Franklin & Marshall

They play at cross-town rival Lancaster Bible to open the season on Friday 8/30 and then play what looks like a neutral site game (at Shenandoah?) against Lynchburg on Sunday 9/1 in Winchester, VA.  Then they have a highly competitive next weekend, hosting Rowan and Kenyon.  If Lynchburg is a fairly even replacement for Stevens from last year's schedule, Rowan and Kenyon are a pretty big upgrade from non-conference teams Rosemont and PSU-Harrisburg that they replaced from last year's schedule.

Springfield

They play exactly the same non-conference games as last year, except this year should be tougher with away games at Vassar and Wesleyan, plus at Babson in conference, which will want to avenge last year's 0-0 tie in Springfield.

Lewis & Clark

Lewis & Clark is in the third year of its (renewed) existence and has yet to win a game.  It went 0-7 in it's first season and last year, in its first year playing NWC games that counted, it went 0-19-1.  The program highlight was a 0-0 tie against George Fox.  Last year, they invited Cal Tech up to play them and traveled down to LA to play Whittier, but both teams beat them handily.  If finding a team that is worse than they are is asking a lot, who can they play where they can at least generate some excitement among their team and possibly notch some recruiting points so they can try to get better?  In a stroke of scheduling genius, they are playing their first weekend in Honolulu, Hawaii.  I'm in awe of how great that is.  First, they are playing Chaminade on Saturday, a DII team that went 0-12-3 last year, and Hawaii Pacific on Sunday, a DII team that went 4-11-3 last year.  So, both teams are weaker DII teams, but they still are DII and I'm guessing Lewis & Clark will have trouble competing with them on the field.  Nevertheless, it's a trip to Hawaii on the opening weekend of the season!  That should get the boys fired up and eager to do their summer fitness packets so they can make the travel roster!  Plus, Lewis & Clark had two players on its team last year from Hawaii and has another in its recruiting class this year.  That state is a hidden gem in recruiting because most of the clubs can't get very far onto the mainland to play showcase tournaments (and aren't MLS Next/ECNL), most coaches in DIII never see them, and most players and parents don't want to go that far from home.  They tend to go to the DII Pac West Conference because it has these two schools located in Hawaii plus University of Hawaii at Hilo.  If Lewis & Clark can show that they are willing to travel to Hawaii (for all I know, they could be the only DIII school to ever play in Hawaii), they may be able to pick up a few players on the island who can help them and it may be seen as a perk for players from other parts of the country too.  Lewis & Clark as a whole has more students from Hawaii (50) than New York (26) or Massachusetts (28), so the interest in the school is there already.

Quote from: Kuiper on June 19, 2024, 01:28:46 PMFranklin & Marshall

They play at cross-town rival Lancaster Bible to open the season on Friday 8/30 and then play what looks like a neutral site game (at Shenandoah?) against Lynchburg on Sunday 9/1 in Winchester, VA.  Then they have a highly competitive next weekend, hosting Rowan and Kenyon.  If Lynchburg is a fairly even replacement for Stevens from last year's schedule, Rowan and Kenyon are a pretty big upgrade from non-conference teams Rosemont and PSU-Harrisburg that they replaced from last year's schedule.

Definitely agree. Most like likely even drive for Lynchburg and F&M. 10 home games and looks like they front loaded the schedule as well. They'll have a lot of games spread out towards the end which helps with injury recovery.

Also as to F&M, they are playing 6 teams that made the NCAAs last year. Doesn't necessarily mean much year to year, but most of them are competitive every year.

Notre Dame of Maryland

Playing at Stockton the second weekend of the season is a challenging addition to the schedule this year

Stevenson

Stevenson was 4-10-5 last year, but they were competitive in many games, only losing to Messiah 2-1 and 2-0 and Johns Hopkins 1-0, and tying Widener 0-0.  I'm not sure they have fully gone in that direction, but at least Dickinson and McDaniel are not quite as formidable as Hopkins

Eastern University

They add Ithaca, Ursinus, Rutgers-Newark, Arcadia, and Swarthmore this year in place of Eastern Mennonite, Rutgers-Camden, Farmingdale State, Cabrini (RIP) and NYU. 

SUNY Poly

Opponents in the SUNY Poly tournament opening weekend are still TBD, but right now the big game is hosting Hamilton in a mid-week game in September.  They were crushed 5-1 by Hamilton away last year, but went on to win the NAC and only lost to Amherst 2-1 in the NCAA tournament.  We'll see if they are better prepared for Hamilton this year.

UW-Platteville schedule is finally published. Non conference includes, two NACC, two MIAC, one UMAC, six! ARC, and one CCIW.

https://letsgopioneers.com/sports/msoc/2024-25/schedule

Carthage schedule includes four NACC, one CC, one MACC, and one UAA.

https://athletics.carthage.edu/sports/mens-soccer/schedule/2024

Quote from: PauldingLightUP on June 21, 2024, 11:23:18 AMCarthage schedule includes four NACC, one CC, one MACC, and one UAA.

https://athletics.carthage.edu/sports/mens-soccer/schedule/2024

Carthage's trip to Pennsylvania to play Gettysburg and Messiah on the second week of the season should be a good test for them.  Messiah is Messiah, obviously, but Gettysburg is no pushover either, especially at home.  They were 5-1-1 at home last year and 0-6-3 away.  On the other hand, Carthage did have success away from home last year, going 6-3-2, including a 4-2 win at Calvin.

Augustana schedule features two ARC, one MIAC, two MWC, and one SLIAC.

https://athletics.augustana.edu/sports/mens-soccer/schedule/2024

Cal Lutheran

Cal Lutheran has really diversified its opponents this year and is making some big trips.  It opens by hosting Willamette on its trip down from Oregon.  On the second weekend, Cal Lu is playing at Messiah on Thursday 9/5 and then at Gettysburg on Saturday 9/7.  Carthage, discussed in the previous post, is doing the reverse, playing @Gettysburg on Thursday and @Messiah on Saturday. (incidentally, Cal Lu lists the location for both games as "Philadelphia," but Messiah and Carthage lists Grantham and Gettysburg - I'm guessing the Cal Lu SID intern just assumed everything in eastern PA is basically a suburb of Philly ).  The following weekend, Cal Lu travels to Texas to play at Trinity on Friday 9/13 and at Southwestern on Sunday 9/15.  That is a heck of a lot of travel/time zones and games against high-level opponents.  Plus, with SCIAC play opening on Wednesday 9/18 against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, they won't have a lot of time to catch their breath before jumping right into one of the stronger teams in the league.  (I checked the women's soccer team's schedule for 2024 since they just won the national championship and the school may have decided to pump some money into men's and women's soccer - they are hosting Southwestern and Concordia TX and traveling to Oregon to play Linfield and Willamette, so there may be something to that theory).

Wisconsin Lutheran

Replaces Wisconsin-Whitewater, Bethel, and Marantha Baptist with Martin Luther, Beloit, and Lake Forest

Baldwin Wallace

Opening the season against Lycoming in the Penn State Behrand tournament, which is one of the few true tournament formats in regular season, with a winners bracket etc.  Traveling the second weekend to Mount Union to play Transylvania and Allegheny

PSU Behrend

Plays Mass College of Liberal Arts and either Lycoming or Baldwin Wallace in its opening weekend tournament.  Then travels the second weekend to play Kings and Cortland at Catholic.  Other interesting non-conference match is a mid-week away game at RIT after conference play has started.

Not online yet, but Emory has Oglethorpe and Bellhaven to start. Lynchburg & Roanoke come down for host tourney. UT-Dallas and NCAA rematch with Colorado College at CC tourney. 4 game away stretch at Sewanee, Covenant, Brevard, & Oglethorpe for regional games. Then conference schedule to close it out. Same order just flip home/away as 2023. Wash U / CWRU home, away CMU, Brandeis, NYU, home Chicago and Rochester

Lebanon Valley College

They should be an honorary member of the Centennial Conference after having almost half the schools on the 2024 schedule.  They open hosting Washington College and also play Muhlenberg, Franklin & Marshall, and Gettysburg.  They only lost 2 games all year, including F&M by a 3-2 score in Lancaster.  We'll see if they can flip the script at home this year.

Occidental

Oxy starts its SCIAC title defense with a non-conference schedule that is full of home games.  They basically have imported DIII competition (probably subsidizing the trip) with games against Willamette and Swarthmore, the latter of which has become a regular at Oxy's "Elite Colleges" ID camps.  The conference schedule from Oct 9 - Oct 30 looks rough simply because there are home-and-away repeats so close together (Chapman, CMS, Cal Tech, CMS, Chapman).  They only play Cal Lutheran and Redlands once each this year.

Babson

If Lebanon Valley could be an honorary member of the Centennial Conference because of how many of those schools are on its schedule as non-conference opponents this year, Babson could be an honorary member of the NESCAC this year.  They are playing Wesleyan, Amherst, Tufts, and Middlebury, with all but Amherst away from home.  Last year, they played Conn College and I've heard they were originally on the schedule again for this year, but backed out for some reason.  No matter, though, since Babson replaced Conn (and another high quality opponent in Stevens) with two NESCACs in Wesleyan and Middlebury and still plays Montclair State (at home this year) and Brandeis.