NSCAA Pre-Season poll and College Soccer News Recruiting Class rankings are both up on their respective web sites for your viewing pleasure. Let the debates begin
I can't believe (insert team here) is ranked so (high/low) when they haven't beten anybody/bring everybody back/have so many players hurt/had great recruiting/play in a great/crappy conference!
Everything is debatable... especially these rankings.. I am surprised by some of the Schools in the top 10.. especially Conn.
Of any rankings in all of college sports, probably the least accurate is the preseason soccer poll. Zero consideration for anything other than where did you finish last season. No one looks at graduation, recruits, transfers, injuries, schedule, etc. In football and basketball, people actually get paid to be right on the polls and they are still a mess. In soccer, nothing remotely close to accurate.
I don't even think it's just preseason polls. Some of the postseason awards last year made it very clear that class (ie Senior, Junior, Sophomore, Freshman) and statistical tallies were two huge deciding factors on who made what team. It's admittedly difficult because most programs aren't on TV or streaming, but it seems like the voters could work a bit harder than "Oh he's a senior and had one more assist, he's getting first team"
As other posters have said in the past, the only awards worth looking at are all-conference, because that's the only time coaches have actually seen enough of each player to have a reasonable opinion. And even there, they sometimes make some really bad calls. While we're on about pet peeves, here's a photo spread of the pre-season All Big West team. It's very nicely presented, but I can all but guarantee they won't provide nearly as much attention to the post-season award, even though those will be guys who've actually done something.
Totally agreed. I guess my biggest issue is the class thing...If a Freshman is better than a senior, the frosh deserves the recognition. It's like handing out medals for 10th place..
Meh, I'm fine with it. The Big West appears to be making a concerted effort to emphasize soccer, and I'm not going to complain about ANYONE trying to drum up a little excitement for the college game. Putting out an extra meaningless list beats neglecting to write a press release announcing your recruits any day of the week. I agree that preseason awards are kind of silly though...a watch list that is so large as to be meaningless I can see, but how the h#ll can you be an All-American without playing a game? Likewise, how can you be an all-conference player without playing a conference game (see Dion Acoff in that BW list)? I'd almost rather they release a "best returners" watchlist - upperclassmen that have played well the past year or two and that the casual fan should pay attention to. Don't call it an All Conference list though. Rankings are pretty silly too if the people making the list haven't done their research - and in college soccer, that's pretty much a given for the national lists. I agree with the sentiment about the Big West not emphasizing the post-season awards, though I will point out that it is easier to emphasize an awards list when there aren't actual games being played. It may well be that the Big West puts out a release exactly the same as this one, but it's buried because there are basketball, volleyball, water polo, or you name it games going on.
2012 Big West Men's Soccer Preseason Coaches Poll NORTH DIVISION 1. UC Santa Barbara (8) 32 2. UC Davis 20 3. Cal Poly 16 4. Sacramento State 12 SOUTH DIVISION 1. UC Irvine (6) 29 2. Cal State Northridge (1) 23 3. UC Riverside 15 4. Cal State Fullerton (1) 13 Comments: Lots of respect for UCSB and Irvine, even though they both lost some good talent. Riverside and Fullerton are picked to fall back to earth after fairly strong showings last year. Cal Poly has what looks to be a very impressive recruiting class, so they'll be interesting to take an eye on.
Code: 2012 BIG EAST MEN'S SOCCER PRESEASON COACHES' POLL BLUE DIVISION POINTS 2011 OVERALL 2011 BIG EAST 2011 BIG EAST FINISH 1. Connecticut (11) 91 19-3-3 5-2-2 3rd 2. Notre Dame (1) 74 9-5-4 5-3-1 T-4th 3. Georgetown (1) 72 10-5-4 5-3-1 T-4th 4. Marquette 50 9-8-2 7-2-0 1st 5. Providence 42 11-8-1 5-3-1 T-4th 6. SETON HALL 27 5-11-2 1-8-0 8th 7. Pittsburgh 15 4-13-1 2-7-0 7th RED DIVISION POINTS 2011 OVERALL 2011 BIG EAST 2011 BIG EAST FINISH 1. St. John's (6) 94 14-7-2 4-5-0 3rd (BIG EAST Champs) 2. USF 90 13-4-4 7-0-2 1st 3. Louisville 89 14-7-2 3-4-2 4th 4. Rutgers 60 10-7-4 6-1-2 2nd 5. Villanova 59 8-9-4 3-5-1 T-5th 6. Cincinnati 31 6-11-1 2-7-0 7th 7. DePaul 29 6-11-2 3-5-1 T-5th 8. Syracuse 24 3-12-1 1-7-1 8th Comments: The Big East has come a long way in a short time. Louisville's emergence gets the most attention, and deservedly so, but the conference also has a lot more depth than it used to. Georgetown, Marquette, and Rutgers are all way ahead of five years ago, and this year's Villanova team is worth keeping an eye on, as well. Lots of experience there. As for the traditional powers, they still command a lot of respect, although you'll note that St John's had a losing conference record last season, and Notre Dame had a very disappointing year, too. Ryan Finley and Dillon Powers seemed to be resting on their pre-season all-everything accolades.
2012 A-10 Men's Soccer Predicted Order of Finish (2011 record) 1. Charlotte (16-5-4/6-1-2 A-10) 2. Xavier (12-5-4/4-3-2 A-10) 3. VCU (11-9/6-5 CAA) 4. Saint Louis (6-10-1/4-5 A-10) 5. Fordham (11-7-1/7-2 A-10) 6. George Washington (10-6-3/7-2 A-10) 7. Butler (7-8-3/2-4-2 Horizon) La Salle (7-9-4/4-2-3 A-10) 9. Duquesne (7-9-2/4-4-1 A-10) 10. Dayton (5-13-1/4-4-1 A-10) 11. Temple (9-10/5-4 A-10) 12. Rhode Island (7-10-1/4-4-1 A-10) 13. Massachusetts (4-13-2/2-5-2 A-10) 14. Richmond (5-12-1/4-5 A-10) 15. St. Bonaventure (4-12-3/0-7-2 A-10) 16. Saint Joseph's (2-15-0/1-8 A-10) Comments: Not much competition for Charlotte, although the additions of VCU and Butler will clearly help. It boggles the mind that UMass made it to the Final Four in 2007.
2012 Conference USA Preseason Men's Soccer Poll South Carolina 65 (1) SMU 64 (2) UCF 57 (1) UAB 54 (3) Memphis 50 (1) Tulsa 40 (1) Kentucky 29 Marshall 27 FIU 19 Comments: A wide open race. The votes are none too impressive for new hires at Kentucky and FIU, but this makes it easy to beat expectations.
Code: Atlantic Sun Preseason Men’s Soccer Coaches Poll Pl. Team (1st Place Votes) Points 1. ETSU (6) 78 2. FGCU (3) 75 3. Stetson 61 4. Mercer 53 5. Jacksonville 36 Lipscomb 36 7. USC Upstate 28 8. North Florida 19 Northern Kentucky 19 Comments: Funny conference. ETSU and FGCU seem out of place in such a bottom-feeder league.
2012 CAA MEN'S SOCCER PRE-SEASON COACHES POLL 1. Old Dominion (9 first-place votes) 99 2. James Madison (1 first-place vote) 81 3. Delaware 72 4. William & Mary 69 5. Northeastern 61 6. George Mason (1 first-place vote) 58 7. Georgia State 57 8. Hofstra 34 UNCW 34 10. Drexel 24 11. Towson 16 Comments: ODU returns what should be a potent attack and ran away with the voting. George Mason has added Fro Adu as a volunteer assistant.
Code: MPSF Preseason Coaches' Poll School (1st place votes) Points 2011 Record 1. New Mexico (5) 47 18-0-4/10-0-0 Mountain Division 2. CSU Bakersfield (3) 45 12-4-5/7-3-0 Pacific Division 3. Air Force 30 12-6-2/5-3-2 Mountain Division 3. Denver 30 5-11-3/3-6-1 Mountain Division 5. San Jose State 27 9-8-3/5-5-0 Pacific Division 6. UNLV 22 3-14-0/2-8-0 Pacific Division 7. Seattle 16 2-13-2/1-9-0 Pacific Division 8. Houston Baptist 7 3-10-3/2-2-0 ASC; will be in Mountain Comments: New Mexico and Bakersfield are both reasonable picks for the top ten nationally, but the RPI will absolutely murder them. Denver really needs to pick things up after a terrible 2011.
1. Wright State (11-7-2, 5-2-1 Horizon) 40 (2) 2. Cleveland State (9-9-1, 5-2-1) 39 (2) 3. Valparaiso (9-6-5, 5-1-2) 38 (3) T4. UIC (9-7-3, 3-4-1) 29 (1) T4. Loyola (7-12-2, 3-5) 29 6. Green Bay (11-7-1, 5-3) 24 7. Milwaukee (6-10-2, 2-4-2) 18 8. Detroit (5-12-1, 1-6-1) 7 Until quite recently, The Horizon League was punching above its weight, but between the departure of Butler to the A-10 and recent coaching changes at UIC and Green Bay, that's no longer the case. I don't mean to dismiss the successful work so far by Bryan Davis at Wright State and Mike Avery at Valpo, though. Now that they seem to be among their conference's elite, we'll see how much further they can go.
2012 MAC Men's Soccer Preseason Poll 1. Akron (62 Votes) 2. West Virginia (53) 3. Northern Illinois (51) 4. Western Michigan (32) 5. Hartwick (31) 6. Bowling Green (25) 7. Buffalo (23) 8. Florida Atlantic (11) Predicted Tournament Champion: Akron (6 votes)
