D1 All Conference vs D3 All American

[soccerpapa]

Thought I would make a new thread here to discuss an interesting topic that came up at my son's summer teams training recently.  The team has a mix of college players from all divisions. 

The topic involved some players making a comment that D1 All conference (mid majors) would be All-Americans at the D3 level.  Thoughts? 

[Kuiper]

Thought I would make a new thread here to discuss an interesting topic that came up at my son's summer teams training recently.  The team has a mix of college players from all divisions. 

The topic involved some players making a comment that D1 All conference (mid majors) would be All-Americans at the D3 level.  Thoughts?

I would say "Yes" and "No" to the comment.  On the yes side, I don't even think you have to go to first team all conference at a mid-major.  There are definitely some second or third team all conference players who would likely be All-American candidates in D3, but it probably depends upon position.  Just to give one example, freshman Denis Krioutchenkov of Davidson College was on the Atlantic 10 All-Rookie team and was a second team all conference player who I expect would have been a D3 All-American candidate if he had chosen a small, liberal arts college in D3 rather than D1.  But he is a forward who is a goal scorer (tied for second in the league in goals scored, 3rd in total points, and tied for first with three game-winning goals on the season).  A strong goal scorer at a D1 mid-major is going to do well at the D3 level simply because pure goal scorers are a rare commodity at every level and they are even more scarce at the D3 level.  Perhaps more importantly, if you score a lot of goals in D1, there's a good chance you will feast on the bottom of the conference D3 teams and end up with many multi-goal games.  The number of goals you score attracts attention and increases the odds you will be able to secure All-American votes.  By contrast, if you are a holding midfielder, a ball circulator, or a low skill, high athleticism pressing outside midfielder, your game might not translate in a way that suggests you are far superior in D3.  For example, sophomore Alejandro Coury, a midfielder at Colgate (just to choose another small liberal arts college that might attract players interested in both D1 and D3) is a good player, but his stats for 2022 weren't necessarily sparkly and he was third team all conference.  He had three assists and one goal.  In D3, he likely would have dribbled around more players, but his ability to connect passes might have depended upon the quality of the players around him.  I'm not sure he would be able to stand out in the same way as other positions, such as a goal scorer, a tall, strong, fast, and smart defender, an athletic goalkeeper, or maybe someone with pure speed to get down the wing and cross the ball.

On the no side, the United Soccer Coaches All American teams at the D3 level are tougher to select than at the D1 level.  There are more than double the number of D3 men's teams than D1 men's teams and there are very few coaches/voters who watch the entire country because play is so regional.  As a result of that, there's an emphasis in D3 on spreading the wealth around regionally and by team, which may be why Richard Gillespie of Chicago was a first team All-American, but his defensive partner Griffin Wada didn't make any of the three teams, and why Taty Aleman of St. Thomas in Houston was named a first team All-American even though very few coaches likely saw him play before the NCAA tournament.  Their only basis for voting for him was the number of goals he scored (although if voting did occur after the NCAA tournament then he can point to scoring 4 of St. Thomas' 5 goals in the tournament, including game winners against Chapman and Pacific Lutheran and the only goal against University of Chicago in the 5th minute, which was the first and only time Chicago was behind in their tourney run).