2026 Schedules

[Newenglander]

That's a long way from Rowan's murderers' row of 2024 (F&M, Hopkins, Cortland, Mary Washington, Christopher Newport, Messiah), but the game at Dickinson could be interesting.

agreed - that is a decent SOS drop for tournament purposes no?

[Kuiper]

Elizabethtown

After going 3-11-4 last season, E-Town is going to hope the team is better because the schedule hasn't changed much.  They do get F&M and Messiah at home and they trade out Ithaca for Marywood, but otherwise it's pretty similar.  They may, however, be better, or at least more experienced.  They do lose their top two point getters, but they accounted for 3 and 2 goals, respectively, as well as their starting GK,  but they had a lot of freshman and sophomores starting last season, so they will be at least more experienced.

Brandeis

First UAA schedule to drop.  Brandeis is likely looking for big things after a 10-4-5 finish and a second round NCAA tournament exit on an OT loss to eventual champion Tufts.  They'll have to replace their top three point getters and starting GK, but they have a lot of depth returning.  They add Hobart, Skidmore, and Massachusetts Maritime Academy and drop John Carroll, Bridgewater State, and Anna Maria.  Big changes are hosting Babson, Wesleyan and playing @Wheaton (MA), as well as ending UAA play hosting Chicago and NYU rather than playing them on the road.

[Kuiper]

Lewis & Clark

L&C is traveling to Southern California and playing CMS and Azusa Pacific on 9/6-9/7.  With CMS coming off a 4-10-6 record last season, I'm sure they won't mind if it turns out to be an easy win as they try to build confidence.  For Lewis & Clark, they are probably hoping that Azusa Pacific will be going through some transition between D2 and D3 and the loss of many key players will make the game more competitive.

Pacific University

Pacific is only playing two non-conference games - both against NAIA opponents (Bushnell and Evergreen State).  Last season, they played three, including two DIII opponents.  This is the kind of schedule that really hurts NWC under the NPI formula.  For teams that don't have the money or interest in traveling every season, they basically don't have any countable non-conference games unless schools travel to them.

Ohio Wesleyan

After finishing 7-5-6 last season, where they started winless in their first four games in the first non-Jay Martin season, I'm sure OWU would like to get off to a better start in 2026.  Not sure this schedule does them any favors, though.  Instead of playing @Hope, @Calvin, Otterbein, and Carnegie Mellon, they play @Case Western, Bethany, @Otterbein, @Ohio Northern.  Bethany is probably the only one of those four they can feel comfortable about.  They also drop Berea and add Adrian and Penn State Behrend.

[Kuiper]

Hanover

Hanover, which finished 14-4-3 last season, needs to up its strength of schedule and is picking up a game against Denison in its return trip to Kenyon (which didn't turn out to be the SoS boost it might have hoped for last season), as well as playing DePauw and Centre again and dropping Wabash.  Hanover is also adding a game at Wash U and is playing against TWO DI programs (Bellarmine and Indiana).  If they are trying both to upgrade their DIII SoS schedule and to schedule tougher opponents to force them to up their speed of play and physicality, then mission accomplished!

[Ejay]

Hanover College, alma mater of Woody Harrelson - hence the reason the fictional Woody Boyd was from Hanover, IN.

[Newenglander]

Tufts is posted On Instagram..... 10 of 15
home games- 0 non-conference games on the road - that's nice

[Kuiper]

Tufts is posted On Instagram..... 10 of 15
home games- 0 non-conference games on the road - that's nice

Here is the Instagram Link

They trade out Husson for Thomas College and MIT for WPI, which are both probably like-for-like, and  Emerson for Westfield State, which is harder to peg since Westfield State had a much better record than Emerson last season, but in a weaker schedule.  The biggest challenge for Tufts might be the road trip to Amherst and Hamilton on 10/3-10/4.  It's under 2 hours to get to Amherst, but over 3 hours to get from Amherst to Hamilton and then over 4 hours to get home to Tufts from Hamilton.  That's called doing errands in some parts of Texas, but will be the most Tufts has to travel during the regular season.  I doubt it will matter much though.  As New Englander said, with 10/15 at home, including all the non-conference games, this is a very friendly schedule from a travel perspective.

Amherst

Amherst trades out @Suffolk and @Anna Maria for Westfield State (Home) and @Eastern Connecticut State, but it has to play Babson and Albertus Magnus away and its trip to Babson is three days before it's trip to Hamilton.  The bigger challenge is starting the regular season hosting Connecticut College.  Amherst Beat Conn away in the opener last season when the Mammoths were ranked #1, but the two teams finished in very different spots in the NPI rankings by the end of the season.