Liberty League

[stlawus]

Not really sure where Quinn Phillips is getting a 5th year of eligibility from for Hobart as he's currently listed on the roster. Can only get a medical redshirt if you played in a 3rd or fewer games in the injured season and he played 41% of games that year. Seems like some compliance funny business going on there. 

Who even knows this year.  And I'm close to getting to the point where it's "who even cares" if we continue to see the same nonsense from SLU. I want to follow the league as thoroughly as I always have but it's much more difficult to have interest when the powers that be for SLU soccer don't show interest. Results are one thing, the product is another.  SLU had a good spring and the coach finally ditched some of his ridiculous bias against the transfer portal after getting beat over the head by Cortland for so long, but we shall see.

Teams haven't been repeating the last several seasons because it's exceedingly more difficult playing with a target on your back as well as the home and away scheduling flips season to season. Hobart will probably be picked first especially with Vassar losing all that they did. Hobart will hope to avoid a repeat cycle of 2023 to 2024. Won the league in 2023 off the back of lots of wonder goals which regressed in the NCAA tournament and then underperformed in 2024.  Hobart also had a lot of wonder goals in the 2nd half of 2025 which again regressed in the first round.  They maintain most of their offense from last season, but now have the target on their back but will be better positioned than most of the league to start.

Skidmore had a nice season last year, but one has to wonder how much teams will adjust to them now that they won't catch anyone by surprise.  It's hard to imagine RPI continuing to be as poor as they have, but then again I've said similar things about SLU and nothing has changed yet.

[kevdog]

Hobart/Skidmore
Vassar
Union
SLU/RPI/Clarkson
Ithaca
RIT
Bard

Hobart has several key players coming back and will be tough.Skidmore had a really good season and on paper their recruiting class looks good. Union had another good recruiting class on paper. Let's see if these classes can relate to the field. RPI and Clarkson you never know. The other teams I just don't know. As far as SLU is concerned, I don't have really high hopes. Their recruiting classes on paper doesn't wow you like before but hopefully they do better on the field.  Their coach finally accepted a transfer but will see how that turns out. His denial of transfers before were just plain stupid as there are different reasons why players want to do it. To all the teams I wish them a healthy and good season that will be entertaining.

[Ejay]

Re: Medical Waiver, although my son never took them, he qualified 2x so I know a bit about them. The NCAA actually uses 21 games as the denominator, so the fact Quinn only played 7 his Jr year would allow him to retain eligibility for 1 additional year.

Hardship Waiver Rule

Standard Denominator

[stlawus]

That time of year again.  Saw Hobart posted its 2026 roster, all 39 of them including a bunch of internationals.  Once again LL teams will have to deal with the Hobart hordes.  Also checked out the Davidson box score from last night.  Tobolski, who could have rewritten the Vassar record books if he had stayed, didn't see the pitch.  I understand if you want to play professionally that D1 is the way to go.  It is such a crap shoot especially as a D3 transfer and if you look at the physical size of the Davidson players most of them dwarf Tobolski.  Yes, every hundred years or so a Messi comes around but in D1 size matters.  I hope he gets significant playing time but in retrospect the move may have been to Amherst or Tufts to try to get a ring ala Henry Brown.   

Tobolski is from Chapel Hill, North Carolina so it's not crazy that he chose Davidson if he wanted to be closer to home.  Lots of kids transfer for that reason and he didn't sacrifice academic quality to do it.

Tobolski played 30 minutes against Gardner-Webb this weekend.

[stlawus]

Liberty League starts off 6-2.  Union was up at the half against Oneonta but got blitzed in the 2nd half. Vassar with probably the best win, not sure how good Montclair will be but any win against them usually pays dividends. Vassar write up says it's their first win over Montclair since 1994, so props to the Brewers.  2 sophomores did all the scoring from midfield, so with Tobolski gone Vassar might have some players stepping up to fill the void.

Nice to see Clarkson christen their new turf with a win over Oswego. Their goalie is a transfer from Cortland, so far so good on that transaction.

Quite shocked at SLU's win today, especially given the 5-2 drubbing Plattsburgh gave them last year. Both teams left a lot of meat on the bone with Plattsburgh whiffing a breakaway and penalty in the first half and SLU whiffing several breakaways and chances off crosses in the 2nd half. First season opening win for SLU in 4 years.

[Bartman]

Hobart starts the season with a 2-0 win over SJF . Defense looks strong . The defense of the LL title has begun.

[Saint of Old]

Only saw the highlights of SLU game, but seems as though they have stopped going side to side and backwards on every attacking possession, but that might just have been on the goals.

Looking forward to an interesting season in the league, and hopefully more than one LL team can dance at the end.

[stlawus]

Devil magic for Vassar to steal a tie.  Can never count them out.  LL is having a much better start to the season than recent years, combined record of 11 wins, 3 losses and 2 ties.

Major tests still to come, but night and day difference for SLU thus far. They are finally playing physical which is paying dividends through the first 2 games. Geneseo was E8 champs last year, so a nice early win.

[Bartman]

Hobart beats #18 Brandeis on the road 3-2. Nice 2-0 start for the Statesmen.

[stlawus]

Say what you want about their strength of schedule, but Bard is at the point where they are no longer a SOS ball and chain on the league.  3-0 start in non conference so far.  They've done well in non-conference the past few years, albeit against weak competition.  They are still struggling in the league, but have at least got results and aren't destroying at large bid hopes just by virtue of the matchup now.

Some really good games this week.  Clarkson against Cortland mid week, Vassar against Cortland later in the week as well as Hobart-Rochester and SLU-Oneonta.

I've long complained about SLU never playing Oneonta at home, and this year they are finally playing them on Sandy.  First home game against Oneonta since 2011. Sandy MacAllaster Field has historically been the great equalizer, so we'll see.  Will get a much better sense of what both teams are after this one.