Identify FIVE collegiate soccer programs that you want to see get better

Discussion in 'Women's College' started by WPS_Movement, Apr 16, 2014.

  1. WPS_Movement

    WPS_Movement Member+

    Apr 9, 2008
    What college teams do you want to see improve the most (and be consistently good from year to year)?

    1.) UCONN (they used to be a force. let's face it, UCONN women are supposed to be good in sports)
    2.) Texas (it would be great for the sport if Texas became a consistent Top 15 program)
    3.) Oregon (nice facilities, and the Pac 12 could use another Top 25 program each year)
    4.) Kentucky (good year this past season, need to be a Top 25 team consistently for the SEC)
    5.) Maryland (let's hope they become a Top 15 national program each year in the Big Ten)
    Honorable Mention: Arizona State (Pac 12 needs to be more than just UCLA, Stanford, Cal).

    *I didn't select an ACC team, because the ACC is already the best conference (BY FAR).
     
  2. Nacional Tijuana

    Nacional Tijuana St. Louis City

    St. Louis City SC
    May 6, 2003
    San Diego, Calif.
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    1. Sacramento State. I attended Sac State.
    2. San Diego State. I live in San Diego and that is my local team. And they have spirit.
    3. Portland. Favorite past champion. Could step it up a notch, though. Still, a good small school.
    4. Pitt. I last lived in the Pittsburgh area, and loved it. But Pitt is quite the underdog in the state in most sports, and unfortunately w. soccer my be the best example of this.
    5. Where did UConn go?
     
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  3. Soccerhunter

    Soccerhunter Member+

    Sep 12, 2009
    A strange topic (although I understand it's the off season doldrums:confused:.)

    This topic is the mirror image of the angst we can see on the UNC thread, or from time to time on the Stanford thread, or occasionally on the Notre Dame, Florida State..... or among the fans of any team that once had considerable success and they are now dealing with the fact that dominance may not be possible. Success breeds high expectations that it will continue and we fans really seem to have a hard time dealing with reality as parity comes to women's college soccer. (Although I must say that, on this board, the Portland supporters are the most realistic of any of us!)

    So what is a request to identify teams that we would like to see do better? Is it an invitation to declare higher expectations for teams that have done better in the past? But any team that does really well by definition means that other teams will pay the price by losing more. Are there teams that should be identified as deserving to loose more or to serve as the plankton at the bottom of the food chain to support more predators at the top?

    Or are we simply being asked to identify our favorite teams?
     
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  4. Hooked003

    Hooked003 Member

    Jan 28, 2014
    I would state the question as "Are there any schools that could grow the sport at the college level if they were more successful?" There are a bunch of metrics that come to mind. First is TV ratings. In football, certain schools can gather enormous ratings when they're good (e.g., ND, USC, Miami, Oklahoma) and other schools can be good without moving the ratings needle that much (e.g., Rutgers, UCONN, Northwestern). Second is attendance. Some schools draw large crowds on the road because folks want to see them. In women's basketball, this was Tennessee and is now UCONN. Going to be difficult to apply those metrics to a niche sport like women's soccer, but it would be some indication. My guess is that schools in conferences with widely distributed cable networks stand to make the most impact. For example, the PAC-12 Network shows a lot of women's soccer games live. I'm going to give the network angle some more thought and post later, although anybody else that wants to explore that angle before me please have at it!
     
  5. upprv

    upprv Member

    Aug 4, 2004
    San Diego State has won back to back conference titles (and conference tournament titles), has lost 1 conference game at home in 4 years, has been to the sweet 16 and ranked in the top 5 in the country in the last two seasons. The question is what teams do you want to see GET better? Are you saying you want to see them get better than this? Or that this is a team that you follow that you want to see continue to do well?

    I took it as what programs have underachieved that you would like to see reach their potential.

    PAC 12 needs another consistently strong team. Agree. We will see with this new influx of coaches who that team will be. Cal gets the best players but the guy couldn't win an NCAA game with Alex Morgan on his roster so I'm not sure it's a talent issue. USC gets enough talent to threaten the big 2. The prob is the big 2 are really really good.

    I don't know who id like to see be good. The big schools have so many advantages so it's hard to root for them. I'm surprised some of these big bcs schools aren't better. I'll need to think on this one.
     
  6. WPS_Movement

    WPS_Movement Member+

    Apr 9, 2008
    Smaller Schools:
    1.) Pepperdine (to be consistent each year)
    2.) Florida Gulf Coast (great kits, and just a program you could certainly root for)
    3.) Northern Arizona (great stadium and view)
    4.) Villanova
    5.) Creighton, St. Louis (tie) (the central part of the U.S. need these types of Midwestern schools to step it up)
     
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  7. Nacional Tijuana

    Nacional Tijuana St. Louis City

    St. Louis City SC
    May 6, 2003
    San Diego, Calif.
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Not sure if this is aimed at me or WPSM. I recognize that in the past several years, SDSU has gotten to be good, and interesting to watch, even if they weren't already my home team. I think the hometown pride, plus the good people who are part of the program, has just wanted me to see the Aztecs be the next new College Cup team. Getting up to the third round that year was a blast, throughout the season, really. I think part of me got a little greedy, and thus deflated and eager for the next season once UCLA came along.

    I do love fall on the Mesa.
     
  8. Hooked003

    Hooked003 Member

    Jan 28, 2014
    Without doubt, the biggest mover would be the Big Ten network (BTN) because it's has 90 million potential viewers. However, the problem is that, last year, BTN only showed 13 women's soccer matches live. If that's because the BTN is not committed to showing many women's soccer matches, it wouldn't matter how many Big Ten teams were good. In contrast, the PAC-12 Network showed 58 women's soccer matches live last year. However, the PAC-12 potential viewership is less than half that of the BTN. The SEC is bringing a network to cable this summer, but it's completely unknown (as far as I can tell) how many women's soccer matches they'll show. The potential viewership numbers could be in the area of the BTN number, though. The ACC is regional only; the Big-12 appears to be regional only. ESPN has done a deal with Roku & Apple TV to stream to TV sets for 15 smaller conferences this coming year (e.g., Ohio Valley, Sun Belt, Mid-American, Big West, etc.), which will give a potential audience of 21 million, but it's completely unknown how many women's soccer matches will be shown.

    So, as of today, I'd say that women's soccer as a college sport would be better off if teams from the Pac-12 and Big Ten would improve. In a year (or two), we could probably add SEC teams to that list.
     
  9. CollegeSoccerDad

    Mar 2, 2013
    I would like to see a few of the non-power conferences improve to the point where there was more parity in Women's Soccer. I think the parity will continue to expand as the sport continues to grow but it will take a while.
    1. Pitt - Great school, great facilities, great conference (for soccer), the team will take time to catch up.
    2. BU - See #1. The move to the Patriot league was a good move for competition and might help take BU to the next level.
    3. Texas - Big 12 needs more teams at the elite level....why not Texas..
    4. USC - Pac 12 See #3...
    5. Towson - The athletic teams at the university have made great strides to high levels, soccer has not gotten there but hopefully will some day...and it might prompt them to bring the men's team back.

    The list is a bit all over the place but...
     
  10. WPS_Movement

    WPS_Movement Member+

    Apr 9, 2008
    But it should be.
    If 5 programs were to ascend to a much higher plateau, it would only be ideal for it to be spaced geographically.
     
  11. holden

    holden Member+

    Dundee FC, Yeovil Town LFC, Girondins de Bordeaux
    Oct 20, 2009
    Los Angeles
    Club:
    Dundee FC
    I just have one I'd like to see do better, my alma mater, UCSB. The men's team is usually ranked in the top 20. The women's team is nowhere to be seen.
     
  12. WPS_Movement

    WPS_Movement Member+

    Apr 9, 2008
    They're hosting the U-17 China WNT ..........

    http://ucsbgauchos.com/sports/w-soccer/index
     
  13. SoccerTrustee

    SoccerTrustee Member

    Feb 5, 2008
    Club:
    Everton FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Brazil
    Here are my five picks of programs I want to see get better:

    323. Alcorn
    324. Alabama A&M
    325. Arkansas Pine-Bluff
    326. Delaware State
    327. Grambling

    The numbers are their RPI. Bottom 5 RPI programs last year, so would be great to see them go up as they cannot go any lower.
     
  14. holden

    holden Member+

    Dundee FC, Yeovil Town LFC, Girondins de Bordeaux
    Oct 20, 2009
    Los Angeles
    Club:
    Dundee FC
    Well they already played them... but I can't find any info on if they won or lost. China also played Westmont College, so it's not like UCSB was any special honor or anything. They were just playing the teams in the neighborhood.
     
  15. WPS_Movement

    WPS_Movement Member+

    Apr 9, 2008
    Oh, I didn't realize the date on it (Feb. 26?)
    Why do they still have it up as a "hot news story" on their front page, if it was played over a month ago? LOL.
     
  16. WPS_Movement

    WPS_Movement Member+

    Apr 9, 2008
    Will Georgia Tech or Kansas State ever get a real program?
     
  17. Hooked003

    Hooked003 Member

    Jan 28, 2014
    I wasn't at the scrimmage, but a friend was there. They played standard regulation time, plus practice kicks from the mark at the end. Wet turf field (not Harder). Perhaps as many as 500 students came out for this scrimmage, plus quite a few China supporters. Final score: China 3, UCSB 1 (Beckley, unassisted). China stole a weak back-pass for the first goal, got a PK for the second goal, and made a good high shot for the third goal. China was in the US preparing for the 2014 FIFA U17 WWC in Coast Rica, which was won by Japan.
     
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