2023 D3 Men's Soccer National Perspective

[stlawus]

Ugly scenes to end the MSU-Amherst game.   Watched the minute or so after the final whistle on replay a few times, just bad scenes all around.

This has to be the least surprising outcome in D3 soccer all year. Amherst-Montclair ugly scenes was -10,000 before kick off

Still thinking about what I observed immediately after the game ended, and I'll just say I'll keep my thoughts to myself on this one.  Definitely would like to see those teams play again the tournament.

[PaulNewman]

Ugly scenes to end the MSU-Amherst game.   Watched the minute or so after the final whistle on replay a few times, just bad scenes all around.

This has to be the least surprising outcome in D3 soccer all year. Amherst-Montclair ugly scenes was -10,000 before kick off

Still thinking about what I observed immediately after the game ended, and I'll just say I'll keep my thoughts to myself on this one.  Definitely would like to see those teams play again the tournament.

I'm sure like many others I wish you would make your thoughts public lol, but I do appreciate the importance of keeping the 'ol piehole shut (despite my own failings in this regard).

I will say that I was impressed with Montclair and imo Montclair should feel pretty good about how they matched up.  Most importantly, down 2-0 pretty early, they could have quit and they didn't.  I wouldn't say they deserved a draw, but a draw wouldn't have been really unfair either.  Bottom line is I think MSU can build off this match and will be pumped up if they get the Mammoths down the road in the Sweet 16 or Elite 8.

[PaulNewman]

St Olaf has a dominant win over UW-Platteville today 2-0 off two Gaulmin PKs.  Shots were 19-3.  And without Hakeem Morgan who is on Costa Rica U23 duty and who I did not realize has not played since the Hamline tilt on Oct. 7.

Bottom line....St Olaf is a problem.

[PaulNewman]

Two big results in Regs 8 and 9...

Trine plays spoiler again winning on the road 1-0 at Hope.  And again it's Tyler Murphy with the goal.

Augsburg despite massive stats disadvantage holds Carleton to a 0-0 draw.

[Flying Weasel]

A few things that I don't think have been mentioned or brought up yet on the message board . . .

(1) Due to the dissolution of the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) and the merger of the Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) and United East Conference (UEC), there are two less automatic berths (AQs) this year and thus two more Pool C at-large berths.  So this year's tournament field is comprised of 41 AQs, 1 Pool B at-large berth, 22 Pool C at-large berths.  That is significant.  I'm not sure it should change anyone's prediction of who is on the "bubble" for at-large selection, but it probably is more a shift from trying to figure out which 2 of 6 "bubble" teams will make the cut to trying to figure out which 2 of 6 "bubble" teams will be left out.

(2) There are discussions about pushing the NCAA tournament back another week to increase the regular season by a week.  The motivation behind this idea, which would add a weekend to the regular season, is to give teams the opportunity to reduce the number of midweek games and increase the rest/recovery period between games.  While this could also allow teams to play more games if not already at the max. permitted, that is NOT the intent.

(3) For NCAA rankings and at-large selections, a change is being discussed in which winning percentage based on a tie being worth half of a win would be replaced by a point-based system like typically used in standings in which ties are worth 1/3 of wins (i.e. wins = 3 pts, ties = 1pt.).  This is partially being driven by the increase in ties as a result of the elimination of overtime during the regular season.  Beyond each team's winning pct., this would impact Strength of Schedule (SOS) which uses Opponents' Winning Pct. (OWP) and Opponents' Opponents' Winning Pct. (OOWP).

The latter two items, if eventually adopted, wouldn't be in effects for another year or two or more depending on how long discussions and research into the issue drags on.

[PaulNewman]

A lazy Wednesday turns into a day with some interesting results already...

Leb Valley 1 DeSales 1

Kean 0 NJ City 0

Plattsburgh 1 Oneonta St 1

Cortland 2 New Paltz 0 (match at NP)

Denison 2 DePauw 2 (Denison comes back on the road from down 2-0 to draw)

OWU 2 Wabash 0 (in Crawfordsville OWU racked up 4 YCs and Wabash indulged with 6 YCs to make an even 10)

Union 1 SLU 1

VWU 1 Guilford 0

Christopher Newport 0 Salisbury 1 (not a great result for CNU heading into W&L)

West Conn 1 Williams 2

[Another Mom]

Christopher Newport 0 Salisbury 1 (not a great result for CNU heading into W&L)

And W&L's scoreline from today's game was 9-0. Don't know if that helps or hurts for the Christopher Newport game.

[paclassic89]

A few things that I don't think have been mentioned or brought up yet on the message board . . .

(1) Due to the dissolution of the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) and the merger of the Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) and United East Conference (UEC), there are two less automatic berths (AQs) this year and thus two more Pool C at-large berths.  So this year's tournament field is comprised of 41 AQs, 1 Pool B at-large berth, 22 Pool C at-large berths.  That is significant.  I'm not sure it should change anyone's prediction of who is on the "bubble" for at-large selection, but it probably is more a shift from trying to figure out which 2 of 6 "bubble" teams will make the cut to trying to figure out which 2 of 6 "bubble" teams will be left out.

(2) There are discussions about pushing the NCAA tournament back another week to increase the regular season by a week.  The motivation behind this idea, which would add a weekend to the regular season, is to give teams the opportunity to reduce the number of midweek games and increase the rest/recovery period between games.  While this could also allow teams to play more games if not already at the max. permitted, that is NOT the intent.

(3) For NCAA rankings and at-large selections, a change is being discussed in which winning percentage based on a tie being worth half of a win would be replaced by a point-based system like typically used in standings in which ties are worth 1/3 of wins (i.e. wins = 3 pts, ties = 1pt.).  This is partially being driven by the increase in ties as a result of the elimination of overtime during the regular season.  Beyond each team's winning pct., this would impact Strength of Schedule (SOS) which uses Opponents' Winning Pct. (OWP) and Opponents' Opponents' Winning Pct. (OOWP).

The latter two items, if eventually adopted, wouldn't be in effects for another year or two or more depending on how long discussions and research into the issue drags on.

Number 2 and 3 would both be big changes.  I'm not sure i'm in favor of increasing the season by a week but the change in how ties are calculated has my support.

[PaulNewman]

And here come the Violets...a NCAA bid is within reach.

[paclassic89]

Emory clinched the UAA title and the first 2023 AQ berth (if i'm not mistaken) with their 4-1 win over NYU today.

[calvin_grad]

Calvin wins its 17th consecutive regular season MIAA championship with a 1-0 victory over Kalamazoo on Saturday night!

[WUPHF]

Emory clinched the UAA title and the first 2023 AQ berth (if i'm not mistaken) with their 4-1 win over NYU today.

Emory clinched a share of the title and the AQ.

An incredible turn-around for a team that had only one win in UAA play and finished 6-7th a season ago.

[Kuiper]

I don't think people on this board pay much attention to the Coast-to-Coast conference, but I thought it was interesting to point out that the conference currently has 4 regionally ranked teams - Christopher Newport, Mary Washington, Wisconsin-Whitewater, and Wisconsin-Platteville.  All four of those teams are currently scheduled to go to the Coast-to-Coast conference tournament Nov. 2-5 in Santa Cruz, CA (along with UC Santa Cruz and Salisbury).  So, that conference tournament could have a pretty stacked final four if games go according to form, as well as the potential to provide the teams that don't win the AQ with additional RvR wins to the extent that matters.

[Hopkins92]

I don't think people on this board pay much attention to the Coast-to-Coast conference, but I thought it was interesting to point out that the conference currently has 4 regionally ranked teams - Christopher Newport, Mary Washington, Wisconsin-Whitewater, and Wisconsin-Platteville.  All four of those teams are currently scheduled to go to the Coast-to-Coast conference tournament Nov. 2-5 in Santa Cruz, CA (along with UC Santa Cruz and Salisbury).  So, that conference tournament could have a pretty stacked final four if games go according to form, as well as the potential to provide the teams that don't win the AQ with additional RvR wins to the extent that matters.

I actually kind of dig the C2C and last year the production of the playoffs was pretty good so I actually watched a number of those games.

[College Soccer Observer]

Jumping over from the NESCAC thread for a moment.  Conn College and Middlebury both managed to navigate the NESCAC slate without a loss.  Conn had 5 wins and 5 ties, while Middlebury had 7 wins and 3 ties.  Middlebury finishes the regular season at 11-0-4, scoring 40 goals and only giving up 8.  They have only trailed for a total of 15 minutes all season (against Amherset in their first conference game before equalizing).  The Panthers have balanced scoring, with Jordan Saint-Louis with 8, Gavin Randolph with 6, and Tyler Payne with 5, and Colin Duggan and Luke Madden with 3 each.  The Panther defense has been rock solid, with 7 shutouts over their last 9 games.  Since giving up two goals to Vassar off corner kicks, Midd has been lights out winning headballs in the box, as evidenced by Tufts having 13 corners last weekend and generating nothing from them.  The Panthers have secured  hosting rights as long as they are alive in the NESCAC tournament, and will surely have a pool C bid awating them if they do not capture the automatic bid.  Midd will be a tough out for anyone in the postseason.