2026 Schedules

[jknezek]

W&L women's soccer team lists Batten for VWU. I had to look at it a few times to figure it out. That's going to take some getting used to. Men's soccer still had it listed as VWU. Could not figure out who Batten was and why it was listed as an ODAC game until I looked at the location.

Yes, I know VWU rebranded, I just wasn't thinking about it and it kind of shocked me.

[Kuiper]

Some NESCAC schedules

Williams

NESCAC teams often start playing conference games early in the season, even from Opening Day, but I don't think I've see a team play three straight NESCAC games to start the season (Bates, Hamilton, and Trinity).  On the other hand, Williams started last season with Wheaton (MA) and then played Tufts (which it beat 3-1!), Hamilton, and Amherst, so this year looks quite a bit less intimidating (especially given how good Wheaton turned out to be last year). In terms of non-conference games, Williams trades Union and Western Connecticut (which it tied 3-3), for Gordon and Hartford.  Starting the season with some of the lower NESCAC teams may come back to bit them in 2026 since they end with Wesleyan, Tufts, and Middlebury.

Middlebury

Middlebury trades out Bridgewater State, St. Lawrence, Thomas, and Vassar for the US Merchant Marine Academy, Endicott, RPI, and Maine Maritime Academy.  I would say that's a downgrade, but St. Lawrence turned out to be a down year and they beat Vassar 4-2, while Endicott is capable of rising to the occasion (including tying Wheaton last season) and USMMA went 12-4-3 last season, while RPI is probably due for a turnaround.  One conference advantage for Middlebury is that they don't have a two NESCAC game weekend.

[Kuiper]

Denison

Denison has had some fun schedules in recent years and this is no exception.  They seem to have made it a tradition to pair with Kenyon and bring in a couple of geographically interesting opponents.  This year is no exception with Occidental and Pomona-Pitzer visiting on the second weekend of the season.  I'm not sure either team is likely to give Denison a serious challenge, but with Oxy coming off games against Trinity (TX) on 9/6 at Claremont, @Kenyon on 9/11, they will either be riding a wave of momentum and playing at mid-season form in physicality and speed of play or they will be battered and bruised by the time they play @Denison on 9/13.  I'm betting the latter.  The toughest non-conference game for Denison might be Otterbein on 9/16, which tied Denison last season 3-3.

Kenyon

Not only does Kenyon play the same Oxy-Pomona-Pitzer swing as Denison, but they also play Hanover right after Denison.  Kenyon's biggest test might be the first game of the season against Ohio Northern, a team that tied Kenyon last season and usually starts out well against tough non-conference opponents.

[SKUD]

Some NESCAC schedules

Williams

NESCAC teams often start playing conference games early in the season, even from Opening Day, but I don't think I've see a team play three straight NESCAC games to start the season (Bates, Hamilton, and Trinity).  On the other hand, Williams started last season with Wheaton (MA) and then played Tufts (which it beat 3-1!), Hamilton, and Amherst, so this year looks quite a bit less intimidating (especially given how good Wheaton turned out to be last year). In terms of non-conference games, Williams trades Union and Western Connecticut (which it tied 3-3), for Gordon and Hartford.  Starting the season with some of the lower NESCAC teams may come back to bit them in 2026 since they end with Wesleyan, Tufts, and Middlebury.

Middlebury

Middlebury trades out Bridgewater State, St. Lawrence, Thomas, and Vassar for the US Merchant Marine Academy, Endicott, RPI, and Maine Maritime Academy.  I would say that's a downgrade, but St. Lawrence turned out to be a down year and they beat Vassar 4-2, while Endicott is capable of rising to the occasion (including tying Wheaton last season) and USMMA went 12-4-3 last season, while RPI is probably due for a turnaround.  One conference advantage for Middlebury is that they don't have a two NESCAC game weekend.

Do these teams look like they are running away from quality OOC games vs years past? I think we are seeing NPI at work here.  Why challenge OOC when you will have the SOS from conf games?

[Kuiper]

Some NWC schedules

Pacific Lutheran

Pacific Lutheran is trying to rebound from a disappointing season, at least by their standards, where they fniished 13-4-3, but failed to qualify for the tournament after losing to Whitman at home in the last regular season game.  The season got off to a bad start when the team lost its first three non-conference games, only beating UC Santa Cruz.  In 2026, PLU returns most of its key contributors and has an ambitious non-conference schedule again, hosting Chapman and Lake Forest and then traveling to Illinois to take on North Park and Wheaton (Ill), who they lost to at home in 2025 2-1.

Whitman

Whitman follows up its NWC championship season and NCAA tournament appearance with a cross-country trip to Virginia to take on Marymount and Mary Washington.  Then they host UC Santa Cruz and Mary Hardin-Baylor.  None of those are easy games, especially with Whitman losing first team All Region X forward Lucas McAllister and defender Adrian Valencia, but if Whitman and Pacific Lutheran can win all of those non-conference games, it could boost their NPI points enough to give the NWC two possible slots in the tournament.

[Kuiper]

Macalester

Very strong non-conference schedule:

@Wisconsin-Platteville
@Luther
Wartburg
@Wisconsin-Whitewater
@Wisconsin Eau-Claire
Wisconsin-Superior

The only school in the group not to have a winning record last season was Wartburg and they were 8-8-2 and lost to Luther in the ARC Championship game.  Plus, few schools play that many away non-conference games.

Carleton

Not a horrible season, but definitely a below average one in which they didn't even make the MIAC conference tournament and lost pretty handily to some of the top teams in the conference.  This year, UC Santa Cruz and Grinnell pay return visits and they add Wisconsin-Eau Claire and subtract Lincoln (CA), which is a big upgrade.

[stlawus]

SLU

Swaps out Middlebury for Oneonta. First time playing Oneonta at home since 2011. 

The coach has a lot of work ahead of him in terms of getting back alumni support. 

[kevdog]

SLU

Swaps out Middlebury for Oneonta. First time playing Oneonta at home since 2011. 

The coach has a lot of work ahead of him in terms of getting back alumni support. 

That he does

[Kuiper]

Emory

Emory follows up a 16-2-4 season and Final Four appearance with some non-conference travel after staying close to home for all but two of their non-conference games in 2025.  They open with a trip to Sewanee, play Belhaven and Brevard at its Sonny Carter classic and then travels to Southern California to play Redlands and Cal Lutheran.  It rounds out non-conference play with Pfeiffer, McMurray, and Berry at home, before playing Huntingdon away, Piedmont at home, and Covenant away. 

[Kuiper]

George Fox

I'm not sure whether it is the wonky calendar this year because Labor Day is later in September and there is less preseason time, but I'm seeing some schools reduce their non-conference schedules.  George Fox has scheduled two scrimmages and then only two non-conference games, compared with four last season.  They are traveling this year, however, which may account for the reduction, although they traveled to Boston two years ago to play Emmanuel and Emerson and still played two more non-conference games at home.  This year, they are going down to SoCal to play at La Verne and Cal Tech.  This is the second time in three years they have played at La Verne without La Verne returning the favor.  George Fox did win that game, though, so they may like playing there.  In NWC play, the last 9 games of their season will be played in Oregon.  If they come out of the first half of the NWC season in the upper half of the standings (admittedly a long shot given that the team was 3-8-5 in the NWC last season and loses most of its regular starters), that could be a big advantage to have gotten major travel games out of the way already.

Christopher Newport

CNU's schedule is always fun because it is basically entirely non-conference games. Although they play most of their C2C conference opponents during the regular season, the conference technically only has a conference tournament in which games count for NCAA tournament bid purposes.  This year, they drop Merchant Marines, Redlands, Trinity, and Hardin-Simmons in favor of Moravian, Kean, Mount Union, @Montclair State, and @Methodist.  They also continue to play Dickinson and Washington & Lee, as well as C2C foe Mary Washington.

[Kuiper]

Some ASC Schedules

Mary Hardin-Baylor

Third year in a row that UMHB takes a big airplane trip to get some more non-conference games.  In 2025 they went to Colorado Springs to play Colorado College and Whitman and in 2024 they went to Northfield, MN to play St. Olaf and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.  This year, they travel to Spokane, WA to play Whitman and Whitworth.  Combined with games against Concordia (TX), Trinity (TX) and Texas Lutheran, that's a pretty strong non-conference schedule.  With McMurry and Schreiner moving from the SCAC to the ASC, they'll need it because the conference strength of schedule will be taking a hit.

Hardin-Simmons

H-S had a bad season last year until surprising UMHB in the ASC tournament and qualifying for the NCAA tournament.  This season, they drop Christopher Newport and Centenary and add Lyon and University of Dallas.

[Kuiper]

Some NESCAC schedules

Trinity (CT)

Opening at National Champion Tufts is a kick in the mid-section for a team that hasn't won a single conference game in the last two seasons.  It also doesn't bode well that they have Wesleyan, a team that beat them 4-1 last season, on the schedule TWICE (although they seem to be trolling the Cardinals by not identifying EITHER game as a NESCAC game).  As far as non-conference games, they drop Western New England in favor of Hunter College.

Hamilton

Hamilton had a stingy defense and some solid results last season, including a 0-0 tie with Middlebury, 1-0 victory over Bowdoin, and a 2-2 tie with Wesleyan, but couldn't get over the hump.  Because of their location away from most other NESCAC schools, they tend to have a more diverse (and sometimes more competitive) non-conference schedule.  This year, they trade out Oswego State, SUNY Poly, and SUNY Oneonta for Clarkson, Rochester, and SUNY Morrisville. 

[Kuiper]

Trinity (TX) (see also Ron Boerger's write-up in the Go WEST thread)

Trinity has a pretty tough set of games to open the season.  Texas Lutheran will be eager to avenge their loss to Trinity in the second round of the NCAA Tournament last season where they played Trinity tougher than some of Trinity's more highly-ranked opponents in the NCAA tournament.  TLU also played a lot of freshman in that game who are likely to take another jump with a spring season and summer to develop.  They only lose three starters and none of their top scorers. 

CMS and Oxy in Claremont, CA is also tricky.  CMS had a bad season last year, but they were young and they recruit well.  Oxy was like TLU in terms of youth and only loses four senior contributors, only one of whom started regularly.  Their defense was mostly freshman last season and they are all back. Plus, the CMS field is a wild card.  I think it can be one of the worst in the SCIAC, although it should be less battered in the early season, and somewhat less conducive to Trinity's passing game.  They have plans to build all new soccer fields as part of the new CMC Sports Bowl, Phase 1 of which is supposed to come online this fall, but the soccer fields are in Phase 2. 

La Verne at home should be easier to handle, but they aren't pushovers anymore and they will be a senior-heavy team this season (although the departure of their GK is a big loss).  And even if that is an easy game, finishing non-conference play with @Mary Hardin-Baylor, Hardin-Simmons, UC Santa Cruz, and Concordia (TX) won't allow them much rest.  It's basically the two best teams in the ASC and teams that usually contend for the top four spots in the C2C and the SCAC.

Texas Lutheran

TLU is certainly challenging itself to start the season, hoping to build on its 2nd round finish at the NCAA Tournament last season.  It opens at Trinity (TX), picking up where it left off in that 2nd round NCAA loss and then it hosts Lynchburg, which is coming off a really strong season (19-2-2) that ended with a narrow 3rd round NCAA tournament loss to Dickinson.  They also play Southwestern, Mary Hardin-Baylor, Hardin-Simmons, and UC Santa Cruz, all of which could be better than any teams they face in the SCAC other than Colorado College and maybe Concordia (TX) and St. Thomas.