2026 Schedules

[Kuiper]

After suffering through a blizzard recently, many places in the Northeast are forecast to have highs in the 60s and even 70s this coming week.  So, that means its time for the first DIII men's soccer schedules to pop up on websites across the country and it's time to start a 2026 Schedules thread!  For some reason, the first groups to post their schedules tend to be from the upper Midwest.  Maybe they are trying to wish the spring into existence?

North Central

North Central is coming off an odd year where they only had 2 losses all season,  but they had 8 ties and missed out on the NCAA tourney.  This fall, they replace Coe, Trine, Dominican, Monmouth, and Knox with Beloit, Nebraska Wesleyan, and a tricky mid-September trip to Michigan to play at Calvin, Kalamazoo, and Albion before returning home to host CCIW foe Illinois Wesleyan and Edgewood.  That seems like a decent upgrade and an especially difficult stretch of games right before and after they start conference play.

North Park

North Park had a down year by their lofty standards, but they still made it to the CCIW championship game before succumbing to IWU 1-0.  This year, they start the season with what may be a murderer's row of historically strong programs: @ Chicago, Wash. U., Milwaukee School of Engineering, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Pacific Lutheran (@ Wheaton), @ Kalamazoo, @ Trine before three straight home games against Wisconsin-Whitewater, Wheaton, and Wisconsin-Platteville.  Some of those teams had down years last season, but holy cow!  Those games should be fun to watch.

[Kuiper]

St. Norbert

St. Norbert opened last season with a super tough schedule, playing @ Augsburg, @ Macalester, home to Calvin, home to Carthage, and home to UW Stevens Point.  They came out of those first 5 games 1-4.  This year is quite a bit different.  Opening at Saint Johns University won't be easy, but then they play @ Hamline, home to Wisconsin-Stout, @ Wisconsin-Stevens Point, and home to Lawrence.

Wisconsin-Stout

After going 1-15-4 in only its second year of existence Wisconsin-Stout probably can't find that many opponents willing to play them.  Nevertheless, removing Crown and Buena Vista -- two of the teams they tied last season -- isn't going to make it any easier to amass some wins.

[Gregory Sager]

North Park

North Park had a down year by their lofty standards, but they still made it to the CCIW championship game before succumbing to IWU 1-0.  This year, they start the season with what may be a murderer's row of historically strong programs: @ Chicago, Wash. U., Milwaukee School of Engineering, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Pacific Lutheran (@ Wheaton), @ Kalamazoo, @ Trine before three straight home games against Wisconsin-Whitewater, Wheaton, and Wisconsin-Platteville.  Some of those teams had down years last season, but holy cow!  Those games should be fun to watch.

And fun to call, too.

[Kuiper]

Millsaps

They are playing some school named "United States Sports University" for the second year in a row. Apparently, it's been around since 1972, but for some reason it only started offering intercollegiate athletic teams in 2024. I guess they offer majors in sports-related areas but it seems odd that someone wouldn't have thought earlier that actually having sports teams would be mission-related, right?  In any event, the really crazy thing is that Millsaps is playing AT Southwestern and AT Trinity for a second year in a row.  Many conferences rotate home-and-away, but I guess not in the SAA.  That's kind of rough.  At least they do it in one weekend and they play LeTourneau at home this year rather than traveling to Texas again.  They also host Centenary instead of traveling to East Texas Baptist.

Earlham

After going 3-11-3 last season, Earlham needs to schedule a few more wins.  They did add two NCCAA teams:  Kuyper (which was on the schedules last season, but Kuyper cancelled its entire season after the first two games for what looks like lack of players since they only had 11 in each of their first two games) and Ohio Christian (NCCAA).  They also, however, added Albion, which had a strong 12-3-2 season, and dropped Muskingum, which was one of their wins.

[SierraFD3soccer]

Millsaps

They are playing some school named "United States Sports University" for the second year in a row. Apparently, it's been around since 1972, but for some reason it only started offering intercollegiate athletic teams in 2024. I guess they offer majors in sports-related areas but it seems odd that someone wouldn't have thought earlier that actually having sports teams would be mission-related, right?  In any event, the really crazy thing is that Millsaps is playing AT Southwestern and AT Trinity for a second year in a row.  Many conferences rotate home-and-away, but I guess not in the SAA.  That's kind of rough.  At least they do it in one weekend and they play LeTourneau at home this year rather than traveling to Texas again.  They also host Centenary instead of traveling to East Texas Baptist.

Apparently, Mike "the Pirate" Leach got a masters from the sports college which is located in Alabama. Never heard of it before.

[Kuiper]

La Verne

La Verne gets the prize for the most diverse (geographically, division, conference) non-conference schedule thus far.  They open in Santa Barbara against DII Westmont, then hosts George Fox (Oregon/NWC) and Russell Sage (NY/Empire 8) and the following week travels to Texas to play Southwestern and Trinity from the SAA.  They play at SCIAC newcomer Azusa Pacific on 10/7, which is a foe that could become a rival considering that the two campuses are about 8.5 miles away from each other.  The other interesting note about Azusa Pacific joining the SCIAC is that it changes the patterns.  They now play 4 teams twice and 4 teams only once.  La Verne only plays once against Occidental, Whittier, CMS, and Azusa Pacific this season.

Rockford

After going 2-15-1 last season, this is another team looking for winnable games.  They replace Olivet, Elmhurst, Beloit, Ripon (although they do play them in an exhibition) with Lawrence, Waldorf, Iowa (NAIA), Knox, and Illinois Wesleyan.

[Ron Boerger]

Millsaps

[...]In any event, the really crazy thing is that Millsaps is playing AT Southwestern and AT Trinity for a second year in a row.  Many conferences rotate home-and-away, but I guess not in the SAA.  That's kind of rough.  At least they do it in one weekend and they play LeTourneau at home this year rather than traveling to Texas again.  They also host Centenary instead of traveling to East Texas Baptist.

Maryville joins the conference in 2026-27, so the SAA had to adjust schedules and this sounds like a side effect of that.

As a side note, the Texas schools have to head back east for virtually every SAA championship next year, and for the bulk of the next three seasons.  Of the 21 championships held annually, three were in Texas this year and (as of now) only one is next season.  With a quarter of the conference's schools in state and fine facilities at both you'd expect 4-5. 

[Kuiper]

Concordia-Moorehead

Drops Saint John's, Dakota Wesleyan and adds a home-and-away series with North Central (Minn).  The home-and-away non-conference schedule is not that common, but does happen, particularly if teams are in somewhat remote places and are having trouble finding opponents or if they want to cut down travel and the schools are nearby, but not in the same conference.  Playing the two games back-to-back, however, on a Wednesday-Saturday, is pretty unusual.  It may give the home team on the second game day an advantage as teams make adjustments.

Washington & Jefferson

They get the return leg of the Randolph-Macon series from last season and they drop La Roche, Penn State Altoona, and Marietta and add Wooster, Baldwin Wallace, and incoming PAC member Saint Francis.  It will be particularly interesting to see how Saint Francis looks, as they will be moving from DI and that transition can be particularly rough as the team loses most of its better players from last season to the transfer portal and perhaps still needs to find its footing in DIII recruiting with the absence of scholarships.

[Kuiper]

Wheaton (IL)

Wheaton once again appears to have a Region X-heavy non-conference schedule.  It travels to Colorado Springs to play against a couple of TBA opponents, but I presume one of them will be Colorado College, which they tied 2-2 last season @Wheaton after Colorado College tied it up in the 78th minute.  Then, at Wheaton's Bob Baptista Invitational, they play Pacific Lutheran and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.  It also adds home games against Trine and Calvin in place of Wash U and Kalamazoo.  A potentially challenging schedule for a school looking to push beyond missing out on the NCAA tournament after losing a close game against North Park in the CCIW semifinals and missing out on the NCAA tournament despite finishing 11-3-4.

Alfred State

The best news in this schedule is that the Alfred Cup has become an annual event and Alfred State opens the season seeking to defend the cup after beating Alfred 2-1 last season.  The biggest change is simply that Alfred State has moved from the AMCC to the SUNYAC.  That's a pretty big step-up in conference quality and should pose a significant challenge, even though they've already been playing a few SUNYAC schools non-conference like Fredonia and Delhi.

[Gregory Sager]

Wheaton (IL)Then, at Wheaton's Bob Baptista Invitational, they play Pacific Lutheran and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.

This should be a fun watch for CCIW fans, as they'll get a chance to have an early side-by-comparison of the league's two traditional (but no longer exclusive) powers, what with North Park being the fourth team in the Baptista. I'd love to be there in person, but, since the D3 women's volleyball Windy City Invite is taking place in North Park's gym that weekend, and I'm only responsible for calling the WCI matches that involve North Park, I'll be watching the Baptista on my laptop from the gym's broadcasting perch while the Wentworth, Chicago, Kalamazoo, Webster, John Carroll, and Eastern volleyball teams are on the court in various permutations.

[Kuiper]

Wheaton (IL)Then, at Wheaton's Bob Baptista Invitational, they play Pacific Lutheran and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.

This should be a fun watch for CCIW fans, as they'll get a chance to have an early side-by-comparison of the league's two traditional (but no longer exclusive) powers, what with North Park being the fourth team in the Baptista. I'd love to be there in person, but, since the D3 women's volleyball Windy City Invite is taking place in North Park's gym that weekend, and I'm only responsible for calling the WCI matches that involve North Park, I'll be watching the Baptista on my laptop from the gym's broadcasting perch while the Wentworth, Chicago, Kalamazoo, Webster, John Carroll, and Eastern volleyball teams are on the court in various permutations.

It will be interesting to see how PLU and CMS fare in these games.  PLU had a good record last season (13-4-3), but it was a down year for them.  They did poorly in their early non-conference games, losing to St. Olaf 4-1 and Gustavus Adolphus 2-0, both in Minnesota, and then to Wheaton in Tacoma 2-1, and then losing to Whitman 3-1 in the last game of the regular season to miss out on the auto bid.  They only lose 1-2 major contributors and return all their top scorers, though, including 14 goal scorer Owen Bliskis, so I expect they will still be quite competitive.  CMS, on the other hand, had a down year on every level, from start to finish and in non-conference and conference, and they lose their top scorer and leader, John Laidlaw.  They had a lot of young players, though, and they recruit well nationally, so I expect they will be improved, although the question is by how much.