2026 Women’s Soccer Top 25

[Gregory Sager]

BTW, thanks to Scott Peterson at the D3 Stat Lab for really getting into the weeds with that research. I learned a lot that will help me out if I ever have to explain a similar situation when I'm on the air.

[CentPA]

You have to love October Saturday's in D3 soccer!  Based on the NCAA scores page, there are 181 games being played today which means that more than 82% of teams in D3 women's soccer will see action today.

For the first time this season ALL teams in the top 25 will be playing on the same day.  Maybe even more noteworthy, there are no non-conference games involving the top 25 - they are all playing conference games today!

There are two games involving top 25 teams where both opponents are in the top 25.  As you can probably guess, with the UAA conference having 6 of 8 teams in the top 25, both games are matchups between UAA teams.  This afternoon (1:30pm EDT), #9 Emory will be hosting #23 Carnegie Mellon.  Then this evening (8:30pm), #22 NYU will be hosting #21 Chicago.  The other UAA games today are #1 Wash U traveling to Brandeis (2:30pm), and #10 Rochester hosting Case Western (7:30pm).  Rochester is looking to put an end to two straight ties at home while Case Western looks to turn a corner and get back into the top 25.

One of the early games today is at 11am.  #13 North Central travels to Elmhurst for their second conference game this year.  The weather around Chicago looks good so hopefully this game will take place (sorry I couldn't help myself  )

The NESCAC is busy as well.  At 11am, #6 Wesleyan is at (RV) Hamilton, and #8 Colby is at (RV) Middlebury.  At 12pm, #3 Tufts is at Amherst, and then at 1:30pm, #18 Williams is hosting Connecticut.

Too many games to highlight them all.  If you love D3 women's soccer and watching top 25 teams play, you could be busy from 11am this morning to around 10:30pm this evening (and you will need multiple screens)!
 

[DagarmanSpartan]

The CWRU women succeeded where the men failed, taking down #10 Rochester on the road.

Maybe they can break into the Top 25 next week.

[CentPA]

Good game to pay attention to today:

#1 Wash U that traveled to Boston yesterday to play their conference game against Brandeis decided to take advantage of the trip to Massachusetts and have another game today in the region!

At 12 noon #1 Wash U will face off against #5 MIT

I love that the coaches got together and agreed to this non conference game bringing two really good teams together.  This will be the toughest test for Wash U since the end of last year.

[CentPA]

The first official NCAA NPI rankings are out: through games 10/04/26

Huge differences at this point in the year between the USC top 25 and the NPI rankings!

[jknezek]

The first official NCAA NPI rankings are out: through games 10/04/26

Huge differences at this point in the year between the USC top 25 and the NPI rankings!

The USC is pretty useless. I miss the old d3soccer.com poll. Big NPI points difference between 3 and 4. The NPI on the top 3 is just huge right now.

[CentPA]

How about North Central sitting at #1 in the NPI (even ahead of Wash U) .. it can pay to not play!

[WUPHF]

How about North Central sitting at #1 in the NPI (even ahead of Wash U) .. it can pay to not play!

The only team that has a chance of finishing ahead of Washington University is Tufts.  The worst team in the UAA would be the third best in the CCIW.

[ziggy]

The first official NCAA NPI rankings are out: through games 10/04/26

Huge differences at this point in the year between the USC top 25 and the NPI rankings!

Comment I made on the men's soccer board applies here:

FYI, the NCAA erroneously included Azusa Pacific and Saint Francis in these rankings (a problem common to other sports NPIs released today). As first year provisionals, there is no question they should not appear in the rankings and they should not be a countable opponent. Second year provisionals JWU Charlotte and Regent were correctly excluded.

[CentPA]

The first official NCAA NPI rankings are out: through games 10/04/26

Huge differences at this point in the year between the USC top 25 and the NPI rankings!

Comment I made on the men's soccer board applies here:

FYI, the NCAA erroneously included Azusa Pacific and Saint Francis in these rankings (a problem common to other sports NPIs released today). As first year provisionals, there is no question they should not appear in the rankings and they should not be a countable opponent. Second year provisionals JWU Charlotte and Regent were correctly excluded.

Thanks for posting this here - appreciate it!