2026 D3 Men's Soccer National Perspective

[Kuiper]

French National Team moves home base from Babson to Bentley

https://thewellesleynews.com/23335/news-investigation/french-national-football-team-chooses-bentley-over-babson/

Not a big deal in the overall scheme of things, but it would have fun to have the top ranked team in the world training at a D3 school

"The men's French national football team, Les Bleus, will train at Bentley University in Waltham during the World Cup this summer, despite having previously committed to training at Babson College. According to French football reports, the change was sparked by prolonged financial negotiations and an impasse between Babson, the French Football Federation (FFF) and FIFA.

Les Bleus are the top-ranked team in the World Cup as of April 14.

On March 26, Bentley's athletic director, Vaughn Williams, announced that the French team will arrive on June 10 and train at Bentley for the duration of the World Cup. The university will serve as a training site that the team will return to, no matter how far they travel for their tournaments, which are scheduled to happen across the country."

[SierraFD3soccer]

Yeah, I know lacrosse, but what most of us. or at least me, hear when watching D3 soccer online. https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1CdSmtZmMV/

[Gregory Sager]

Yeah, I know lacrosse, but what most of us. or at least me, hear when watching D3 soccer online. https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1CdSmtZmMV/

Heh! On one level, that's a pretty funny clip.

But in terms of the professionalism, or lack thereof, exhibited by the two people behind the mic, yeah ... speaking as a D3 play-by-play guy, it makes me cringe. As the note accompanying the clip indicates, this really gives D3 a bad name. And I agree with you that it's sadly all-too-common among the D3 schools that let students do their play-by-play.

Don't get me wrong; some students are fairly adept at calling a game properly, and kudos to the schools that actually try to train their student broadcasters before putting them on the air. But this kind of stuff is depressingly widespread across the division.

[Ejay]

See now, I loved it. I love student announcers, especially when they're homers.

[BaboNation]

French National Team moves home base from Babson to Bentley

https://thewellesleynews.com/23335/news-investigation/french-national-football-team-chooses-bentley-over-babson/

Not a big deal in the overall scheme of things, but it would have fun to have the top ranked team in the world training at a D3 school

"The men's French national football team, Les Bleus, will train at Bentley University in Waltham during the World Cup this summer, despite having previously committed to training at Babson College. According to French football reports, the change was sparked by prolonged financial negotiations and an impasse between Babson, the French Football Federation (FFF) and FIFA.

Les Bleus are the top-ranked team in the World Cup as of April 14.

On March 26, Bentley's athletic director, Vaughn Williams, announced that the French team will arrive on June 10 and train at Bentley for the duration of the World Cup. The university will serve as a training site that the team will return to, no matter how far they travel for their tournaments, which are scheduled to happen across the country."

Disappointing, but we'll probably never get the full story.  I too was looking forward to having a World Cup team train there as they have numerous times in the past, and not just for WC matches.  Babson has been very accommodating in the prior years.
I suspect and expect Babson will still get a team.