surprised to see Hope played at #23 Notre Dame on Tuesday, losing 3-2 on an ND goal at the 82:36 mark. 

Don't know if it's common, but UMW has played at UVA the last couple of years. UMW entered last years game at 15-0-1, went up 2-0 early but lost 4-2.

[Kuiper]

Quick question - is it at all typical fro D3 schools to play D1 in soccer (and not as an exhibition game)?  Was surprised to see Hope played at #23 Notre Dame on Tuesday, losing 3-2 on an ND goal at the 82:36 mark. 

It has happened more over the last few years, but it is not typical.  For example, Duke played Averett on Tuesday, the same day as ND played Hope, Boston College played Dean, Portland played Lewis & Clark, and VMI played Warren Wilson, all earlier this year, Indiana plays Hanover on 10/17, Eastern Illinois played University of Chicago in a regular season game for them in 2024, Incarnate Word played Trinity University and they tied 1-1 in 2023.  DI changed the rules to allow schools to play one non-DI opponent a year in a game that counts as an official game in the standings and for player stats, but not for NCAA tournament qualification.  Most schools don't do it (and don't do it against DIII teams), but some do it to get an extra home game and to give their bench players a chance to get official playing time.

[SierraFD3soccer]

Quick question - is it at all typical fro D3 schools to play D1 in soccer (and not as an exhibition game)?  Was surprised to see Hope played at #23 Notre Dame on Tuesday, losing 3-2 on an ND goal at the 82:36 mark. 

It has happened more over the last few years, but it is not typical.  For example, Duke played Averett on Tuesday, the same day as ND played Hope, Boston College played Dean, Portland played Lewis & Clark, and VMI played Warren Wilson, all earlier this year, Indiana plays Hanover on 10/17, Eastern Illinois played University of Chicago in a regular season game for them in 2024, Incarnate Word played Trinity University and they tied 1-1 in 2023.  DI changed the rules to allow schools to play one non-DI opponent a year in a game that counts as an official game in the standings and for player stats, but not for NCAA tournament qualification.  Most schools don't do it (and don't do it against DIII teams), but some do it to get an extra home game and to give their bench players a chance to get official playing time.

VMI is pretty much a D3 team. Just really bad for many years.

[Kuiper]

Quick question - is it at all typical fro D3 schools to play D1 in soccer (and not as an exhibition game)?  Was surprised to see Hope played at #23 Notre Dame on Tuesday, losing 3-2 on an ND goal at the 82:36 mark. 

It has happened more over the last few years, but it is not typical.  For example, Duke played Averett on Tuesday, the same day as ND played Hope, Boston College played Dean, Portland played Lewis & Clark, and VMI played Warren Wilson, all earlier this year, Indiana plays Hanover on 10/17, Eastern Illinois played University of Chicago in a regular season game for them in 2024, Incarnate Word played Trinity University and they tied 1-1 in 2023.  DI changed the rules to allow schools to play one non-DI opponent a year in a game that counts as an official game in the standings and for player stats, but not for NCAA tournament qualification.  Most schools don't do it (and don't do it against DIII teams), but some do it to get an extra home game and to give their bench players a chance to get official playing time.

VMI is pretty much a D3 team. Just really bad for many years.

They are indeed.  Last season, they listed themselves on their webpage as 5-11-2.  Not good, but not worst DI in the country horrible.  Problem is that two of those wins were against weak D3 teams (Mary Baldwin and Warren Wilson), one was against a team that was in the D3 pathway (Regent), and one was against a D2 team (Emory & Henry).  This season, they have two wins, one of which is against Warren Wilson.

[jknezek]

They are indeed.  Last season, they listed themselves on their webpage as 5-11-2.  Not good, but not worst DI in the country horrible.  Problem is that two of those wins were against weak D3 teams (Mary Baldwin and Warren Wilson), one was against a team that was in the D3 pathway (Regent), and one was against a D2 team (Emory & Henry).  This season, they have two wins, one of which is against Warren Wilson.

VMI's athletic department has always been a bit hit or miss, mostly miss. Comes with being a public military focused school I suspect. They used to play W&L in a lot of men's sports back in the day, but in the noughts they phased almost all of it out. W&L men's soccer was 25-14-4 against VMI, paying annually from 1967-2008 and W&L didn't exactly qualify as a D3 soccer power in many of those years.

W&L was 20-2 against VMI in men's lacrosse from 1986 to 2007. Granted W&L has generally been strong in lacrosse, but that's still D3 vs D1. Men's tennis, 18-2 W&L from 1972 - 2002, 38-5 in men's swimming, a series still ongoing and VMI did win last year. Much to my surprise, 18-2 in baseball, ended in 2002.

Anyway, the Rats do hold a 3-0 advantage in men's basketball from the 80s, and they are 14-2-1 against us in football, however the last game was in 1902. So weird since the schools are next door and W&L played everyone from Florida to Wyoming and just about all the big public colleges in the area from the 20s through the 50s. I don't know the story of why they never played again after 1902, but I bet there is something. VMI are also 11-2 against us in wrestling, last match in 1985.

VMI went coed even more recently than W&L, so there wouldn't be much more than 30 years of history, and our women's teams generally tend to be more successful, comparatively, then the men. Women's soccer has never played VMI in a competitive match. In fact, the only matchups I could find were swimming in an ongoing series where W&L is 11-0. Nothing for field hockey, volleyball, basketball, tennis, etc.

[eaglesoccerdad]

Quick question - is it at all typical fro D3 schools to play D1 in soccer (and not as an exhibition game)?   Was surprised to see Hope played at #23 Notre Dame on Tuesday, losing 3-2 on an ND goal at the 82:36 mark. 

Don't know if it's common, but UMW has played at UVA the last couple of years. UMW entered last years game at 15-0-1, went up 2-0 early but lost 4-2.

went down 3-0 early with a really bad OG. came back to make it 3-2 & forced UVA to bring back on some starters. UMW starters did not play full minutes so it was a very good showing. UVA players admitted that they did no advance prep work (no film review for example) and were not prepared for a competitive match

[laker4141]

Most D1 programs pay D3 programs to play. Easy way to of course get wins, but also play more guys, boost stats. 

From a D3 standpoint, you receive money, players can say they played against a D1 team, and in rare cases, can push them to an uncomfortable point! Mary Wash vs UVA and now Hope vs ND are examples!

[SierraFD3soccer]

In other news -

Surprise, surprise, surprise! I was listening in my car to 2Way youtube channel which is great! Low and behold "Paul from Princeton"'s voice came out of the fog. Took me about a minute or so to put it together.

Great job SimpleCoach, but was a bit disappointed that you did not introduce yourself as the "King of D3 Soccer!" plus perfect chance to promo the SimpleCoach empire!! ABC, ABC SimpleCoach!

Around the 43th min. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZWqbF5V4wE