New England Soccer Discussion

[Mr.Right]

Should be interesting to see how the New England Regional Rankings shape up later today. The Coaches poll(which means nothing but still interesting to look at) have given no love to the Little East. They have 5 Nescac's, 2 CCC, 2 Newmac and St.Joe's. ECONN is 12-2-0 and while they do not have any great Wins on their resume they have won against the same type of competition as Salve Regina and RWU for the most part. Regional Rankings will rank 12 teams so I assume 1 or 2 Little East teams get in. I mean WCONN went down to Ramapo and got a 3-3 draw this week(that game will not count for this week) but you have 3 teams in the Little East that could be Regionally Ranked in ECONN, WCONN and Keene St. I would say today's matchup of Babson hosting ECONN is massive for both teams especially ECONN. The winner should be ranked and even if Babson loses or draws they still have some legitimate results. I will say Babson already has 4 Draws and today and/or this weekend could be 5 and even 6 and that is waaay to many Draws to get in the Top 8 of the New England Regional Rankings IMO.

Another little "tell" will be how Nescac is ranked today. The top 3 will be Tufts/Conn/St.Joe's in any order. I then expect Middlebury to be the next Nescac ranked in the Top 6. We then have a monster question with Amherst. They are 8-3-1 and have not beaten ANY ranked teams this year unless Bowdoin sneaks in. Williams and Bowdoin are both at 7-3-2 and I expect both to be ranked. The question is will Amherst be ranked ahead of Williams? Serpone is the HEAD of the committee and while he cannot be on the conversation regarding his team he still will have more influence than you would think. Coaches are only human and they "might" give Amherst a bit of a boost. Not saying this will or does happen but still a reasonable question..Williams defeated Amherst at Amherst earlier this year and while that is Williams only significant Win except maybe the Win over Babson it still beats Amherst quality of Wins. I think wherever Williams and Amherst are ranked today will answer my question. Of course Williams still have games today at Hamilton then at Tufts and v Midd so they basically control their own destiny.

I expect St.Joe's to be ranked #3 and would be rather shocked if they jumped Conn and Tufts. Conn and Tufts have almost similar resumes so who gets #1? How does the committee rate Newmac and CCC? Springfield is a hot team right now but they do not have the quality of Wins that WPI and even Babson have. RWU and Salve should be ranked between #8-#12 IMO. Even Endicott could sneak in but doubtful.

[PaulNewman]

While RvR doesn't factor in for this week, SoS does, correct?  Will be interesting to see how much that impacts where St Joe's is placed, and that also could be the determining factor in how the NESCACs shake out in terms of order.

[Mr.Right]

Correct so SOS is and obviously RvR is not. That is why Week 1 Rankings will and should change quite a bit going into Week 2. I still think Nescac will grab 5 out of the 12 spots with Bowdoin being left out because of their weak schedule.

[Off Pitch]

It is highly likely that St. Joe's will not be ranked at all.  Their SOS may fall below 0.500 which historically has been a minimum requirement for recognition.

[PaulNewman]

Just checked....St Joe's did not get ranked last year until the final, final wee #4 ranking, and then only came in at #11 with record of 18-0-1.  Will be interesting to see if they get any break based on reputation now or maybe their SoS is higher this year.  If for some reason needed a Pool C they will hope Bowdoin gets ranked by the end and/or Endicott/Gordon.

[Mr.Right]

I thought the committee got rid of the .500 threshold???

[OldNed]

Just checked....St Joe's did not get ranked last year until the final, final wee #4 ranking, and then only came in at #11 with record of 18-0-1.  Will be interesting to see if they get any break based on reputation now or maybe their SoS is higher this year.  If for some reason needed a Pool C they will hope Bowdoin gets ranked by the end and/or Endicott/Gordon.

If St. Joe's takes care of business in the GNAC (and they should), then they have nothing to worry about.  If they falter in the GNAC conference, then they're at risk of not getting a Pool C, so they can't take anything for granted. I'm not sure if their reputation will be enough to overcome a crappy SOS.

[Mr.Right]

I would not want to be relying on winning a conference tournament to get a bid as even in the weak GNAC it still can be a crapshoot especially in the Semi's/Final. I still say Norwich is quite capable in 1 random game to knock off St.Joe's. That being said I think St.Joe's should be ranked today as they have proven to me atleast they should be ranked and are deserving a Pool C if they do not Win the GNAC.

[OldNed]

I thought the committee got rid of the .500 threshold???

I think they must have gotten rid of the .500 threshold.  When St. Joe's was ranked for the November 6 2017 Regional Rankings, they were 11 of 12 in New England and their SOS was 0.499.

[Bobcat1]

Just checked....St Joe's did not get ranked last year until the final, final wee #4 ranking, and then only came in at #11 with record of 18-0-1.  Will be interesting to see if they get any break based on reputation now or maybe their SoS is higher this year.  If for some reason needed a Pool C they will hope Bowdoin gets ranked by the end and/or Endicott/Gordon.

If St. Joe's takes care of business in the GNAC (and they should), then they have nothing to worry about.  If they falter in the GNAC conference, then they're at risk of not getting a Pool C, so they can't take anything for granted. I'm not sure if their reputation will be enough to overcome a crappy SOS.

Let's hope this does not become an issue.  Is there anyone out there who does not believe they should be in the Tournament? They did beat Gordon, Endicott and Bowdoin all on the road. And their convincing road win at Norwich last week was impressive as well.

As for the top of the initial rankings I think Tufts will be 1 and Conn 2. The computer models have Tufts with a very slim SOS margin over Conn (Keene St.'s winning streak has likely helped the Jumbos) and Tufts draw's were on the road vs. Conn whose draw's were at home.  At this point I don't think it really matters.  Both teams have big games ahead plus the conference tournament.

[PaulNewman]

Just checked....St Joe's did not get ranked last year until the final, final wee #4 ranking, and then only came in at #11 with record of 18-0-1.  Will be interesting to see if they get any break based on reputation now or maybe their SoS is higher this year.  If for some reason needed a Pool C they will hope Bowdoin gets ranked by the end and/or Endicott/Gordon.

If St. Joe's takes care of business in the GNAC (and they should), then they have nothing to worry about.  If they falter in the GNAC conference, then they're at risk of not getting a Pool C, so they can't take anything for granted. I'm not sure if their reputation will be enough to overcome a crappy SOS.

Let's hope this does not become an issue.  Is there anyone out there who does not believe they should be in the Tournament? They did beat Gordon, Endicott and Bowdoin all on the road. And their convincing road win at Norwich last week was impressive as well.

As for the top of the initial rankings I think Tufts will be 1 and Conn 2. The computer models have Tufts with a very slim SOS margin over Conn (Keene St.'s winning streak has likely helped the Jumbos) and Tufts draw's were on the road vs. Conn whose draw's were at home.  At this point I don't think it really matters.  Both teams have big games ahead plus the conference tournament.

Totally agree about St Joe's and that's why IMO the cmtes should have some leeway or at least one pick that is a wildcard for situations like this.  It's not unheard of, though.  2-3 years ago Kenyon was ranked like #3 in the country and like 16-0-1 and they were only getting like the very last Great Lakes slot because of SoS.

St Joes should get the AQ but I agree with Mr.Right that in these tournaments all kinds of fluky things can happen.

P.S.  The past couple of years I think there were times when Calvin was ranked #1 in the country but came in regionally ranked in Central around #4 or #5, all because of SoS.

[OldNed]

St. Joe's is listed as 11 of 12 in the regional rankings.  The NCAA page still says "Through Games NOV. 7, 2017" but they are this year's records listed.

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/soccer-men/d3/regional-rankings

And that's with a SOS of .513 which is higher than anything they had in 2017.

[PaulNewman]

St. Joe's is listed as 11 of 12 in the regional rankings.  The NCAA page still says "Through Games NOV. 7, 2017" but they are this year's records listed.

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/soccer-men/d3/regional-rankings

Correct....just saw it....just misdated.

[Bobcat1]

St. Joe's is listed as 11 of 12 in the regional rankings.  The NCAA page still says "Through Games NOV. 7, 2017" but they are this year's records listed.

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/soccer-men/d3/regional-rankings

And that's with a SOS of .513 which is higher than anything they had in 2017.

Glad to see St. Joe's ranked.  They should jump next week.  I was wrong on Tufts/Conn, pretty much a coin flip though.

[Mr.Right]

Yea those Week 1 rankings are a bit crazy...Week 2 should be much different...Endicott and RWU are VERY high...Brandeis has a lifeline still and Williams/Bowdoin/Midd have work to do