2019 D3 Men's Soccer National Perspective

[PaulNewman]

Kudos to the couple of folks who saw this coming before now....I assumed Calvin was due for a down year (for them) especially with those dag-gum Vegter men finally out of the picture, but here the Knights are yet again sitting in a prime position to make another great run.  They will just keep winning game after game and we'll turn around and realize they are favorites in a big Sweet 16 match.  Souders is right there with Shapiro in terms of best coaches in D3.

And I want to encourage our friends from Loras.  I like when super-fans post, and Loras legitimately was the #2 to #4 program in the country for a long stretch (sort of like Calvin before Calvin became this last half-decade's Calvin).  We so rarely get posters from beyond Ohio, Chicago and Minnesota I think the site benefits when schools from the West, less talked about areas of the Midwest, and the South (Lynchburg, Roanoke, CNU, etc) get steady support. 

[D3Grad]

I agree with Gustie that GAC, MAC, Carleton should get a bit more recognition.  They are all solid teams this year and GAC has shown to be quite capable of playing at a high level.  They thing that irks me about the MIAC schools like GAC is they schedule some soft non conference games that do nothing but pad the stats.  They and the rest of the MIAC would greatly benefit from playing teams from other regions that are good.
St. Thomas is certainly having a down year when it comes to their record and stats.  All of the players who had significant roles in the 2016 and 2017 tournament runs are gone.  The new team is organized but lacks an identity.  They do not have anyone who is stepping up to score goals or run the midfield unlike previous years with the Oliver twins and Bottum. Maybe they bit off more they can chew with their early season schedule but I think they can learn from this and maybe it won't be this year but rather a year or two from now where they make a run again. 

[gustiefan04]

Agreed. GAC and Carleton in particular need to improve their scheduling. MAC, Augsburg and UST all did a fairly decent job mixing in some big non-conference games. 

[Dubuquer]

Loras is taking out frustrations from yesterday's loss and is crushing hapless Iowa Wesleyan 6-0 at the half.  The deep bench guys produced a couple beautiful goals.

[Shooter McGavin]

John Carroll at Carnegie Mellon today at 3pm. Big match for both teams and will be tuning into this one.

[Mid-Atlantic Fan]

Let's give this a shot...

MAF Top 25
1. Tufts
2. Amherst
3. Calvin
4. John Carroll
5. Kenyon
6. F&M
7. Loras
8. Hardin Simmons
9. Conn College
10. Hopkins
11. Middlebury
12. Haverford
13. RPI
14. Oneonta
15. Stevens
16. Chicago
17. Ithaca
18. Rochester
19. W&L
20. Hobart
21. PSU Behrend
22. UW-Whitewater
23. Mary Wash
24. Roanoke
25. Western Conn
RV: Eastern Conn, W. NE, Mass Boston, Cortland, Union, Messiah, Gettysburg, Catholic, Stockton, Rowan, Salisbury, Camden, TCNJ, St. Mary's, Ramapo, Centre, CNU, Mount Union, ONU, Capital, Adrian, Kalamazoo, Wheaton, Central, Gustavus Adolphus, Wartburg, Luther, Dubuque, Pudget Sound, Belhaven, Tx Dallas, Southwestern     

[NokeAlum15]

Yikes!  Think Oglethorpe has had enough of the ODAC?   0-3 vs W&L, Lburg and Noke.

[Flying Weasel]

I'm puzzled by how high some are on Hardin-Simmons. 

Sure, they are undefeated, but there are 16 undefeated teams that are not ranked.  Now, I don't think those teams have deserved to be ranked up until now except maybe Roanoke who beat Lynchburg and tied ranked Mary Washington.

And it can't be because HSU has played a strong schedule: their opponents are a combined 12-27-8 (.340) and if you remove the one NAIA school their D-III opponents are a combined 10-20-7 (.365). They have only played one team that is over .500 (Christopher Newport at 3-1-3).

It seems like their initial ranking was based mostly on defeating Trinity (Tx.) 3-1. But they were outshot by the visiting Tigers 16-4 (SOG 7-3) and benefited from an own goal. Credit to the Cowboys for converting 2 of their 4 shots, but that box score certainly didn't suggest to me that HSU was a Top 25 team.  And the coach's (USC) rankings after that game only had HSU at #8 in the West Region and unranked nationally, which seemed reasonable to me, unlike the D3soccer.com Top 25 that had HSU at #14, the only West Region team ranked.

After the narrow double-overtime win against Christopher Newport a week later, HSU vaulted to #1 in the West and #8 nationally in the USC polls and climbed to #10 in the D3soccer.com rankings. But they were outshot 19-9 (SOG 12-7) by the long-travelling Captains who played a double-overtime game at Trinity (Tx.) the night before. In the second half it was the visitors out-shooting HSU 12-4 in search of a game-winner. And according to one poster on here, the Cowboys' winning goal in the second overtime period may have been offside.

And we now know that Trinity is in the midst of their worst slump since the mid-90's, so some of the shine on that victory is lost.

On paper, that doesn't add up to Top 25 to me, but I haven't seen them play.  With Shooter and MAF also placing them mid to high in their rankings I figured I'd ask what you guys see in Hardin-Simmons.

[PaulNewman]

I believe Mr. Zinner at least in his last offering also had Hardin-Simmons ranked highly, and now I can't seem to find a link to his columns anywhere on the site.

[Dubuquer]

MAF, Loras at #7 and Chicago at #16 after Chicago beat the Duhawks?

Let's give this a shot...

MAF Top 25
1. Tufts
2. Amherst
3. Calvin
4. John Carroll
5. Kenyon
6. F&M
7. Loras
8. Hardin Simmons
9. Conn College
10. Hopkins
11. Middlebury
12. Haverford
13. RPI
14. Oneonta
15. Stevens
16. Chicago
17. Ithaca
18. Rochester
19. W&L
20. Hobart
21. PSU Behrend
22. UW-Whitewater
23. Mary Wash
24. Roanoke
25. Western Conn
RV: Eastern Conn, W. NE, Mass Boston, Cortland, Union, Messiah, Gettysburg, Catholic, Stockton, Rowan, Salisbury, Camden, TCNJ, St. Mary's, Ramapo, Centre, CNU, Mount Union, ONU, Capital, Adrian, Kalamazoo, Wheaton, Central, Gustavus Adolphus, Wartburg, Luther, Dubuque, Pudget Sound, Belhaven, Tx Dallas, Southwestern 

[Buck O.]

I believe Mr. Zinner at least in his last offering also had Hardin-Simmons ranked highly, and now I can't seem to find a link to his columns anywhere on the site.

Yeah, I can't find it, either.  If a mod happens to read this, where did Zinn's column go?

Also, regarding H-S:  Massey has them at #49.

[blooter442]

Yeah, I can't find it, either.  If a mod happens to read this, where did Zinn's column go?

Also, regarding H-S:  Massey has them at #49.

You can still find it by searching "Zinn's Contenders" in the search box.

https://d3soccer.com/columns/men-zinns-contenders/2019-1_Mid-September

[Welcome2TheNJAC]

Harsh on the NJAC teams... Rowan tying both Haverford at #12 and Chicago #16 but not top 25?

Let's give this a shot...

MAF Top 25
1. Tufts
2. Amherst
3. Calvin
4. John Carroll
5. Kenyon
6. F&M
7. Loras
8. Hardin Simmons
9. Conn College
10. Hopkins
11. Middlebury
12. Haverford
13. RPI
14. Oneonta
15. Stevens
16. Chicago
17. Ithaca
18. Rochester
19. W&L
20. Hobart
21. PSU Behrend
22. UW-Whitewater
23. Mary Wash
24. Roanoke
25. Western Conn
RV: Eastern Conn, W. NE, Mass Boston, Cortland, Union, Messiah, Gettysburg, Catholic, Stockton, Rowan, Salisbury, Camden, TCNJ, St. Mary's, Ramapo, Centre, CNU, Mount Union, ONU, Capital, Adrian, Kalamazoo, Wheaton, Central, Gustavus Adolphus, Wartburg, Luther, Dubuque, Pudget Sound, Belhaven, Tx Dallas, Southwestern 

[Buck O.]

Yeah, I can't find it, either.  If a mod happens to read this, where did Zinn's column go?

Also, regarding H-S:  Massey has them at #49.

You can still find it by searching "Zinn's Contenders" in the search box.

https://d3soccer.com/columns/men-zinns-contenders/2019-1_Mid-September

That works well when you can remember the full name of the column!  It didn't work so well when I typed in "Zinn," which gave me a lot of links related to Howard Zinn (who didn't have much to say about D3 soccer, AFAIK).

[Buck O.]

Harsh on the NJAC teams... Rowan tying both Haverford at #12 and Chicago #16 but not top 25?

Losing to Staten Island may have something to do with that.