Rankings Aggregator

[Kuiper]

Because I know you all needed something to talk about, here is a new Rankings Site I found online. 

https://statranking.com/#standings (be sure you choose D3 Men's Soccer in the drop down menu)

It appears to be an aggregator of a variety of rankings, plus some other stuff.  Seems like a Data Analytics 2026 graduate hasn't found a job yet, but at least it isn't the same as last year's end of season ranking.  It also includes teams that didn't even make the tournament, which kind of makes sense given that some of the rankings end before the tournament selection and others continue.  It also has some teams ranked wildly different than they were under NPI.  Amherst, for example, is #75, right behind Bates (which does make some sense, relatively speaking, considering Bates beat Amherst 3-0).

Here's a little bit of the methodology

SR Rank (StatRanking Composite)
StatRanking's official proprietary composite ranking. It blends all four major rating systems (RPI, NPI, Elo, and Massey) into a single unified rank by converting each team's raw score into a normalized Z-score (standard deviations from the division mean).

Adaptive Season Weighting:
To provide the most accurate representation of team quality, the formula dynamically shifts weights based on the progress of the season (average games played across the division):
• Early Season (0-4 games): Weighted 80% towards predictive power ratings (Elo and Massey) to establish true quality before schedule density is built out.
• Late Season (12+ games): Shifts to 80% resume-based ratings (RPI and NPI) to reward actual on-field achievements and strength of schedule.

As you will see, it is not simply a repeat of the year-end rankings like the United Soccer Coaches preseason rankings.  It doesn't, however, take into account really anything like graduations, transfers etc.  It's just the year-end rankings aggregated from multiple rankings sites as far as I can tell.  Here's the Ratings Percentage Index rankings

Top 25

1. Tufts
2. Trinity
3. Dickinson
4. Emory
5. Lynchburg
6. St. Olaf
7. Wheaton (MA)
8. Macalester
9. Conn College
10. Chicago
11. Wisconsin-Eau Claire
12. Bowdoin
13. Cortland
14. Rowan
15. Scranton
16. Catholic
17. Southwestern
18. Augsburg
19. Wash. U.
20. Wisconsin-Whitewater
21. Edgewood
22. UMass Boston
23. Middlebury
24. Denison
25. Christopher Newport

Here's a link to the site's Instagram page, which is already starting to show dynamic movement based on games because their season has begun.

[Kuiper]

Here's another D3 preseason rankings that's not in the rankings aggregator:

D3 Soccerworld Rankings

1. Tufts
2. St. Olaf
3. Trinity (TX)
4. Emory
5. Conn College
6. Bowdoin
7. Dickinson
8. Lynchburg
9. Chicago
10. Augsburg
11. Wheaton (MA)
12. Macalester
13. Wash U.
14. Middlebury
15. Wisconsin-Eau Claire
16. Williams
17. Cortland
18. Rowan
19. Scranton
20. Christopher Newport
21. Denison
22. Catholic
23. Wesleyan
24. Washington & Lee
25. Brandeis

[Kuiper]

Here's the 2026 SimpleCoach Men's National Top 25 Rankings

Read the whole article, both to give Simple Coach some clicks and because, unlike other top 25 lists, he gives his rationale for each ranking. If you prefer to listen to or watch your D3 soccer rankings, here is the youtube link.

1. Tufts
2. Emory
3. Dickinson
4. Bowdoin
5. Conn College
6. St. Olaf
7. Chicago
8. Wash U
9. Lynchburg
10. Wisconsin-Eau Claire
11. Trinity (TX)
12. W&L
13. Ausburg
14. Denison
15. Middlebury
16. Williams
17. Cortland
18. Christopher Newport
19. Scranton
20. Babson
21. Wheaton
22. Catholic
23. Rowan
24. Macalester
25. Gustavus Adolphus

[jknezek]

Unless W&L has found someone to put the ball in the back of the net, that seems high to me. The defense should be really good, but they were last year. The problem was offense. Bringing back your leading scorer is nice, but 16pts on 7 goals and 2 assists isn't really the top line you want to see for your leading scorer.

That point total would have been 3rd best on the team in '24, 4th best in '23, 5th best in '22, and 6th best in '21. Not knocking Couhig, he's a good player, but the team just didn't score last year. They need to find that offense if they want to back in the top 25, let alone just outside the top 10.

[Kuiper]

Unless W&L has found someone to put the ball in the back of the net, that seems high to me. The defense should be really good, but they were last year. The problem was offense. Bringing back your leading scorer is nice, but 16pts on 7 goals and 2 assists isn't really the top line you want to see for your leading scorer.

That point total would have been 3rd best on the team in '24, 4th best in '23, 5th best in '22, and 6th best in '21. Not knocking Couhig, he's a good player, but the team just didn't score last year. They need to find that offense if they want to back in the top 25, let alone just outside the top 10.

I don't disagree with this, but wanted to highlight that they have some freshman striker candidates who could break through (with all the caveats about freshman taking some time to adjust and physically mature).  One of them is freshman recruit Rowan Sellers from San Francisco, who has clear goal scoring instincts and credentials.  He scored 23 goals and had 17 assists his senior year in HS, when he was San Francisco player of the year, and was on the Best of the West Team in MLS Next U19 this past season with SF Glens.  He's got some speed and composure in front of goal, as well as some decent instincts in making runs up top to make defenders uncomfortable.

[jknezek]

Unless W&L has found someone to put the ball in the back of the net, that seems high to me. The defense should be really good, but they were last year. The problem was offense. Bringing back your leading scorer is nice, but 16pts on 7 goals and 2 assists isn't really the top line you want to see for your leading scorer.

That point total would have been 3rd best on the team in '24, 4th best in '23, 5th best in '22, and 6th best in '21. Not knocking Couhig, he's a good player, but the team just didn't score last year. They need to find that offense if they want to back in the top 25, let alone just outside the top 10.

I don't disagree with this, but wanted to highlight that they have some freshman striker candidates who could break through (with all the caveats about freshman taking some time to adjust and physically mature).  One of them is freshman recruit Rowan Sellers from San Francisco, who has clear goal scoring instincts and credentials.  He scored 23 goals and had 17 assists his senior year in HS, when he was San Francisco player of the year, and was on the Best of the West Team in MLS Next U19 this past season with SF Glens.  He's got some speed and composure in front of goal, as well as some decent instincts in making runs up top to make defenders uncomfortable.

Well I'm happy to hear that. I don't know anything about the incoming class. I liked what I saw from Seife last year as a freshman, some good creativity moving forward, so I am hoping he steps up in front of goal. I think with a couple threats the pressure eases on Couhig and it gets easier. Last year teams really could just step on his toes and options were limited. But to free him up, goals have to come from somewhere, and last year they were few and far between.

W&L does bring back a lot all across the team in terms of impact, so I'm not saying they aren't going to finish the season highly ranked. But unless I see some killer instinct in front of goal, I just wouldn't rank them that high early on.

[SierraFD3soccer]

One thing as to W&L, they did lose their long term keeper, Will Joseph. I believe he did win 2 or maybe 3 PKs shootouts in the NCAA's and started almost all of his games over 4 years (88 games with 32 shutouts). 

[jknezek]

One thing as to W&L, they did lose their long term keeper, Will Joseph. I believe he did win 2 or maybe 3 PKs shootouts in the NCAA's and started almost all of his games over 4 years (88 games with 32 shutouts). 

That's true. But they have Furman who played 400+ minutes last year. So they aren't completely lacking in experience.

[Kuiper]

After the mid-week games, here is the top 25 for the StatRanking Rankings Aggregator:

1. Tufts
2. Trinity (TX)
3. Emory
4. Wheaton (MA)
5. Dickinson
6. St. Olaf
7. Lynchburg
8. Conn College
9. UMass Boston
10. Wisconsin-Eau Claire
11. Bowdoin
12. Chicago
13. Cortland
14. Catholic
15. Ausburg
16. Wisconsin-Whitewater
17. Macalester
18. Rowan
19. Wash. U
20. Mary Hardin-Baylor
21. Southwestern (TX)
22. Middlebury
23. Christopher Newport
24. Scranton
25. Hobart

Looking on the rankings online gives a lot more information and the negative is that it's not easy to copy and paste it here.  There are some big movers for obvious reasons, such as Macalester down 9 for tying its first game or UMass Boston up 7 for winning its first two games.  Other movement is mostly just about the quality of the win (Mary Hardin-Baylor up 25 for beating Concordia (TX) big or about movement around them.

[Another Mom]

Lynchburg was nothing special at their game against W&L. Don't think ranking them that high is justified. I do think until W&L starts scoring they aren't a Top 25 team.

[Kuiper]

Massey Rankings through Monday 9/7

1. Conn College
2. St. Olaf
3. Tufts
4. Middlebury
5. Rowan
6. Williams
7. Hobart
8. Scranton
9. Case Western
10. Cortland
11. Mary Washington
12. Christopher Newport
13. St. Francis, PA (they are 0-0; this is a crazy holdover quirk in Massey because they are transitioning from D1)
14. Claremont Mudd Scripps
15. Kenyon
16. Lynchburg
17. Chicago
18. SUNY Oneonta
19. Wesleyan
20. Washington & Lee
21. York
22. Hamilton
23. Babson
24. Redlands
25. Colorado College

[Kuiper]

StatRanking (a combination of several rankings, including Massey)

1. Tufts
2. Hobart
3. SUNY Oneonta
4. St. Olaf
5. Emory
6. Cortland
7. Christopher Newport
8. Saint John's
9. Case Western
10. Colorado College
11. Kenyon
12. Scranton
13. Southwestern
14. Rowan
15. UMass Boston
16. Conn College
17. Mary Hardin-Baylor
18. Babson
19. Wisconsin-Eau Claire
20. DePauw
21. Catholic
22. Mary Washington
23. Lynchburg
24. Wheaton (MA)
25. Middlebury

[BTXCru18]

Remind me... When do the first round of in-season USC and NPI rankings typically post?

[Ron Boerger]

Remind me... When do the first round of in-season USC and NPI rankings typically post?

You can get NPI from D3Datacast, updated daily:  https://d3datacast.com/npi/msoc/ - last year's NCAA rankings started in early October, published during the week for games through the previous Sunday.

USC rankings first came out on September 9th last year.

[Kuiper]

Here's another D3 preseason rankings that's not in the rankings aggregator:

D3 Soccerworld Rankings

1. Tufts
2. St. Olaf
3. Trinity (TX)
4. Emory
5. Conn College
6. Bowdoin
7. Dickinson
8. Lynchburg
9. Chicago
10. Augsburg
11. Wheaton (MA)
12. Macalester
13. Wash U.
14. Middlebury
15. Wisconsin-Eau Claire
16. Williams
17. Cortland
18. Rowan
19. Scranton
20. Christopher Newport
21. Denison
22. Catholic
23. Wesleyan
24. Washington & Lee
25. Brandeis

Here's the D3SoccerWorld Top 25 for the Week of 9/10.  Lots of teams drop out completely (e.g., Trinity (TX), Augsburg, Wheaton (MA), Brandeis) and new teams join
(e.g., Kenyon, Oneonta)

1. St. Olaf
2. Conn College
3. Rowan
4. Emory
5. Cortland
6. Wesleyan
7. Middlebury
8. Williams
9. Catholic
10. Christopher Newport
11. Tufts
12. Hobart
13. Babson
14. Chicago
15. Case Western
16. Kenyon
17. Mary Washington
18. Scranton
19. Oneonta
20. Lynchburg
21. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps
22. WashU
23. Washington & Lee
24. Saint John's (MN)
25. Bowdoin