2015 D3 Season: NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

[PaulNewman]

"Well, what do u think of Tufts upcoming schedule which likely includes Amherst, Williams, Middlebury, Bowdoin, et al. and non- conference games with Gordon and Brandeis?  That sounds like a VERY tough schedule to me... They may get "beat up" and put themselves at jeopardy for an NCAA tourney bid....."

Is that their real schedule for next year, or are you guessing?  That would be a very solid to very good schedule, but I wouldn't call it "very tough."  This is another example of wanting to count being part of the NESCAC as an advantage when it's convenient and then as a disadvantage when it's convenient, with the common denominator of saying whatever makes the NESCAC sound as special and exclusive as possible.  Just be the best instead of spending so much time selling that you are the best.   NESCAC teams get a boost from being from the NESCAC.  It's considered the best conference, along with the UAA, and that's why they get 3-4 bids consistently.  Will Tufts being playing a different, harder conference schedule than usual, or the same conference schedule?  As for non-conference, Brandeis and Gordon are nice non-conference games.  Would be better if they also added Wheaton (MA) or a Babson and a Rochester or a top-half Liberty League team.  It certainly is not tougher than some of the schedules UAA teams play (like Chicago, Wash U, Rochester) or a Rutgers-Camden or even a Haverford or Swarthmore.

Hmmmm. Really? I beg to differ..... I would have to say that would fall in the top 25%

Beg to differ about what?  Did I say that wouldn't be top 25%?  Is that the same as "VERY tough"?  Are you comparing playing Gordon out of conference to Chicago and Wheaton playing Loras out of conference?  Or have you not heard of Loras or Wartburg or Gustavus Adolphus or Whitworth or North Park?

[Nutmeg]

"Well, what do u think of Tufts upcoming schedule which likely includes Amherst, Williams, Middlebury, Bowdoin, et al. and non- conference games with Gordon and Brandeis?  That sounds like a VERY tough schedule to me... They may get "beat up" and put themselves at jeopardy for an NCAA tourney bid....."

Is that their real schedule for next year, or are you guessing?  That would be a very solid to very good schedule, but I wouldn't call it "very tough."  This is another example of wanting to count being part of the NESCAC as an advantage when it's convenient and then as a disadvantage when it's convenient, with the common denominator of saying whatever makes the NESCAC sound as special and exclusive as possible.  Just be the best instead of spending so much time selling that you are the best.   NESCAC teams get a boost from being from the NESCAC.  It's considered the best conference, along with the UAA, and that's why they get 3-4 bids consistently.  Will Tufts being playing a different, harder conference schedule than usual, or the same conference schedule?  As for non-conference, Brandeis and Gordon are nice non-conference games.  Would be better if they also added Wheaton (MA) or a Babson and a Rochester or a top-half Liberty League team.  It certainly is not tougher than some of the schedules UAA teams play (like Chicago, Wash U, Rochester) or a Rutgers-Camden or even a Haverford or Swarthmore

Hmmmm. Really? I beg to differ..... I would have to say that would fall in the top 25%

Beg to differ about what?  Did I say that wouldn't be top 25%?  Is that the same as "VERY tough"?  Are you comparing playing Gordon out of conference to Chicago and Wheaton playing Loras out of conference?  Or have you not heard of Loras or Wartburg or Gustavus Adolphus or Whitworth or North Park?

Not comparing anything my friend... Just voicing an opinion..... But I may compare Brandeis to a few of them..... no, I never heard of those schools.. where are they?😉

[D3soccerwatcher]

Lebanon Valley College soccer recently released this video. It highlights some very good soccer.  While LVC may have had a bit of a down year in 2014, they are a program on the rise in the MAC under the very capable leadership of head coach Charlie Grimes.

http://youtu.be/bsRli8WVILY

[D3soccerwatcher]

As we approach recruit and schedule announcements for the 2015 season, here's a look at teams that have won multiple National Championships over the 41 year history of the NCCA DIII National Soccer Tournament.

Team   # Championships   Conference
Messiah              10                   MAC/Commonwealth
UNC Greensboro        5                   Dixie/USA South
Babson                3                   CAC
UC San Diego        3                   N/A
Wheaton (IL)        2                   CCIW
Ohio Wesleyan        2                   NCAC
Lock Haven        2                   PSAC West
Rowan                2                   NJAC

All eyes on Tufts now, as they attempt to become the first ever NESCAC team to repeat as National Champions and also the first ever NESCAC team to win more than one National Championship.  BEST OF LUCK!

Note:  If anyone knows what conference UC San Diego played in during their time in DIII please chime in.

[Nutmeg]

As we approach recruit and schedule announcements for the 2015 season, here's a look at teams that have won multiple National Championships over the 41 year history of the NCCA DIII National Soccer Tournament.

Team   # Championships   Conference
Messiah              10                   MAC/Commonwealth
UNC Greensboro        5                   Dixie/USA South
Babson                3                   CAC
UC San Diego        3                   N/A
Wheaton (IL)        2                   CCIW
Ohio Wesleyan        2                   NCAC
Lock Haven        2                   PSAC West
Rowan                2                   NJAC

All eyes on Tufts now, as they attempt to become the first ever NESCAC team to repeat as National Champions and also the first ever NESCAC team to win more than one National Championship.  BEST OF LUCK!

Note:  If anyone knows what conference UC San Diego played in during their time in DIII please chime in.

Obviously, it will difficult to repeat for any team (except maybe Messish) but I wish the Jumbos the best. They will have to be focused as all will be gunning for them!

[lastguyoffthebench]

UCSD was independent, but now with the return of Mr.Right we can get a wonderful history lesson.  I believe he previously spoke very highly of the program and declared (rightfully so) as one of the all time greats in the late 80s early 90s.

[Mr.Right]

You are correct UCSD was an independent and a powerhouse. They would regularly beat D1 and D2 schools on the west coast during the year. They had legit D1 players and with their egomaniacal head coach Derek Armstrong, they dominated D3 for a 10 year stretch. Their admissions standards were those of a D2 school not a D3 school and eventually the school moved to D2.

[Saint of Old]

Just to chime in.
I think this is a very important list.
It confirms my prior thoughts that OWU and Wheaton are in a class all by themselves among D3  teams.

OWU has been in the mix now for 20 years and Wheaton for 30.
Wheaton was in the Finals in 99, 06, and 14.
Just think they could be the 2nd winninest program in D3  History with a longer track record for great success than the Great Messiah.

Also, these boyz are always full of CLASS, they play so hard but always fair.

One of the best teams I have personally competed against.

[Off Pitch]

I'm not sure what conference (if any) that Babson was in, but it was most likely not the CAC.  The Constitution Athletic Conference was not formed until about 1990.  The CAC then evolved into the present NEWMAC sometime in the late 90s.

[1970s NESCAC Player]

I'm not sure what conference (if any) that Babson was in, but it was most likely not the CAC.  The Constitution Athletic Conference was not formed until about 1990.  The CAC then evolved into the present NEWMAC sometime in the late 90s.

Back in the 1970s, there really weren't any D3 conferences in New England.  In fact, no one really paid attention to divisions due to the relatively small number of schools that fielded programs.  Babson used to play (and often beat) the D1 teams in the Boston area (Harvard, BU, BC, etc.), while I know from personal experience that what are now the Maine NESCAC schools (Bates, Bowdoin, Colby) played the University of Maine (D1) twice each year.  Also, in the 1970s, a very small number of schools were selected for the NCAA tournament (maximum of 16?), and they were essentially all at large selections made by the Committee.  There were one or two regional rounds and then the Final Four.  Babson hosted a few of the early Final Fours over Thanksgiving Weekend.  Those early Babson powerhouses drew most of their players from the old Bay State League in Eastern Mass., more particularly from Needham, Braintree, and Wellesley.

[D3soccerwatcher]

Just to chime in.
I think this is a very important list.
It confirms my prior thoughts that OWU and Wheaton are in a class all by themselves among D3  teams.

OWU has been in the mix now for 20 years and Wheaton for 30.
Wheaton was in the Finals in 99, 06, and 14.
Just think they could be the 2nd winninest program in D3  History with a longer track record for great success than the Great Messiah.

Also, these boyz are always full of CLASS, they play so hard but always fair.

One of the best teams I have personally competed against.

I have to agree that Wheaton and OWU are elite programs.

I have had the opportunity to see Wheaton play live about a half dozen or more times and I must agree they carry themselves with honor and class - no doubt about it.  They should have a great run this year and in my estimation may be the pre-season favorite to win it all.  And Marshall Hollingsworth has got to be on the list of players to watch for potential POY honors.  Really a great program they have there.  We will see what kind of fire their new coach brings to the table (himself a former Wheaton player). Should be fun to watch.

I'm not quite as familiar with OWU, but certainly a fantastic program.

As for Messiah, they lose 7-8 starters (several national caliber) so jury is out.  I believe they graduate something like 70% of their goals.  But they have lost great classes of players before and seem to not miss a beat (also been in the mix for about 30 years).  Incoming freshman class will be important.  So we will see.

Would love to see these three teams all play each other somewhere along the way in 2015.  Unlikely, but that would be fun to watch.

[D3soccerwatcher]

Former Franklin & Marshall College players signing pro contracts...
http://www.godiplomats.com/sports/m-soccer/2014-15/releases/20150302ev73v4
http://www.godiplomats.com/sports/m-soccer/2014-15/releases/20150126mx7ol3

[Flying Weasel]

Messiah's 2015 scheudle has been released (story, schedule) and it's a disappointment. While you can never be certain of the strength of a schedule ahead of time (sometimes a typically strong team has an off year or conversely a traditionally mediocre team is surprisingly good), but on paper this is a serious downgrade in overall quality of opponents.  I'm sure that wasn't the goal, and I'd guess much if it was beyond their control.

MESSIAH MEN'S SOCCER 2015 SCHEDULE

Sep. 4		Allegheny	(N)
Sep. 5		Carnegie Mellon	(A)
Sep. 11		Randolph	(H)
Sep. 12		Houghton	(H)
Sep. 16		Gettysburg	(H)
Sep. 19		Rowan	(H)
Sep. 23		York (Pa.)	(A)
Sep. 26		Misericordia	(H)
Sep. 30		Elizabethtown	(A)
Oct. 3	C	Hood	(A)
Oct. 6	C	Lebanon Valley	(H)
Oct. 10		Washington & Lee	(H)
Oct. 14	C	Lycoming	(A)
Oct. 17	C	Arcadia	(H)
Oct. 20	C	Widener	(A)
Oct. 24	C	Albright	(A)
Oct. 28	C	Stevenson	(H)
Oct. 31	C	Alvernia	(H)

C - Commonwealth Conf. game   |   H - home game, A - Away game, N - neutral site

The conference slate is what it is and there's little use discussing that, but the non-conference schedule looks . . . very mediocre.  No complete cupcakes, mind you, but no one to get excited about and few encounters that would seem to be good measuring sticks for a program whose sights are set on a national title every year.

Very odd not to see long-time annual opponent Dickinson, a nearby school who usually has a solid to strong team.  I've got to think this is either the result of scheduling conflicts or Dickinson not wanting to play Messiah anymore, but who knows.  After a pair of home-and-aways with Catholic over the past 4 years, they are off the schedule.  Not a Top 25 opponent, but still a solid team recently. 

The Montclair State home-and-away 2013/2014 has not been renewed.  This year's schedule has no one of that stature like Oneonta St. (2012) and Ohio Wesleyan (2011) in previous years.  The rivalry match with E-town persists for a second year as a non-conference game, but that does nothing for the strength of schedule.  York, the team that in many ways had replaced E-town as Messiah's biggest rival, is back, but coming off their worst season in a long time and with a change of coach, who knows what level opponent they will be.  Misericordia is back which is good, but they might be the best out-of-conference adversary, and that's not good.

They added Randolph who had that Cinderella run in the NCAA's four years ago and got snubbed by the NCAA committee the following year, but they have slunk back into the pack in an underwhelming ODAC.  Best 2014 record of the additions belongs to Washington & Lee, but that's the result of a soft schedule as they could only muster 5th in the ODAC.  Carnegie Mellon is the addition to most grab your attention, but it's hard to predict what you'll get with them from year to year.  That games comes the second day of the CMU's opening weekend tournament, so even if they are improved from last year it might not show yet 24 hours after their season opener.

Here's a breakdown of sorts of the opponents retained, dropped, and added to the non-conference schedule giving their 2014 W-L-T records, conference finish, and post-season acheivements.

Retained
York (Pa.) (7-6-5) - CAC 7th place (missed 6-team playoffs for first time 24 years), preennial Top 25 team previous 10 years
Misericordia (15-6-2) - Freedom T-1st place, ECAC Mid-Atlantic Champs, four NCAA appearances in previous five years
Gettysburg (9-7-1) - Centennial T-8th place
Elizabethtown (7-5-3) - Landmark T-4th place (missed playoffs on tie-breaker)
Rowan (10-9-0) - NJAC 7th place

Dropped
Montclair State (17-5-0) - NJAC Reg. Season & Tourn. Champs, NCAA's one-and-done (3-0 loss to Stevens)
Dickinson (11-6-2) - Centennial 3rd place, NCAA's one-and-done (lost to eventual champ Tufts 2-1)
Catholic (10-5-6) - Landmark Reg. Season & Tourn. Champs, NCAA Rnd of 32 (elim. on PK's after 0-0 tie with Muhlenberg)
TCNJ (7-9-2) - NJAC 8th place
Redlands (11-5-0) - SCIAC Reg. Season Champs
Neumann (10-9-2) - undefeated CSAC Reg. Season & Tourn. Champs, NCAA's one-and-done (3-0 loss to Cortland St.)

Added
Carnegie Mellon (8-5-3) - UAA 5th place
Allegheny (7-9-2) - NCAC 7th place
Randolph (7-7-4) - ODAC 6th place
Houghton (9-9-2) - Empire 8 6th place
Washington & Lee (11-5-2) - ODAC 5th place

[jknezek]

As a W&L grad I'm looking forward to that game. But I can also understand why it won't knock any of the Messiah fans' socks off...

[Mr.Right]

Schedules are never totally "out of their control". While there are certain conflicts that come up from time to time I have a hard time believing it was a factor in most cases. Usually you setup a home and away and after two years you revisit the situation if need be. Most games like York are plugged into the same dates as previous years. I would venture to guess upwards of 80% of non-conference opponents in D3 would want to play Messiah if not more. 1. It boosts their SOS considerably win or lose. 2. You have nothing to lose as if the team does lose they were supposed to and if they get a result that is icing and would factor in considerably to the committee. The only team that has something to lose is Messiah. I would compare it to the 80's when some D1 schools would play D3's that had a tradition of playing. Dartmouth v Williams. UVM v Middlebury. Tufts v Harvard. Brandeis v Harvard. Yale v Wesleyan etc. Those D3 schools had nothing to lose and the D1's everything.

We do not know for sure how McCarty looks at his schedule but he was working on this schedule as most coaches do in the fall of 2014 for the following year. I will say this.McCarty has never shied away from playing tough non-conference games compared to Brandt. We would all be guessing if we knew what went into this years current schedule as is. I guess my point is that scheduling conflicts do occur but not unless you are unwilling to fix the issue or they do not occur at the rate of every game being scheduled.

I like the opening tournament but in my opinion most of their non-conference should be filled with the upper-tier of the CC if possible and an opening tournament away / neutral with 2 Top 25 teams.