2021 D3 Men's Soccer National Perspective

[PaulNewman]

I wonder what we got this year with Messiah.  The top Messiah posters have been subdued to understate it, like Flying Weasel and Falconer.  The Falcons seem to be just sitting there at #2 all season quietly waiting until their season becomes relevant right around the Sweet 16.  Meanwhile, Tufts dominates the scene here as the self-proclaimed top program in D3 (and who can argue?) and seem to have the best player at every position in the country as well as the deepest bench.  And W&L is the shiny new kid on the block, basking in a sweep of the polls at #1.

Already an interesting week, with NYU, OWU, and now JHU taking their first losses of the campaign.

Correction....NYU lost to Messiah, but first loss since then.

[PaulNewman]

Just to follow up on a theme above.  All season the level of interest, in terms of both depth and breadth, seems way down.  I made that observation more locally around Great Lakes interest, but frankly all the regions seem down, and some of the interest in teams that usually generate a lot of posting and multiple posters also seems down.  It's true that some regions have had minimal presence on the site, but this feels different.  Is it the missed year?  Covid?  A symptom of national depression?  Also surprised that even the usual high interest in NESCAC seems down.  Where are the Amherst posters to defend their program?  Usually the Mid-Atlantic has more than a handful of posters beyond just the Messiah folks.  Are there a lot of players and fans who never officially join and post who regularly follow the site?  Who are the 100 to 200 guests often lurking at any given time?  Just curious.

[Another Mom]

This site can be intimidating,  especially if one isn't a former player or coach. I am surprised there aren't more parents of players and those going through recruiting.

[PaulNewman]

This site can be intimidating,  especially if one isn't a former player or coach. I am surprised there aren't more parents of players and those going through recruiting.

Agreed.  It is intimidating, especially for new parents who one would think would the ongoing feeder system for keeping the site vibrant and alive.  For new posters, especially parents of new players, there are plenty of opportunities to feel stupid.  It takes at least a couple of years to understand what seem like arcane and unfair rules in terms of NCAA at large selections, how the RvR system works, how the NCAA regional rankings are different and more important than the current regional rankings folks are seeing every week, etc, etc..  As a newbie it is brutal to see your team doing great and learn that they may not or will not make the tournament because of SoS or RvR or whatever.  Look at Randolph this year...undefeated.  The Wildcats, I think they're the Wildcats, had a wonderful season around 2013 or 2014 and even though they were like 17-0-1 they didn't even get regionally ranked.  Those things get explained well by a few here, but still, even after a few years, I sometimes was scratching my head.  And then there are long-time posters, like myself I suppose, that can be hard to deal with without knowing more about them or maybe would even worse if you knew more lol.  But all that said, there are a fair amount of posters who aren't intimidated in the least and whether now too busy, finally too mature haha, or whatever, just aren't posting or posting like they did before.  Also the intimidation angle doesn't account for ex-players and coaches not being more active, and I don't know what's that about, because I'm sure Tufts and Amherst will have a more than a handful of hard-core alums who will have their day made or ruined by the result on Saturday.

[jknezek]

Posting on bulletin boards has trended downward for years. Other social media is simply more popular. Most people just want to follow their team, and that can be done on Facebook or twitter, let alone school websites. Posting on here involves more... it's active, not passive. You have to really care. Most people just want to follow.

[SimpleCoach]

Posting on bulletin boards has trended downward for years. Other social media is simply more popular. Most people just want to follow their team, and that can be done on Facebook or twitter, let alone school websites. Posting on here involves more... it's active, not passive. You have to really care. Most people just want to follow.

My therapist says posting here you have to have your head examined ... wait ... I'm only a "Second Stringer" ?!?!?!?!  That comes to an end by Friday.....

[D3_Slack]

Love the site, don't feel intimidated at all.  Really appreciate the insiders perspective from those that played and love the historical perspective from those that have incredible memories.  I was a D3 athlete (hoops at Tufts) and I've got great friends and great memories.  Now that my son is playing D3 soccer he realizes what I've been telling him for years...the rivalries are intense, the times with your teammates are amazing...and the talent is real.

That's the thing about D3 sports that I don't think folks understand.  The talent level has just exploded.

That said...it does seem like there's a group of teams that are always good...and not too many newcomers recently.

I'm curious if that's going to change.  Messiah, Tufts, Amherst, Calvin...I'd like to see more programs get consistently competitive. 

What I'm also curious to learn is how deep some of these leagues are.  NESCAC and UAA seem really deep.  Hopkins/F&M league a little less so.  With talent increasing across the country will new leagues emerge as really deep? 

[PaulNewman]

Posting on bulletin boards has trended downward for years. Other social media is simply more popular. Most people just want to follow their team, and that can be done on Facebook or twitter, let alone school websites. Posting on here involves more... it's active, not passive. You have to really care. Most people just want to follow.

This may account for a segment, maybe a large one that impacts new traffic, but if you think about some of the posters of some renown here mentioned over the past couple of days, I don't think they're on Twitter and Facebook or whatever a lot.  I don't really view the site as a bulletin board even though that's obviously technically true.  I hope I'm wrong, but I don't know of another place to find actual news, insights, takes, polls, promotion of programs, etc for D3 soccer.  This may sound strange, but I go to ESPN or even Twitter to read articles including sports articles and in mind this is the closest thing to something like ESPN in terms stories, recaps, pundit takes, etc.  I know at best that's it's amateurish journalism and commentary, but for me that's what makes it fun.  And imo all of the posters here who post with frequency (and most who are new or post infrequently) try to be informative and within a reasonable proximity of fairness and objectivity.  I don't have to like the columnist in Nebraska but that doesn't mean that I don't recognize he or she is a good columnist.

[Another Mom]

Speaking of newbies, how does one give Karma points? Sometimes I will really agree with a post and want to give the equivalent of a thumbs up. That's giving a Karma point, yes?  I am sorry to be dim, but I haven't figured out how to do it!

[Ejay]

That's the thing about D3 sports that I don't think folks understand.  The talent level has just exploded.

I played back in the early 90s and have been following the D3 soccer landscape for about 15-20 years now.  My son is now playing and I've told him on more than one occasion that D3 today is like D1 30 years ago. The players are better, the programs are more serious, the training is more intense, etc, etc. 

[Chargers96]

Newbie here.  I started following this site last year as my son's D3 recruiting started picking up.  I've been trying to catch games of several Virginia schools that he is considering and see what opinions folks on this site have of various programs.  I watched a bit of the Mary Washington vs. St. Mary's Md. game -- UMW with a convincing win and looked good overall.

[Chargers96]

Not sure if this is the proper forum -- but I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts on how long the Coast 2 Coast conference (where CNU, UMW, and Salisbury are members) is going to last .  With essentially no regular season conference schedule, I would think that could negatively impact rivalries, scheduling, and possibly recruiting. 

[Gregory Sager]

Posting on bulletin boards has trended downward for years. Other social media is simply more popular. Most people just want to follow their team, and that can be done on Facebook or twitter, let alone school websites. Posting on here involves more... it's active, not passive. You have to really care. Most people just want to follow.

Yep. It's unfortunate, and I suspect that it's a generational thing.

There are so many parts of the D3 landscape that just aren't getting covered. Even a couple quick sentences on these boards from people who are watching games would be welcome.

[Gregory Sager]

Speaking of newbies, how does one give Karma points? Sometimes I will really agree with a post and want to give the equivalent of a thumbs up. That's giving a Karma point, yes?  I am sorry to be dim, but I haven't figured out how to do it!

You have to reach 200 posts to be able to dole out karma. Keep going, Another Mom, you're well on your way there!

[Gregory Sager]

Not sure if this is the proper forum -- but I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts on how long the Coast 2 Coast conference (where CNU, UMW, and Salisbury are members) is going to last .  With essentially no regular season conference schedule, I would think that could negatively impact rivalries, scheduling, and possibly recruiting.

The C2C has also drawn similar questions on the basketball boards on this site. It's transparently a flag of convenience for schools that currently find themselves orphans and who would get into a local league at the drop of a hat if they could. Current NCAA rules allow a league like the C2C to exist without a regular-season conference schedule, so these schools are taking advantage of the loophole to give themselves a chance to win an automatic bid to the D3 tourneys in the various sports the C2C sponsors. I can't blame them for wanting to avoid independent status; being an indie comes with a whole set of headaches, particularly as far as men's soccer is concerned, because there's currently not enough full-member independents to qualify for a so-called Pool B bid to the tourney field.