2026 Women’s Soccer Top 25

[CentPA]

Upset in the top 25:

Last night unranked Trinity (CT) hosted #6 Wesleyan (CT) in a NESCAC conference game and Trinity game away with the win 3-1!  Wesleyan had just bumped up from #7 to #6 in the new poll earlier in the day.

Trinity was up 2-0 in the first half and scored another goal in the second half before Wesleyan scored their lone goal with 3 minutes left in the game.  I watched the first half and would say that Wesleyan had the better possession but just didn't seem very organized in the attacking third.  Trinity scored on quick runs of play after Wesleyan lost possession.  The stats show that Wesleyan out shot Trinity 12-6 and shots on goal 5-3.  Trinity scored on all three of their shots on goal while GK Zoe Tamborello had 4 saves. 

[CentPA]

So this is interesting ..

I went to watch the Chicago vs North Central game this afternoon and the game was never started. 

When I looked at the "Schedule" page on Chicago's website it had under "vs #13 North Central (IL)" the following:  "North Central women's soccer has forfeited game with refusal to play" and on the right side it read: "Game Forfeited by North Central"  No further explanation that I can find.

However, when I went to North Central's "Schedule" page it simply showed the game as "Postponed"

Never saw anything like this and I'm not sure what happened.

[CentPA]

Chicago just posted this announcement:


"CHICAGO -- The Wednesday afternoon women's soccer match between #21 UChicago and #13 North Central (IL) will not be played on Wednesday afternoon after the decision by the North Central College coaching staff that the Cardinals will not be making the trip to Hyde Park. The game will go down as a forfeit in favor of the Maroons.

Despite the rainy conditions, the University of Chicago Department of Athletics and Recreation had prepared the natural grass pitch and the artificial turf surface at Stagg Field with the expectation of playing the match as scheduled this afternoon.  Unfortunately, North Central was unwilling to make the trip, resulting in the forfeit.

The University of Chicago's first-ever nationally broadcast game will now have to wait, as it was set to be the first University Athletic Association contest in league history to air live on Prime Video.

The women's soccer program will return to action this weekend as the Maroons fly to New York City for a top-25 matchup with #22 NYU in the UAA opener."

[CentPA]

At the time I'm posting this, neither team has adjusted their YTD season results.  I'm not sure what will happen to the official record for each team.

Has this ever happened before?

[CentPA]

#10 Rochester suffered their second straight draw at home yesterday to unranked RIT out of the Liberty League conference 2-2.  That is two ties to unranked teams back to back at home.  After their tie to Misericordia on Saturday they went from #22 to #10 in this weeks poll so maybe after this tie they will put some pressure on their UAA foe, Wash U, for the #1 spot. 

There was no score in the first half and then Rochester scored two goals in the first eight minutes of the second half and you would have thought they had the game well under control.  However, RIT, who only had two shots on goal all game, scored on both of them withing six minutes of each other in the 67th and 73rd minute to tie the game up.

[Gregory Sager]

Neither North Central nor the CCIW has recognized last night's non-contest in Hyde Park as a forfeit loss for the Cardinals. Both NCC and the league continue to show it as a postponement on their respective websites, although North Central hasn't posted a gamer on its website explaining the postponement and updating the game with either a  new date, time, and location or a TBA, as is customary in the event of a postponement.

[CentPA]

Neither North Central nor the CCIW has recognized last night's non-contest in Hyde Park as a forfeit loss for the Cardinals. Both NCC and the league continue to show it as a postponement on their respective websites, although North Central hasn't posted a gamer on its website explaining the postponement and updating the game with either a  new date, time, and location or a TBA, as is customary in the event of a postponement.

Chicago is definitely upset and wants the forfeit win. I am guessing that someone or some committee at the NCAA is dealing with this now to determine what will happen.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

I guess if there is a forfeit win/loss that would also impact the NPI calculations even though there was no on field competition.??

[Gregory Sager]

Yep. In terms of forfeits a win is a win as far as the D3 Championships Committee is concerned.

As to who will adjudicate the North Central @ Chicago contretemps, that's unclear at this point. It sounds as though the facts might be in dispute regarding the agreement (or lack thereof) reached by the Cardinals and Maroons coaches last night. If it was a league game the issue could be settled by the league's commissioner, but, alas, the two teams represent two different leagues.

[lmitzel]

Here's the thing with this though as far as I can tell: Chicago can't declare this a forfeit win because NCAA rules don't allow it.

When a scheduled game is terminated before it begins, it is recorded as "no contest." Neither team is credited with a win or loss, regardless of the reason why the game was terminated.

[ziggy]

Here's the thing with this though as far as I can tell: Chicago can't declare this a forfeit win because NCAA rules don't allow it.

When a scheduled game is terminated before it begins, it is recorded as "no contest." Neither team is credited with a win or loss, regardless of the reason why the game was terminated.

This will certainly be a no contest and the only way this ends as anything else is if they actually make up the game. Rules are clear on that.

This forfeit stance makes UChicago look silly in a situation that, from all I have heard, I think NCC is the bigger transgressor.

[Gregory Sager]

Here's the thing with this though as far as I can tell: Chicago can't declare this a forfeit win because NCAA rules don't allow it.

When a scheduled game is terminated before it begins, it is recorded as "no contest." Neither team is credited with a win or loss, regardless of the reason why the game was terminated.

Exactly. But the possibility did exist that the NCC coach might have agreed to accept a forfeit in his conversation with his U of C counterpart -- or that the Maroons coach may have interpreted it that way -- which is why I was noncommittal.

This will certainly be a no contest and the only way this ends as anything else is if they actually make up the game. Rules are clear on that.

This forfeit stance makes UChicago look silly in a situation that, from all I have heard, I think NCC is the bigger transgressor.

It appears to me to be a great big he said / she said, and since the NCAA rules back up the "he said" (i.e., North Central) unless there is some sort of proof that he agreed to a forfeit, the game is most likely going to end up as a simple cancelation with no penalty ascribed to NCC.

I don't know who the bigger transgressor is (you might have inside info that I don't, Zac), or if there even is a transgression rather than two people completely misunderstanding each other, but I do agree that the U of C looks silly because of that press release. Heck, even though the online Maroons schedule indicates the forfeit, neither it nor the Maroons stats page records the forfeit win. Both show the U of Chicago women's soccer team with a 7-1 record, not 8-1. Same with the UAA website, which shows no result for last night's phantom soccer match.

[Ron Boerger]

The Maroons' SID and/or AD or someone else there was probably pissed off because this was supposed to be the first (D3?) women's soccer match featured on Flo's free Amazon Prime Video channel - somewhere in the socials they posted about that.  But there's no excuse for acting like a bunch of five-year olds and lying about what the end result will be. 

Go to https://www.chicagoandnorthcentralkerfuffle.com/ for continuing coverage of this non-event.  Yes, that is a real site courtesy of Scott Peterson of The D3 Stat Lab.

[CentPA]

The Maroons' SID and/or AD or someone else there was probably pissed off because this was supposed to be the first (D3?) women's soccer match featured on Flo's free Amazon Prime Video channel - somewhere in the socials they posted about that.  But there's no excuse for acting like a bunch of five-year olds and lying about what the end result will be. 

Go to https://www.chicagoandnorthcentralkerfuffle.com/ for continuing coverage of this non-event.  Yes, that is a real site courtesy of Scott Peterson of The D3 Stat Lab.

The information on that link page is incredible - good job whoever put that together (Scott Peterson?)!

There does seem to be something not right when a team can decide to not show up for a scheduled game because they decide the rain is too much and not suffer any consequences to their record/results.  As was mentioned on the link page, they actually could potentially benefit from not showing up in how the NPI calculations play out.