Top D3 Men's Soccer Rivalries

[Gregory Sager]

North Park v. Wheaton

In the '80s and '90s, the other CCIW men's soccer programs were nothing more than a series of speed bumps that Wheaton annually drove across on its way to the D3 tournament. That began to change around the turn of the millennium after North Park had hired John Born to run its men's soccer program. By the late Teens, Wheaton students were showing up for games wearing orange shirts that said BEAT NORTH PARK on them.

There have been other solid programs in recent years in the CCIW (Carthage for quite a while, North Central nowadays), but this is the men's soccer rivalry in this neck of the woods.

Best chant I ever heard when officiating a Wheaton vs North Park game at North Park in the 2000's came from the North Park student section.  "We go to chapel because we want to, not because we have to"

Not coincidentally, my all-time favorite chant. Extremely school-specific, highly esoteric, accurate, and it hit the Wheaties right where they live.

[TNAggie]

I highly recommend you find that desk and take it to Pawn Stars...

A few I don't have a sense for...

Skidmore-RPI (artists vs engineers)...and then there's Union right there too...

VWU-CNU

Not sure who is Montclair's biggest rival in NJAC

Is Sewanee-Rhodes a thing?

Hopkins vs F&M up and coming?

Gettysburg-Dickinson?

Any pairing involving the Maine NESCACs...

Lynchburg-Roanoke?  Not sure about W&L as my gut response would be Davidson but that doesn't work...

Biggest rivalry in the UAA?

Pac NW?

Is Trinity (TX) vs Colorado Coll a thing?

Speaking of Oneonta....Oneonta vs Cortland?

Fun thread here. Sewanee-Rhodes is definitely a big rivalry in Tennessee. I always love the fact that Sewanee is a founding member of the SEC along with Alabama, LSU, Auburn, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, and a few others. They were a national football powerhouse for many years.

[SierraFD3soccer]

Glad for another W&L supporter on the board!

I would just add that not only does W&L recruit nationally,  they have a few international players as well.

Yeah, definitely DI/II creap.  Mike saw what North Park was doing several years ago with foreign players (W&L lost to North Park in the quarters in 2017).

Going to be more and more foreign players in DIII in near future. 2023 North Park roster has around 21 foreign players. https://athletics.northpark.edu/sports/mens-soccer/roster  Might be the wave of the future for many or at least some D3 teams.

Son played D1 soccer for his first two years.  He ended up starting a little over 2/3rds of the season.  His team was about 50% foreign. He regularly was one of two or three American players starting.  His freshman roommate was a 21 year old Senegalese freshman.  Great guy and amazing player.  Also the starting 11 with my son averaged about 22 years old. This was pre-Covid.

[Hopkins92]

I would agree that in recent years F&M has become Hopkins' biggest rival in soccer, but back in my day it was Swat and Haverford. And that was pretty much across the board for all sports. But both of those two schools have had patches where athletics took some dips, so over time I think rivalries have become more specific to who is good in what sport in the Centennial.

[Gregory Sager]

Glad for another W&L supporter on the board!

I would just add that not only does W&L recruit nationally,  they have a few international players as well.

Yeah, definitely DI/II creap.  Mike saw what North Park was doing several years ago with foreign players (W&L lost to North Park in the quarters in 2017).

Going to be more and more foreign players in DIII in near future. 2023 North Park roster has around 21 foreign players. https://athletics.northpark.edu/sports/mens-soccer/roster  Might be the wave of the future for many or at least some D3 teams.

Not just some -- a great many of them. And it has to do with more than just soccer. A year or two from now, American colleges and universities are going to plunge over a demographic Niagara in a barrel, as the number of American eighteen-year-olds will drop off dramatically. Add in the damage that a lot of schools suffered as a result of Covid, and we'll see small colleges shutter their doors at an even steeper rate than has been the case over the past three years.

So where are the schools that are scrambling for survival going to find the students to make up for that shortfall? Overseas, that's where.

And it certainly won't hurt if those kids from overseas are good at kicking soccer balls (or at swinging golf clubs, or at spiking volleyballs, or at pole-vaulting over bars, etc.).

This will be less of an issue for Washington & Lee, which has the massive endowment and lofty academic reputation that enables it to rise above such mean concerns as drawing enough students to keep the doors open. But the W&Ls of D3 are in the minority; the humble plebeian D3 institutions that need the tuition dollars are much more numerous.

(Incidentally, what North Park has done is not "D1/D2 creep". NPU has had players from Sweden and Norway since the school's inception of varsity soccer in 1981. This should come as no surprise to anyone who is aware that North Park was founded by Swedish immigrants in the late nineteenth century, has the colors of the Swedish flag as the school colors, and bears the nickname "Vikings". There was a Swede on that very first team of Vikings back in 1981, Morgan Emanuelsson. A lot of NPU's best players over the decades have been Swedes or Norwegians; Magnus Ramstrom was a three-time All-CCIW player for North Park circa 1990-92, and three different Swedes and a Norwegian who wore North Park livery made the All-CCIW team back in the Nineties. Kris Grahn, the currrent head coach at NPU and a former USC and d3soccer.com All-American and CCIW Player of the Year, is from Sweden as well. The only difference between the NPU roster for the upcoming season and previous rosters is that Kris really struck paydirt this past off-season in his recruiting trips to Scandinavia in terms of quantity ... and here on the North Side of the Windy City we're hoping that the quality ends up matching the quantity.)

[jknezek]

Traditionally across all sports W&L simply doesn't have an ODAC rival. H-SC's rival is R-MC, period. Roanoke and Lynchburg have each other. W&L has long been an outlier in the conference, and there really isn't a circle the game opponent every year, it's more who is the top competition at that time.

When I think of traditional rival for W&L men's sports, I usually settle on Sewanee as the best option. Weird because they haven't been in the same conference in 50+ years, but they are generally a regular OOC for many sports and align more closely in mission and values than most of the ODAC.

[PaulNewman]

I highly recommend you find that desk and take it to Pawn Stars...

A few I don't have a sense for...

Skidmore-RPI (artists vs engineers)...and then there's Union right there too...

VWU-CNU

Not sure who is Montclair's biggest rival in NJAC

Is Sewanee-Rhodes a thing?

Hopkins vs F&M up and coming?

Gettysburg-Dickinson?

Any pairing involving the Maine NESCACs...

Lynchburg-Roanoke?  Not sure about W&L as my gut response would be Davidson but that doesn't work...

Biggest rivalry in the UAA?

Pac NW?

Is Trinity (TX) vs Colorado Coll a thing?

Speaking of Oneonta....Oneonta vs Cortland?

Fun thread here. Sewanee-Rhodes is definitely a big rivalry in Tennessee. I always love the fact that Sewanee is a founding member of the SEC along with Alabama, LSU, Auburn, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, and a few others. They were a national football powerhouse for many years.

Love these trivia tidbits.

In the early 1890s Kenyon beat the mighty OSU Buckeyes four out of their first five meetings, including twice in 1893 (42-6 and 10-8).  Also the series ended with the Buckeyes winning 14 straight.  The final battle occurred in the infamous year of 1929 when the Buckeyes crushed the Lords 54-0.

[Gregory Sager]

Love these trivia tidbits.

In the early 1890s Kenyon beat the mighty OSU Buckeyes four out of their first five meetings, including twice in 1893 (42-6 and 10-8).  Also the series ended with the Buckeyes winning 14 straight.  The final battle occurred in the infamous year of 1929 when the Buckeyes crushed the Lords 54-0.

The University of Chicago, which was a Big Ten gridiron power back when Amos Alonzo Stagg was the head coach, still owns all-time head-to-head football records of 20-4-1 against Indiana, 27-14-1 against Purdue, and 26-8-3 against Northwestern. Oh, and the Maroons are also 4-0 all-time against Notre Dame. Yet the Maroons are also 0-6 all-time against traditional gridiron nonentity Carleton and 0-6 against Northeastern Illinois University, an urban commuter school that fielded an NAIA football team for only the six seasons that it played Chicago, and whose field didn't even have permanent bleachers.

Nobody has weird football trivia like the U of C. Maroons halfback Jay Berwanger won the first-ever Heisman Trophy in 1935 and was the first player selected in the first-ever NFL draft -- and yet he never played a down of professional football, because George "Papa Bear" Halas's offer of a $13,500 salary was a grand and a half short of what Berwanger felt he deserved to make if he was going to play for the Chicago Bears. And, of course, the world entered the Atomic Age when the atom was split for the first time under the west stands of the original Stagg Field on December 2, 1942.

[WUPHF]

If the history of D3 were to be written, lowly Lake Forest would deserve a mention or two.  They attended the initial meetings that resulted in the Big 10 conference but chose not to join. Concerns over the commitment to amateurism were one of a few reasons they chose not to join.

They were also one of the first schools to field African-American players. 

[SierraFD3soccer]

Traditionally across all sports W&L simply doesn't have an ODAC rival. H-SC's rival is R-MC, period. Roanoke and Lynchburg have each other. W&L has long been an outlier in the conference, and there really isn't a circle the game opponent every year, it's more who is the top competition at that time. 

When I think of traditional rival for W&L men's sports, I usually settle on Sewanee as the best option. Weird because they haven't been in the same conference in 50+ years, but they are generally a regular OOC for many sports and align more closely in mission and values than most of the ODAC.

I'm sure times have changed. During my time at W&L (84-88), we all had Hampden Sydney as our rival in all sports and in all things.  Being all male until a few women entered W&L in 85, the 4 women's colleges had two options us or HS.  Both W&L and HS were heavy on fraternity life and had parties every weekend and Wednesdays which added to the rivalry. So a lot of competition.

As to soccer at W&L and Sewanee, W&L has only played Sewanee 7 times and has beaten them each time. 

10/11/1985   at   Sewanee   W   4-0   Sewanee, TN
09/27/1986   vs   Sewanee   W   8-0   Lexington, Va.
10/19/1996   at   Sewanee   W   2-1   Sewanee, TN
09/09/2005   vs   Sewanee   W   2-1   Cary, N.C.
09/13/2009   at   Sewanee   W   1-0   Sewanee, Tenn.
08/30/2014   at   Sewanee   W   3-0   Sewanee, Tenn.
09/10/2022   vs   Sewanee   W   1-0   Lexington, Va.

However, soccer-wise, W&L often plays Lynchburg and Roanoke multiple times a year (Lynchburg 2 times in 2021, 2019, 2017, 2016 Roanoke 2 times 2022, 2021, 2019, 2018, 2016, 2013). So they are playing these two teams in the regular season and then the playoffs. W&L met either Lynchburg or Roanoke in the finals 4 of the last 7 finals.

[jknezek]

Traditionally across all sports W&L simply doesn't have an ODAC rival. H-SC's rival is R-MC, period. Roanoke and Lynchburg have each other. W&L has long been an outlier in the conference, and there really isn't a circle the game opponent every year, it's more who is the top competition at that time. 

When I think of traditional rival for W&L men's sports, I usually settle on Sewanee as the best option. Weird because they haven't been in the same conference in 50+ years, but they are generally a regular OOC for many sports and align more closely in mission and values than most of the ODAC.

I'm sure times have changed. During my time at W&L (84-88), we all had Hampden Sydney as our rival in all sports and in all things.  Being all male until a few women entered W&L in 85, the 4 women's colleges had two options us or HS.  Both W&L and HS were heavy on fraternity life and had parties every weekend and Wednesdays which added to the rivalry. So a lot of competition.

As to soccer at W&L and Sewanee, W&L has only played Sewanee 7 times and has beaten them each time. 

10/11/1985   at   Sewanee   W   4-0   Sewanee, TN
09/27/1986   vs   Sewanee   W   8-0   Lexington, Va.
10/19/1996   at   Sewanee   W   2-1   Sewanee, TN
09/09/2005   vs   Sewanee   W   2-1   Cary, N.C.
09/13/2009   at   Sewanee   W   1-0   Sewanee, Tenn.
08/30/2014   at   Sewanee   W   3-0   Sewanee, Tenn.
09/10/2022   vs   Sewanee   W   1-0   Lexington, Va.

However, soccer-wise, W&L often plays Lynchburg and Roanoke multiple times a year (Lynchburg 2 times in 2021, 2019, 2017, 2016 Roanoke 2 times 2022, 2021, 2019, 2018, 2016, 2013). So they are playing these two teams in the regular season and then the playoffs. W&L met either Lynchburg or Roanoke in the finals 4 of the last 7 finals.

If you ask anyone in the ODAC who is H-SC's rival in sports the answer will come back R-MC, near 100% of the time for anyone who follows the ODAC closely. W&L just doesn't fit into that equation for H-SC. As for Sewanee, I did mention it's across all sports, not soccer specifically. And that it was something I settled on, not really something that is perfect.

Lynchburg and Roanoke have been good lately in soccer. We play them more than once in many seasons thanks to the ODAC's... less than perfect... solution to having too many men's soccer teams to do a full home and home round robin, but too few to play each school only once. Meaning teams expected to be good, are likely to be matched more than once against other teams expected to be good to try and help boost the resume for NCAA tournament selection.

So yes, Lynchburg, Roanoke, W&L have played a lot lately. But when I was there, late 90s, it was very much Va Wes that was in the mix or winning the ODAC every year. From 1989 to 2008, Va Wes was in something like 15 of 19 ODAC finals, winning 10. They had the big target on their back every year as The Game for W&L.

That to me is not a rivalry. A rivalry is a big game every time you meet, whether the teams on the field are in the mix or not. I don't see that for W&L in the ODAC across all sports. I see the big game as being whoever is the biggest fish at any time. That's not a rivalry, though it has the potential to become one, that's just gearing up to take out the top of the mountain.

And yes, I'm well aware Lynchburg has more ODAC titles than anyone, and it's not even close. A dominant run in the early days of the ODAC and consistent success ever since. Lynchburg is by far the best soccer school in ODAC history, and the only ODAC team to ever make a National Title game.

[BlueJay95]

For those who remember...nothing beat Etown-Messiah in the 80s and 90s. Sadly the Falcons own the Jays now and they no longer are in the same conference so it has become a midweek game with 150-200 fans rather than Saturday afternoon/evening with 3-4,000 fans.

[Kuiper]

North Park v. Wheaton

In the '80s and '90s, the other CCIW men's soccer programs were nothing more than a series of speed bumps that Wheaton annually drove across on its way to the D3 tournament. That began to change around the turn of the millennium after North Park had hired John Born to run its men's soccer program. By the late Teens, Wheaton students were showing up for games wearing orange shirts that said BEAT NORTH PARK on them.

There have been other solid programs in recent years in the CCIW (Carthage for quite a while, North Central nowadays), but this is the men's soccer rivalry in this neck of the woods.

I just found this link to a story about the origins and development of the North Park - Wheaton rivalry.  It's interesting to read the quotes from Wheaton players who admitted that the rivalry was mostly one-sided until North Park "shocked" Wheaton in front of a large crowd in 2004

https://www.d3soccer.com/notables/2010/10/history-soccer-and-a-growing-rivalry

Touted now as a high-class rivalry thriller, the North Park-Wheaton rivalry was not always viewed as such from both sides. Being the "pinnacle" match for a North Park player, as described by former All-Regional North Parker Matthew Bond, Wheaton's players considered the match tough, but not on par with the preceding emotions North Park carried into the match. These sentiments changed in 2004, however, when in front of a large crowd. North Park shocked Wheaton 2-0 at Joe Bean Stadium. From that point, North Park proceeded to defeat Wheaton in the following three bouts, claiming the championship again in 2005 with two wins at Joe Bean Stadium.

"We never took [North Park] lightly," said former Wheaton great Justin Risma. "[The games] were always hard-fought and high-energy." Current Wheaton coach Mike Giuliano exacted the claim in saying, "Anyone who wants a Division I experience with fans and great soccer, they get that at these games as both teams have tremendous fans."

Born agrees the 'proverbial rivalry' has intensified, but believes "North Park is still probably viewed as a little brother by Wheaton," considering their rich history and consistent dominance.

[Gregory Sager]

I don't think that Wheaton regards North Park as the little brother anymore.

I think that they feel that the situation is a little bit more like this now.

[Gotberg]

Just posting this here, since this is an active thread to congratulate Gregory Sager for receiving the call to be enshrined into the North Park Viking Hall of Fame.  He'll be inducted on Dec. 2nd.

Greg has been the play-by-play man,  broadcasting just about every televised NPU sport for over the last decade.