2024 Schedules

[Kuiper]

Chapman

Chapman has some interesting non-conference games on the schedule early in the season.  On the second weekend, they travel to Montclair, New Jersey to take on Stevens and Montclair State.  The following weekend, they host Wheaton (IL) and Whitman.  Immediately thereafter, they open the SCIAC schedule at Redlands and at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.  I suspect we'll know a lot about whether Chapman is a pretender or contender after that string of games.

Millikin

They've added a trip to Iowa to play Grinnell for the first time since at least 2010, if ever.

North Carolina Wesleyan

Pretty tough first four games

@Mary Washington
@Randolph Macon
@ Emory
@ Oglethorpe

Averett

No Davidson DI game like last year.

[Kuiper]

Gustavus Adolphus

Similar schedule to last year in the second year of home-and-homes:  Hosting Loras and Luther this year  Away at Chicago, but added away at North Central while they are in town.

As an aside, it's interesting that they are starting with two exhibitions against college club teams - University of Minnesota and Gustavus Adolphus club team.  I'm sure UM's club team is relatively high quality, but couldn't they just play Gustavus' own club team informally with an asst coach as a referee?

Central College

Opening the season hosting Macalester and Westminster

[Kuiper]

RPI

Not as tough as starting with Mary Washington last year, but New Paltz for a first game won't be a walk in the park, especially at New Paltz in a round robin where neither team is likely expend as much energy with their other game against Sarah Lawrence.  RPI also hosts Colby on a Sunday in the middle of its conference schedule after playing at Union the day before.

Lycoming

Playing a trio of Ohio schools: Baldwin Wallace (at the PSU-Behrend tournament to open the season) and hosting Case Western Reserve and John Carroll.  Also hosting Messiah in a rematch of a game they lost 2-0 in Grantham last year

Keystone

This appears to be their non-conference schedule only, which includes games against Lycoming and at Salisbury (MD)

Probably the big news is that Keystone actually is putting up a schedule for Fall 2024.  Last week, Keystone's accreditor required it to submit a closure/teach-out plan.  Doesn't mean it's closing, but something doesn't sound right at the school based on this story.

https://www.thetimes-tribune.com/news/accreditor-requires-keystone-college-to-prepare-plan-for-potential-closure/article_a40f1e44-a414-5e48-858e-27a767ba0ad8.html

Cententary

As with Keystone, this is non-conference schedule only.  They open against Stockton again this year, which won't be easy.

[Kuiper]

Washington & Jefferson

Playing Oberlin rather than Mount Union this year, which is probably a better matchup for them among Ohio teams.  Also added La Roche and Mt. Aloysius and dropped Muskingum to a scrimmage.

Earlham

I had no idea there was an Indiana University East, but apparently it is an NAIA team.  Only two non-conference games are away from home.

Bates

Bates appears to be the first NESCAC school to post their schedule.  Only non-conference game change from last year is they are playing St. Joseph's of Maine instead of Maine Maritime Academy. That's an upgrade and a potentially tough first game of the year as St. Joseph's was 12-4-3 last year, while Maine Maritime was a decent 8-7-2, but lost to Bates 9-0.

[Kuiper]

Hendrix

Hendrix provides an answer to the annual question of who Trinity is going to invite to San Antonio for its early season round robin.  With Hendrix also playing Southwestern in Georgetown, TX, there's probably a third team involved in San Antonio.  It makes sense that Trinity and Southwestern want to play Hendrix, though, because they probably would like an advance look at a future SAA opponent.  Hendrix has four open TBA spots in the schedule, at least one of which is the result of losing one SAA conference game with Birmingham Southern's closure.

Wisconsin-Stevens Point

Inaugural schedule for UW-SP.  They have a certain amount of optimism with Northland College on the schedule (although, to be fair, they seem to be trying to get by with belt-tightening and department cuts).  After a reasonably gentle schedule the first part of the season including both non-conference and conference game against fellow newcomer Wisconsin-Stout, they travel to Loras late in the season in what looks like an attempt to ramp up to play a murder's row of conference opponents in Whitewater, Eau Claire, and Platteville.

Millsaps

It looks like they are replacing Birmingham Southern by playing Tougaloo College (NAIA) twice in a home and away series.

[ExiledInTexas]

Calvin University

Starting with a local set of games against Letourneau and Lake Forest College (wouldn't be surprised if both also played Hope College that same weekend). Then off to Oregon to play Willamette and Pacific Lutheran. The rest of the non-conference looks similar to last few years: University of Chicago, Ohio Wesleyan and several other Ohio schools.

[Kuiper]

Farmingdale State

Trip to New Jersey the second weekend of the season to play The College of New Jersey and Rutgers Newark.  Also travels to play Haverford in a mid-week game to break up conference play for each team.

Hamline

Could be an honorary member of the WIAC with Stout, Stevens Point, and River Falls on the schedule, all of whom are starting up new teams.

Lakeland

Another team playing brand new WIAC schools in Stout and Stevens Point

[eaglesoccerdad]

https://umweagles.com/sports/msoc/2024-25/schedule

Home v Messiah and Rowan
Neutral v Colorado College
at Hopkins, Rhodes & Mt Union

[Kuiper]

https://umweagles.com/sports/msoc/2024-25/schedule

Home v Messiah and Rowan
Neutral v Colorado College
at Hopkins, Rhodes & Mt Union

Presumably, Colorado College is doing the away portion of a home-and-away series at Christopher Newport and is playing Mary Washington and Christopher Newport on the trip.  That is a crazy hard away trip!

[Kuiper]

Lake Forest

Seems like a lighter schedule than last year when they played Colorado College and North Central, but they do play Wisconsin-Whitewater.

University of New England

Playing both Bowdoin and Bates again this year

Clarkson

Playing at Rochester before it starts conference play against RIT.

[Kuiper]

Some NWC schedules dropped recently.  The upper half of the NWC could be a model of what a new, post Pairwise/NPI NCAA selection system schedule could look like.  The NWC is a top-heavy conference where the second place team can still amass a lot of wins against the weaker teams in the conference, but under the old system ends up with a weak strength-of-schedule.  They play a double round robin in conference, which means less travel and fewer non-conference games (i.e., fewer opportunities to get SoS points).  Typically, they have a few games against Pacific Northwest NAIA/DII teams and then the more ambitious teams host or travel for at least a few games against other teams in Region X.  Under the new system where the wins against bad opponents are dropped for SoS purposes, but not for W-L record purposes, this allows them to get a few strong-ish non-conference wins that could raise their strength of schedule if they need it because they don't win the NWC automatic qualifier, while still having a great overall record.

Whitworth

Whitworth is traveling to Texas the second week of the season to play Trinity at Trinity and Southwestern in Georgetown, TX.  Those could be good games.  Whitworth started slowly last year as Kevin Moon was named interim head coach after school ended and therefore didn't have a spring season to get to know his players, but the team only lost two games in conference (both to Pacific Lutheran) and finished 12-4-4.  This year, Moon was named permanent head coach and Cole Friesen, who only played 1 game as a freshman, but blossomed under Moon as a sophomore, scoring 24 goals and getting 5 assists, returns as a junior and should continue to be dangerous.

Whitman

After traveling to Texas last season, Whitman travels to Southern California the third weekend of the upcoming season to play at La Verne, Redlands, and Chapman.

[Kuiper]

St. Norbert

Not as hard a schedule as 2023, when they opened at Calvin, at Hope, and at North Central.  They open at debutante Wisconsin Stevens Point instead, but they do add games at Gustavus Adolphus and at Carthage to this year's schedule

Martin Luther

Not as many non-conference games because the UMAC does a double round robin, but they do add Ripon to the schedule this year

Methodist

Methodist opens the season by traveling to San Antonio to play Trinity and Southwestern. The next weekend, it then travels north to play at Hood and at Shenandoah

University of St. Joseph (CT)

They typically only have a couple of non-conference games because the GNAC takes up so much space, but they did upgrade a little by hosting Wheaton.

[PauldingLightUP]

Inaugural UW-River Falls schedule. As you can imagine, lots of UMAC and MIAC.

https://uwrfsports.com/sports/mens-soccer/schedule/2024

[Kuiper]

Inaugural UW-River Falls schedule. As you can imagine, lots of UMAC and MIAC.

https://uwrfsports.com/sports/mens-soccer/schedule/2024

For a brand new team in its first season, that is kind of a brutal schedule.  They play 4 teams that made it to at least the second round of the NCAA tournament (St. Olaf, Carleton, Platteville, and Eau-Claire), including the National Champion in St. Olaf and the team St. Olaf scraped by in the 3rd round (Eau-Claire) by a score of 4-3 on a goal in the 85th minute after Eau-Claire had tied it up in the 83rd minute.

[Kuiper]

I didn't realize that the MAC Commonwealth had only 7 conference games.  Makes room for lots of opportunities for teams like Messiah and York to schedule pretty good non-conference opponents.

Messiah

Of particular interest to me is Cal Lutheran, which is making the big cross-country trip this year. Ironically, I don't think Cal Lu has a single player on its roster from the east coast (and only one from east of Arizona I think).  Messiah is also hosting Carthage, which is making a big trip of its own, that same weekend. Messiah does have some interesting away games as well, including at Rowan, at Mary Washington, and at Lycoming.

York College of PA

York opens up hosting Carnegie Mellon, which will be eager for revenge after York beat them last year in Pittsburgh 1-0, and traveling to Washington College, which would like revenge for a 1-1 tie last year at York.  Otherwise, I'm not sure if Nate Gibboney had much to say about this schedule, but if he did he has kept the degree of difficulty fairly modest in what amounts to a rebuilding year.