2025 D3 Men's Soccer National Perspective

[Ron Boerger]

CC does remarkably well academically given the amount of travel all their teams are forced into.

[Kuiper]

Congrats to Colorado College's men's soccer team which posted that it not only won a Team Academic Award from United Soccer Coaches, but its team GPA of 3.80 was the highest in the country over all divisions. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/DM0pHS9Me29/?igsh=MWcyaG12c2R2MjZ2bQ==

Looks like we have a real ranking controversy as Macalester claims that they actually had the highest team GPA in the country at 3.83

https://www.instagram.com/p/DM097LlOQbj/?igsh=b3N4dGxxZGthYWlu

Pretty soon MIT and Caltech are going to argue that their schools should be crowned the champions on a grade-inflation and strength of (course) schedule-adjusted basis!

[Gray Fox]

Congrats to Colorado College's men's soccer team which posted that it not only won a Team Academic Award from United Soccer Coaches, but its team GPA of 3.80 was the highest in the country over all divisions. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/DM0pHS9Me29/?igsh=MWcyaG12c2R2MjZ2bQ==

Looks like we have a real ranking controversy as Macalester claims that they actually had the highest team GPA in the country at 3.83

https://www.instagram.com/p/DM097LlOQbj/?igsh=b3N4dGxxZGthYWlu

Pretty soon MIT and Caltech are going to argue that their schools should be crowned the champions on a grade-inflation and strength of (course) schedule-adjusted basis!

Didn't Oxy get a Macalester transfer.  How does that factor?

[Ron Boerger]

Here's the source:  https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/2024-25-college-team-academic-award-winners-announced/

MacAlester does have the higher GPA among men's teams, 3.83 to 3.80.   Both won the team academic award which is given to programs having a "team grade point average of 3.0 or higher".

I posted the correction to CC's IG, we'll see if they actually do anything.

[Kuiper]

Here's the source:  https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/2024-25-college-team-academic-award-winners-announced/

MacAlester does have the higher GPA among men's teams, 3.83 to 3.80.   Both won the team academic award which is given to programs having a "team grade point average of 3.0 or higher".

I posted the correction to CC's IG, we'll see if they actually do anything.

Perhaps Colorado College will claim that they only count to the first decimal place and therefore they rounded Macalester's avg GPA down to 3.8 and claimed to be tied for first.

[Ron Boerger]

Courtesy D3Playbook, top ten active coaches in number of D3 wins (not winning percentage):

1. Paul McGinlay, Trinity TX, 571-96-47
2. Jon Anderson, Babson, 471-202-94
3. Erick Baumann, Dominican, 463-119-50
4. Pepe Fernandez, Maryville, 421-195-52
5. Lenny Armuth, Drew, 405-156-60
6. Brent Ridenour, Franciscan, 354-140-49
7. Kevin East, Rutgers-Newark, 345-188-47
8. Shawn Griffin, Hobart, 342-192-67
9. Bob Carlson, Carleton, 307-153-53
10. Brad McCarty, Messiah, 300-26-21

In terms of winning percentage (only among top ten in terms of wins):

1. Brad McCarty, Messiah, 89.5%
2. Paul McGinlay, Trinity TX, 83.3%
3. Erick Baumann, Dominican, 77.2%
4. Lenny Armuth, Drew, 70.0%
5. Brent Ridenour, Franciscan, 69.7%
6. Jon Anderson, Babson, 67.5%
7. Pepe Fernandez, Maryville, 66.9%
8. Bob Carlson, Carleton, 65.0%
9. Kevin East, Rutgers-Newark, 63.5%
10. Shawn Griffin, Hobart, 62.5%

Looking in more depth at the NCAA's record book, McCarty's .895 is currently the best all-time among men's soccer coaches at all divisions with at least ten years of experience, well ahead of San Francisco's Gus Donoghue whose 121-12-14/.871 record was accumulated in the mid 1900s.  McGinlay ranks sixth via the same metric.  In terms of overall wins, McGinlay ranks seventh behind all-time leader Jay Martin of Ohio Wesleyan (774-169-84/.795 over 47 seasons) and will overtake Skip Roderick of Elizabethtown (573-181-78/.736 in 40 seasons) for sixth with three victories.   Babson's Jon Anderson ranks 23rd all time and could move up as many as four spots with a season such as the one last year.  Dominican's Baumann should crack the top 25 with another successful year.

Ryan Souders at Calvin (234-37-16/.843 in 13 seasons) will be on this list should he continue that level of success for several more years, as would Amherst's Justin Serpone (264-38-48/.823 in 17 seasons) and Montclair State's Todd Tumelty (224-53-25/.783 in 14).

[Gregory Sager]

Here's the source:  https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/2024-25-college-team-academic-award-winners-announced/

MacAlester does have the higher GPA among men's teams, 3.83 to 3.80.   Both won the team academic award which is given to programs having a "team grade point average of 3.0 or higher".

I posted the correction to CC's IG, we'll see if they actually do anything.

Perhaps Colorado College will claim that they only count to the first decimal place and therefore they rounded Macalester's avg GPA down to 3.8 and claimed to be tied for first.

Colorado College is probably claiming that their team GPA is altitude-adjusted.

[SierraFD3soccer]

Hahaha, definitely worth a few thousands of a percent!

[Kuiper]

More academic news from DIII men's soccer

Over the summer, several men's soccer athletes were nominated by their conferences for the 2025 Division III Commissioner's Association (DIIICA) Student Athlete of the Year award

Ryan Cogill, Alvernia

Shea Bechtel, St. Olaf

Peter Silvester, Conn College (I posted about that earlier in the summer)

[Ron Boerger]

Hey, CC actually took down their post about having the highest GPA among men's soccer teams.  Kudos to them. 

[Gray Fox]

Hey, CC actually took down their post about having the highest GPA among men's soccer teams.  Kudos to them. 

They probably meant they were higher than their football team.

[Ron Boerger]

LOL, that would be pretty hard considering CC hasn't fielded a football team since 2008.  Or maybe pretty easy?

[Ejay]

Not D3, and I didn't want to start a new thread....

When Dave Brandt took over a hapless Bucknell program in 2022 (9 straight years without a winning record) I said to give him 3-4 years of recruiting the players he wants and he'd turn Bucknell into the best team in the Patriot.

Year 1 (not his players) - 4-10-3
Year 2 (likely not many of his players) - 3-12-2
Year 3 (starting to get his players) - 2-10-4
Year 4 (likely most of his players) - 7-7-6 (Patriot League Tournament Champions)
Year 5 (likely all his players) - Preseason #2 in Conference with 4 first place votes.

What I wouldn't give to see him move up the coaching ladder. The guy just wins while playing great soccer.
 

[SierraFD3soccer]

Please, Dave Brandt is a D3 legend with Messiah and 6 Nat'l Championships. No Dave, no Messiah imo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBC3FMn9zS8

He did a fine job at Navy. Saw him up close there. However, he had a lot of constraints with the recruitment requirements. Not sure exactly why he left after 6 years. They actually won a NCAA tournament game which was first for Navy and probably not done, or rarely done, by anyone in the Patriot League.

So it is great to see him do well with Bucknell also not known as a soccer power.

Side note, Loyola was previously coached by Gettysburg's recently retired Mark Mettrick. He had left Loyola before they joined the PL, but was know a very good coach in the Baltimore area. Also Dickinson's Jorge Chapoy was an assistant coach at Lafayette (in my hometown) for 6 years.