2026 D3 Men's Soccer National Perspective

[Hopkins92]

Very interesting article from May, 2026. Worth the read, talking about how irrelevant D1 soccer has become and uses stats. https://www.samford.edu/sports-analytics/fans/2026/The-2026-USMNT-Is-the-Best-American-Soccer-Team-in-History-It-Still-Isnt-Good-Enough

The other issue, and I need to be careful because I don't have any actual numbers on this, is the socio-economic/striving to make your (and your family's) life better aspect.

It's a big factor in a lot of other countries when it comes to football. In America, that cohort is focused on Football and Basketball. Interesting to note that in those sports, college is still an essential feeder system into the professional ranks.

But, when you look at the professional football rosters currently and throughout history, a ton of the best players come from poor, hardscrabble backgrounds.

[Gregory Sager]

Very interesting article from May, 2026. Worth the read, talking about how irrelevant D1 soccer has become and uses stats. https://www.samford.edu/sports-analytics/fans/2026/The-2026-USMNT-Is-the-Best-American-Soccer-Team-in-History-It-Still-Isnt-Good-Enough

The other issue, and I need to be careful because I don't have any actual numbers on this, is the socio-economic/striving to make your (and your family's) life better aspect.

It's a big factor in a lot of other countries when it comes to football. In America, that cohort is focused on Football and Basketball. Interesting to note that in those sports, college is still an essential feeder system into the professional ranks.

But, when you look at the professional football rosters currently and throughout history, a ton of the best players come from poor, hardscrabble backgrounds.

The funny thing about that is, once upon a time, in the northernmost tier of the U.S. and in Canada kids from poor, hardscrabble backgrounds tended to look to hockey as a means of economic striving for the same reason as soccer in other countries. That is to say, poor kids could play the sport and develop their skills from a young age because of the minimal equipment requirement and the ubiquity of available playing surfaces. Every town had ponds and creeks that would freeze over and the winters were long, and if you could obtain a stick and a pair of skates (often getting them as hand-me-downs from fathers, older brothers, or older neighbors) you were ready to play the game.

Now it costs so much to play youth hockey in the U.S. that the sport is generally limited to children from upper middle class homes.

[stlawus]

Very interesting article from May, 2026. Worth the read, talking about how irrelevant D1 soccer has become and uses stats. https://www.samford.edu/sports-analytics/fans/2026/The-2026-USMNT-Is-the-Best-American-Soccer-Team-in-History-It-Still-Isnt-Good-Enough

The other issue, and I need to be careful because I don't have any actual numbers on this, is the socio-economic/striving to make your (and your family's) life better aspect.

It's a big factor in a lot of other countries when it comes to football. In America, that cohort is focused on Football and Basketball. Interesting to note that in those sports, college is still an essential feeder system into the professional ranks.

But, when you look at the professional football rosters currently and throughout history, a ton of the best players come from poor, hardscrabble backgrounds.

For his faults as a tactical manager, this is one thing Jurgen Klinsmann has nailed.  Whenever he is asked why we aren't a soccer power, his first answer is always about how in the US most parents try to do everything they can to get their kids into the best college possible.  That is completely contrary to the system of producing widespread soccer talent since player development is most critical between ages 14-18.  You can talk about pay to play until the cows come home, but unless you break this socioeconomic and psychological stranglehold it will always be an uphill battle.  Good luck trying to convince the parents of a promising teenage prospect that they should put their plans to attend Stanford or Duke on hold and instead commit to a professional academy.  The median nuclear parent in this country will react to that like someone just threw acid in their face.

[Kuiper]

Very interesting article from May, 2026. Worth the read, talking about how irrelevant D1 soccer has become and uses stats. https://www.samford.edu/sports-analytics/fans/2026/The-2026-USMNT-Is-the-Best-American-Soccer-Team-in-History-It-Still-Isnt-Good-Enough

The other issue, and I need to be careful because I don't have any actual numbers on this, is the socio-economic/striving to make your (and your family's) life better aspect.

It's a big factor in a lot of other countries when it comes to football. In America, that cohort is focused on Football and Basketball. Interesting to note that in those sports, college is still an essential feeder system into the professional ranks.

But, when you look at the professional football rosters currently and throughout history, a ton of the best players come from poor, hardscrabble backgrounds.

Good luck trying to convince the parents of a promising teenage prospect that they should put their plans to attend Stanford or Duke on hold and instead commit to a professional academy.  The median nuclear parent in this country will react to that like someone just threw acid in their face.

I don't think your point in bold above is really true for most of the country. MLS Academy is firmly a pathway to top college soccer.  Check out the rosters of Stanford, Duke, Indiana etc and you'll see tons of players from MLS Academies.  The problem is that MLS Academies place more kids in college soccer and European pro club systems than they place on MLS rosters these days.  The middle group goes to MLS Next Pro teams, which has not really developed as an MLS feeder. 

I see plenty of kids who absolutely have no interest in college at all except as a last resort, but they generally aspire to Liga MX.  In SoCal, tons of good, but not necessarily superstar, players, routinely turn down solid college opportunities for U19 and U23 spots in Liga MX Academies and they grind away with the hope it will lead to a pro contract.

[VASoccerDad]

I kind of love this, but I would love it even better if it was at midnight on the first day of practice:

Denison is hosting a back-to-school tailgate before it's scrimmage v. Case Western Reserve on Wednesday Aug. 26th, including "food, drinks, music, and plenty of good vibes."

For a lot of schools, football gets all the press.  It's nice to see a school pump up its student body for the soccer teams too.

I'll be there...I'll let you know how it goes (from an away fans perspective).

Ok, so I was at the Denison/Case game...here is what I posted in the UAA thread:

Went to the Case/Denison preseason game last night at Denison. Denison hosted a social activation session prior to the game to entice students to attend, giveaways included t-shirts and food (as any school does). Turn out was pretty good, maybe 300-400 people in attendance. Set up was just a few tents in the corner, didn't hear music or really notice anything other than students walking over there.

Case won 3-2, and clearly deserved the win based on play. Denison's two goals were a bit flukey- one was an Olympico where the goalie came out for the ball but got picked off by a couple of players, ball went over his head into far corner. Second was on an mis-hit cross/long ball from about 40 yards out that the Case backup goalie misjudged, allowing it to go over his head into the goal.



Overall, Case played well, played almost everyone a good number of minutes, had 3 different scorers and played good D. The offense looks a bit stronger than last year, but their center forwards didn't show much offensively. A key freshman that plays striker hasn't played in preseason after suffering a concussion on the 2-3 day of preseason practices. Hopefully he will help out with the center forward attack.

Two preseason games, two wins, outscoring opponents 11-3. Hopefully a positive for the upcoming season.

[Kuiper]

Top game from Region X on Opening Day

Texas Lutheran @ Trinity 7 pm Central - a rematch of the 2025 NCAA tournament 2nd round game won by Trinity.  A very young TLU team may have given Trinity its toughest match of the Tournament before the final last season.  This year, Trinity lost several of its top players and TLU's are a year older and a year more experienced with its top 4 offensive leaders returning along with its freshman defenders and goalkeeper, led by now senior defender Carson Alldredge.  If Trinity doesn't come out flying at home, they could be in for early season trouble.

[ziggy]

D3 soccer fans will no longer be tied to the NCAA's schedule as it relates to seeing where NPI rankings stand. We have expanded our abilities to track NPI beyond basketball and football and have announced our launch of a new NPI landing page (https://d3datacast.com/npi/) and additional sport-specific pages for NPI rankings.
Men's soccer: https://d3datacast.com/npi/msoc/
Women's soccer: https://d3datacast.com/npi/wsoc/

[Kuiper]

We're less than 30 minutes away from the start of the first game of the 2026 D3 Men's Soccer season!

Lasell v. Bridgewater State 12 pm Eastern (at least that's the earliest game I could find)

Best of luck to all the players and teams!  Don't let the coaches or parents get in the way of making this fun, memorable, and rewarding!

UPDATE:  Bridgewater State 5 - Lasell 0

Ansley Glemaud jumps out to a lead in the 2026 golden boot race with a brace, scoring two goals in the second half.  BSU dominated from start to finish, scoring its first goal in the 1st minute and it's fifth goal in the 84th minute and out-shooting Lasell 25-6

[BaboNation]

Babson holds off Gordon at home 2-1 on a goal in the 80th minute by Yablonovskiy.  He entered the game in the 72nd minute and played only 10 minutes total.  Not sure what that's about, but the team isn't going anywhere without him.
Also missing Blake Miller from the midfield, a guy who probably played every minute last year.
Very troubling back line play in the 1st half when 2 guys went in alone on the keeper.
Disappointed to see that Tidiane Thiam who looked solid as a FY in the back, then missed all of last year with an injury did not see any time.  If he can return to form that would help.

On a brighter note, FY starter Adonai Samuel is a nifty, talented FY M/F and a player to watch going forward.

And of course the 2nd half Flo freezes and technical difficulties.  I'm sure they'll work those issues out. /s

[BlueJayBrigader]

Just getting back into the flow of the new season (no pun intended now that I was finally forced into the Flo Sports machine), keeping an eyes on scores around the country and number 4 Emory is down 2-1 against Sewanee at halftime. Preseason rankings are inherently flawed I understand, but how does NPI calculate a win like that if Sewanee manages to hold on? Still plenty of game but going to put my multi-TV setup to use and keep an eye on that one the rest of the way out

[ziggy]

Just getting back into the flow of the new season (no pun intended now that I was finally forced into the Flo Sports machine), keeping an eyes on scores around the country and number 4 Emory is down 2-1 against Sewanee at halftime. Preseason rankings are inherently flawed I understand, but how does NPI calculate a win like that if Sewanee manages to hold on? Still plenty of game but going to put my multi-TV setup to use and keep an eye on that one the rest of the way out

When everyone has only played one game, all the 1-0 teams have the same NPI and all the 0-1 teams have the same NPI.

[Kuiper]

Just getting back into the flow of the new season (no pun intended now that I was finally forced into the Flo Sports machine), keeping an eyes on scores around the country and number 4 Emory is down 2-1 against Sewanee at halftime. Preseason rankings are inherently flawed I understand, but how does NPI calculate a win like that if Sewanee manages to hold on? Still plenty of game but going to put my multi-TV setup to use and keep an eye on that one the rest of the way out

NPI is dynamic rather than static on questions of strength of schedule.  So, although they calculate NPI starting around mid-season, the final number used for tournament selection is based on year-end wins and losses (and year-end NPI of your opponent).  So, after you beat someone, you root for them the rest of the season.  I don't think it factors in at all when you beat them and where they were as a team at that time.

[Kuiper]

Babson holds off Gordon at home 2-1 on a goal in the 80th minute by Yablonovskiy.  He entered the game in the 72nd minute and played only 10 minutes total.  Not sure what that's about, but the team isn't going anywhere without him.
Also missing Blake Miller from the midfield, a guy who probably played every minute last year.
Very troubling back line play in the 1st half when 2 guys went in alone on the keeper.
Disappointed to see that Tidiane Thiam who looked solid as a FY in the back, then missed all of last year with an injury did not see any time.  If he can return to form that would help.

On a brighter note, FY starter Adonai Samuel is a nifty, talented FY M/F and a player to watch going forward.

And of course the 2nd half Flo freezes and technical difficulties.  I'm sure they'll work those issues out. /s

The "they" in "they'll work those issues out" may mean Babson, not Flo.  It's possible the problems could be on Flo's end, but the home team is the one that provides the actual feed.  I watched a different game today involving a school not on the Flo platform and not charging a fee and it also had freezes and technical difficulties.

[PaulNewman]

Has anyone seen an Owl in their neigborhood?

[Kuiper]

Has anyone seen an Owl in their neigborhood?

Welcome back to the boards!  Nice 2-1 win by Kenyon over Ohio Northern.  I was wondering how they would do with graduations and transfers resetting the squad.  Looks pretty good thus far!