2026 Conference Tournament and NCAA Selection Thread

[Hopkins92]

Toughest pod so far:

Amherst v. Stevens
Messiah v. Vassar

[Gregory Sager]

Interesting sidebar, on the women's side Virginia Wesleyan (not Batten University) has made the tournament.

Projected NCAA field: Division III women's soccer

That's not the official NCAA page. It's correct on the NCAA page:

https://stats.ncaa.org/selection_rankings/nitty_gritties/55050

But the ODAC getting 4 women's teams is fairly unprecedented I think. As for Batten, I still struggle equating them with Va Wes, but another season or two and I'm sure I'll be fine.

I still think that they should've renamed themselves the Hatches.

[jknezek]

Interesting sidebar, on the women's side Virginia Wesleyan (not Batten University) has made the tournament.

Projected NCAA field: Division III women's soccer

That's not the official NCAA page. It's correct on the NCAA page:

https://stats.ncaa.org/selection_rankings/nitty_gritties/55050

But the ODAC getting 4 women's teams is fairly unprecedented I think. As for Batten, I still struggle equating them with Va Wes, but another season or two and I'm sure I'll be fine.

I still think that they should've renamed themselves the Hatches.

Well played.

[Gregory Sager]

Crap. After studying the NPI rankings last night I had a sinking feeling that North Park was going to be shunted off to the central Minnesota wilderness, and my fears came true this morning. Collegevile, MN is 475 miles from the NPU campus if you take the I-90 toll road through Rockford, 490 miles if you take I-94 through Milwaukee. In other words, the committee milked the 500-mile bus limit for all its worth as far as NPU is concerned.

The Vikings are likely to get very little fan support next weekend. Funny thing is, since St. John's is about as diehard a football school as there is in all of D3, I wonder if anybody is going to get fan support, including the Johnnies themselves.

Oh, well. At least the Vikings will play an opponent that they've never faced before in Whitman. Novelty counts for something.

[Ejay]

5-6-4 Bates gets in as #9 NESCAC...Next would have been Trinity (CT, 6-7-1, #10 NESCAC). Wash U (10-3-4), TCNJ (9-1-9, this year's York), Rutgers-Newark (9-4-5), and Emory (11-3-4) are next four.

Just doesn't feel right and I said it last year, how can this process elevate the #2 teams in one-bid conferences with uncommon successes. Maybe start with "you have to have a winning record to make NCAA tourney". Do that this year and Wash U and TCNJ are in, Bates and Trinity are out.

Is that not a thing? You don't have to have a winning record to get an at-large bid? That's a qualifier in D1 but I find it surprising its not in D3?

Sadly, no. The men's soccer dials were set to disproportionately favor Strength of Schedule. They moderate a bit this off-season, but I think they still are pretty strong in that direction.

So just schedule good out of conference teams, park the bus and play for the tie. Then win 4-5 other games and you're gold.

[mngopher]

This will depend somewhat on results, but I'm betting the Tufts/St. Olaf/St. John's/Chicago (not saying those particular teams will advance, just to be clear which region I am referring to) sweet sixteen/elite eight will be held at one of the Midwest sites. Likely Chicago or St. Olaf assuming one of them advance.

[stlawus]

Scranton ends the regular season at 14 in NPI but don't get hosting duties as they are passed over for #21 Saint John's, gotta love d3. It's likely for geographic reasons but that's gotta leave a bitter taste. 

[Falconer]

Let me propose renaming this thread for accuracy:

2026 NESCAC tournament finalists = NCAA Final Four

 

Is the prophet without honor in his own country?

[Kuiper]

SCIAC Finals

La Verne 1 - Whittier 0

La Verne wins the SCIAC and advances to the NCAA tournament for the first time in its history with a very tidy performance in a tight game.

It will be interesting to see how the pod is constructed for Region X.  Southwestern, Whitman, Colorado College, Trinity, Hardin-Simmons, and La Verne are the qualifiers.  I could see Southwestern hosting with Trinity and Whitman sent elsewhere.  Whitman could go to Minnesota presumably.

I'll eat my hat if Trinity and Hardin-Simmons don't end up at Southwestern with one team being flown in.  CC has to fly regardless, and La Verne and Whitman are so low on the totem pole that they'll be flown too.   

You were correct!

Southwestern v. Hardin-Simmons

Trinity v. La Verne

Ironically, it is the Trinity-La Verne game that is a repeat of an earlier game this season, not the Southwestern-Hardin-Simmons game.

Trinity tied La Verne 1-1 on 9/11 in San Antonio

Not sure why, but Southwestern and Hardin-Simmons have not played each other since 2023, when they tied 1-1.  That's kind of odd for two traditionally good D3 men's soccer teams in Texas to go without playing each other in a non-conference regular season games for three years.  They used to play each other every season in the non-conference games, but then stopped after 2023.

If Trinity gets by La Verne, then it will be a repeat opponent regardless of who wins the Southwestern-HSU game.

Trinity beat Hardin-Simmons 4-0 on 9/20 and tied Southwestern 0-0 on 10/6.

Whitman is sent to Minnesota (Saint John's) to play North Park and Colorado College is sent to New Jersey (Rowan) to play Washington & Lee

[Gregory Sager]

This will depend somewhat on results, but I'm betting the Tufts/St. Olaf/St. John's/Chicago (not saying those particular teams will advance, just to be clear which region I am referring to) sweet sixteen/elite eight will be held at one of the Midwest sites. Likely Chicago or St. Olaf assuming one of them advance.

That seems obvious, since it's essentially a sectional that contains one northeastern pod matched with three pods that are not only midwestern, but almost completely consist of schools located west of the Indiana-Illinois state line. There's a 700-mile-plus gap between the westernmost schools in the Tufts pod and the easternmost schools in the three midwestern pods.

The NCAA is not going to fly three midwestern teams to the northeast. They'll fly one northeastern team to the midwest.

[Gregory Sager]

Let me propose renaming this thread for accuracy:

2026 NESCAC tournament finalists = NCAA Final Four

 

Is the prophet without honor in his own country?

Eager to read your follow-up about all of the widows and lepers that the Lord prioritized in New England prep circles.

[repete]

Crap. After studying the NPI rankings last night I had a sinking feeling that North Park was going to be shunted off to the central Minnesota wilderness, and my fears came true this morning. Collegevile, MN is 475 miles from the NPU campus if you take the I-90 toll road through Rockford, 490 miles if you take I-94 through Milwaukee. In other words, the committee milked the 500-mile bus limit for all its worth as far as NPU is concerned.

The Vikings are likely to get very little fan support next weekend. Funny thing is, since St. John's is about as diehard a football school as there is in all of D3, I wonder if anybody is going to get fan support, including the Johnnies themselves.

Oh, well. At least the Vikings will play an opponent that they've never faced before in Whitman. Novelty counts for something.

They don't get great crowds in Collegeville. Being a long drive from the Twin Cities doesn't help. But there seems to be push to build more support ... the playoff show was streamed on the video board. That, of course, was at Clemens.

Soccer is across the road and right next to the inflatable dome. Can be breezy there but the pitch is well cared for. Basic metal bleachers in a complex that also has baseball and tennis.

Willing to provide tips to anyone traveling. DM me.

[Gregory Sager]

Alas, I can't make the trip, as I will be calling North Park's football game on Saturday. I just hope that the game times don't coincide, so that I can watch NPU take on the Samplers via the SJU livestream.

[mngopher]

This will depend somewhat on results, but I'm betting the Tufts/St. Olaf/St. John's/Chicago (not saying those particular teams will advance, just to be clear which region I am referring to) sweet sixteen/elite eight will be held at one of the Midwest sites. Likely Chicago or St. Olaf assuming one of them advance.

That seems obvious, since it's essentially a sectional that contains one northeastern pod matched with three pods that are not only midwestern, but almost completely consist of schools located west of the Indiana-Illinois state line. There's a 700-mile-plus gap between the westernmost schools in the Tufts pod and the easternmost schools in the three midwestern pods.

The NCAA is not going to fly three midwestern teams to the northeast. They'll fly one northeastern team to the midwest.

Right, I think what's notable about it is that Tufts is the top seed in that sectional, but likely won't have an opportunity to host the 3rd/4th rounds based on the structure of the bracket and budget limitations.

There was a similar situation in 2024 with I believe Amherst where they were the top seed in the sectional and were sent to Eau Claire for the sweet sixteen/elite eight. Some folks on here seemed quite surprised by it at the time, and I think learned the lesson that when it comes to D3 soccer the budget will trump seeding.

[Kuiper]

Alas, I can't make the trip, as I will be calling North Park's football game on Saturday. I just hope that the game times don't coincide, so that I can watch NPU take on the Samplers via the SJU livestream.

Hey now.  It's the Whitman Blues, not Samplers.  It's a far sight better than their old name, which was the Whitman College Fighting Missionaries.  They apparently didn't stop trotting out a Fighting Missionary mascot until 2016.