Middlebury

New additions to the non-conference schedule include Keene State, Bridgewater State, and Babson, replacing Mount Saint Mary's, Vassar, and Eastern Nazarene.  Babson should be tough and Bridgewater State could be a tricky game.  They played Tufts reasonably well for awhile in the first round of the NCAA tournament last year and Middlebury is playing them mid-week at Bridgewater, which is a long drive away and not the home field advantage Tufts had in the tournament.  Plus, the Bridgewater game is a couple of days after a tough game at Bowdoin.  Babson is the day after the Colby game, but both are at home, which gives Middlebury a bit of an edge.  Seems like a schedule upgrade overall. 

Eastern Nazarene

Same opening schedule as last year, but they are away at both Salem State and Plymouth State.  They tied a tough WPI team last year away, though, and host them this year.  They add Fitchburg State this year and remove Middlebury.

Elmira

Elmira was a surprise winner of the Empire 8 tournament last year, before losing a relatively close 2-0 game to Montclair State in the first round of the NCAA tournament.  This year, they start with the Buffalo State tournament, facing Buffalo State and Fredonia.  Other than that, they play SUNY Delhi, SUNY Oswego, Union, and Susquehanna again, but they have 5 straight away games to start the season.

Hilbert

Same schedule as last year except they play Bryant & Stratton in a home and away, which appears to be a replacement for former conference foe Wells (RIP).

Geneva

After watching Simple Coach's Field of Dreams segment on Geneva and learning about its new soccer stadium turf project this summer, I had to check out its schedule.  It gets to use that new turf right away because on opening weekend it is slated to host its own tournament against Alfred State and Penn State Altoona.  Other interesting non-conference game is a trip to Rochester (3 hours away per SC!) the following weekend to play at RIT.

SUNY Maritime

Opens hosting Eastern Mennonite, which is a long way from its home of Harrisonburg, VA.  I'm assuming the Mass Maritime game is the big rivalry game considering they seem to play every year.  They tied last year away, but home or away doesn't seem to matter in these games.

67 days till August 30th kick off! 

Macalester

After a strong season last year, Macalester replaces Wisconsin-Superior with Wisconsin-Whitewater and Carthage with Grinnell and both of those games are at home.  Also gets St. Olaf, Gustavus Adolphus, and Carleton at home this year.  Considering that they were an undefeated 8-0-2 at home last year and 3-3-3 away, that might not be insignificant. although it probably has more to do with the quality of the teams they played home v. away.

SUNY Old Westbury

John Jay and SUNY Delhi replace New Jersey City University and Kean.

Medgar Evers

After a 1-12-2 season last year, including an opening game 8-0 loss to Ursinus at home, I'm sure they would have preferred not to have to open the season away at Ursinus this year or for Penn State Scranton, the only team they beat last year, to leave the schedule.  I'm not sure where they will get a win from this year.  Maybe York College (NY), who they tied 2-2 (in their non-conference version of the game) and lost to 2-1 when playing in conference, or CCNY, another school with only 1 in last year (against York College), who tied Medgar Evers last season.

Carleton

Sort of an underwhelming non-conference schedule for a team that advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament last year.  I suppose you could look at it as replacing Northland with Wisconsin-River Falls (which might as well be Northland considering how many of those kids transferred to the new program at River Falls) and replacing North Central with Wisconsin-Superior, which lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament to St. Olaf, but I would have thought they would have tried for more of an upgrade.  Of course, with St. Olaf, Macalester, and Gustavus Adolphus in conference, they probably rightly figure that they don't need much of an upgrade.

Swarthmore

The most notable addition to the schedule is a trip out to Los Angeles the second weekend of the season to take on Occidental and Cal Tech.  Last year, Swat had 5 players on its roster who went to HS in California and 3 more from the west coast/AZ, so this could be a trip designed to give their families a chance to see their kids play in person.  It won't be easy, though, as Oxy and Cal Tech will be tough.

Sadly, there a bunch of teams on Eastern Nazarene's schedule that are probably going to be scrambling to fill an open date or are going to just have to play one fewer game.  Presumably, the non-conference opponents (Salem State, Plymouth State, WPI, U Mass Boston, and Fitchburg State) could play each other or fill in the schedules of one of the members of the GNAC.

https://enc.edu/news/board-announces-developing-plan-for-closure/

QuoteThe Board of Trustees of Eastern Nazarene College today announced it has voted unanimously to begin the process of closing ENC and transitioning it into a new educational enterprise that will carry on ENC's legacy of providing a transformational education that equips diverse students to lead and serve our world as agent of Christ's love and truth.

An alum on the main D3 Board posts in the "Future of DIII" thread that it is closing pretty much immediately except for students who are finishing up student teaching field work or senior projects.

QuoteENC's goal, pending the commitment of a critical mass of students and faculty, is to continue serving undergraduate and graduate students who are on track to graduate by the end of the year. Administrators have arranged teach-out agreements with three institutions – Gordon College, Mount Vernon Nazarene University and Trevecca Nazarene University – to provide streamlined transfer options for all other students. ENC will also provide job-placement support and access to counseling resources for faculty and staff affected by the closure.

Covenant

Reasonably tough opening weekend hosting Hardin-Simmons and Brevard, followed up by a perhaps tougher second weekend hosting Hampden-Sydney and Washington & Lee.  They also once again play strong regional games against Oglethorpe, Emory, and Lynchburg.  Interesting that they are playing an exhibition game in the middle of conference play against D1 Belmont.

Hardin-Simmons

After an opening trip to Georgia to play Covenant and Berry, they mostly play non-conference games against SCAC teams before doing a double round robin against the remaining ASC teams.

Quote from: Kuiper on June 25, 2024, 05:09:21 PMSadly, there a bunch of teams on Eastern Nazarene's schedule that are probably going to be scrambling to fill an open date or are going to just have to play one fewer game.  Presumably, the non-conference opponents (Salem State, Plymouth State, WPI, U Mass Boston, and Fitchburg State) could play each other or fill in the schedules of one of the members of the GNAC.

https://enc.edu/news/board-announces-developing-plan-for-closure/

QuoteThe Board of Trustees of Eastern Nazarene College today announced it has voted unanimously to begin the process of closing ENC and transitioning it into a new educational enterprise that will carry on ENC's legacy of providing a transformational education that equips diverse students to lead and serve our world as agent of Christ's love and truth.

An alum on the main D3 Board posts in the "Future of DIII" thread that it is closing pretty much immediately except for students who are finishing up student teaching field work or senior projects.

QuoteENC's goal, pending the commitment of a critical mass of students and faculty, is to continue serving undergraduate and graduate students who are on track to graduate by the end of the year. Administrators have arranged teach-out agreements with three institutions – Gordon College, Mount Vernon Nazarene University and Trevecca Nazarene University – to provide streamlined transfer options for all other students. ENC will also provide job-placement support and access to counseling resources for faculty and staff affected by the closure.

If there was any doubt, Eastern Nazarene's schedule has been updated so that every game is now listed as "cancelled"

The few schools with 2024 schedule posted that were scheduled to play them, however, have not necessarily gotten the message:

Maine Maritime

They are still listing games against Eastern Nazarene on 9/27 and 10/19.  Does an opponent playing fewer games affect Colby's strength of schedule (which is playing Maine Maritime on 10/14)?

Thomas College (Maine)

They still list Eastern Nazarene on 9/14 and 10/16.  Ironically  (not really because of geographic proximity), they also play Colby. One interesting note is that they play an exhibition against Southern Maine Community College after starting the regular season against Univ of New England and Colby.  That is where former Bates coach Noah Riskind landed after his departure.

Ursinus

As with last year, this is a non-conference schedule designed to generate wins.  The changes were to switch out Kings, Delaware Valley, and Bryn Athyn and add Wilkes, Eastern, and Penn State Brandywine, but they still start with Medgar Evers and Penn State Berks, who they beat 8-0 and 9-0, respectively, last year.  Almost all of the games against top Centennial opponents are away this year, which won't make new coach Colin Klingman's job any easier.

One note:  Ursinus doesn't list Bryn Athyn on the schedule, but Bryn Athyn lists Ursinus on Sept 5.  Ursinus does technically have an open date that day, but they play another midweek game the day before.  I wonder which schedule is correct.

Ozarks

Plays a home and away against Hendrix, which looks like a Birmingham Southern replacement game for Hendrix.

Mary Hardin-Baylor

They travel the second weekend of the season to Northfield, MN to play at St. Olaf and also take on Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.  Otherwise, it's fairly normal schedule for them in that they play a lot of SCAC teams for non-conference games.  No hard feelings with former ASC member Concordia TX, who is on the schedule.  Trinity TX and St. Thomas both play them in Belton, which is the return trip from last year for Trinity, but St. Thomas played in Belton last year too.  Maybe UST didn't have access to their field. 

LeTourneau

Big trip for LeTourneau to play at Calvin and at Hope the first weekend of the season.  That's pretty ambitious from a competitive standpoint, but at least Michigan might be a little cooler in the evening that time of year than Longview, Texas.  They also travel to Jackson, Mississippi to play Belhaven and Millsaps the second weekend.

Hardin-Simmons

Taking a trip to Georgia for opening weekend and playing Berry and Covenant and then plays a bunch of SCAC teams before starting conference play.  Interestingly, Trinity is not one of the SCAC teams.  Other than 2020, the last time Hardin-Simmons didn't play Trinity was 2001.

John Jay

They travel to upstate New York the second weekend to take on SUNY Canton and SUNY Potsdam.  Pretty interesting to add a game at Montclair State right before a game at Western Connecticut State right before the start of conference play.  I'm not sure if the strong opponents are a sign John Jay is feeling good about its team this year and is being ambitious or other teams found about NPI and identified John Jay as a team they could schedule who they could beat and it wouldn't hurt them for SoS purposes.

Geneseo partial


Cortland

20 game schedule for Cortland.

Clark Summit just announced it is closing and will not be offering classes starting in Fall 2024.

They had already posted their Men's Soccer schedule.  If anyone is looking for another opponent for a game, looks like a bunch of teams will have an empty slot to fill.

Of course, if anyone still has room for transfers, the FAQ section of the announcement reports that "Student-athletes will be entered into the NCAA Transfer Portal within two weeks of closure."

Bethany (WV)

Challenging start to the first season for Coach Wolf, traveling to Ohio to play Denison and Mount Union and then traveling the next weekend to Virginia to play Mary Washington and Randolph-Macon.

Yeshiva

They only play one non-conference game, against Rutgers-Newark, perhaps because they can't play Fridays or Saturdays.

Rosemont

Challenging start to the season with a trip to Virginia to play Christopher Newport and Virginia Wesleyan.