I'd say soccer follow football success much less so than sports like Basketball (or for women, volleyball) do. From what I've seen, school's with a terrible or nonexistent football team are more willing to put money into their soccer program than those with a good football program (Creighton, Akron, Maryland, Wake) Smaller Private school, fair pretty well in soccer while they don't have a prayer in the football ranks. Also, some of the bigger football conferences, the SEC and Big 12, dont even have soccer teams.
Current RPI and records for the ACC teams. The week's schedule is below. All in the top 75 and 9 of the top 40 but only 3 in the top 10. The conference is slipping! 1. Louisville (4-1-1, 1-1-0) 3. Notre Dame (5-0-0, 2-0-0) 7. Virginia (5-0-1, 1-0-1) 13. North Carolina (6-1-0, 2-0-0) 14. Wake Forest (6-1-0, 2-0-0) 15. Clemson (5-1-0, 1-1-0) 19. Duke (4-1-1, 1-1-0) 35. Virginia Tech (2-4-0, 0-2-0) 37. NC State (3-2-0, 1-1-0) 67. Boston College (2-4-0, 0-2-0) 69. Pittsburgh (2-4-0, 0-2-0) 74. Syracuse (4-1-2, 0-1-1) Here's the upcoming schedule. All but UVa have non-con games Tuesday and State's visit to Elon, which besides it's high ranking has gotten its share of ACC scalps the past few years, is the only one that appears to be a big game in terms of the standings. However, UCLA @ Clemson is a glamour game on paper (and the Bruins' RPI should improve over the course of the season) and Wisconsin and Davidson should put up good fights. Also, Louisville will probably drop from No. 1 after playing a team with an RPI in the 200s tomorrow. TUESDAY NC State @ No. 29 Elon (3-0-3) 68. Davidson (5-0-1) @ Virginia Tech 82. UCLA (2-2-0) @ Clemson 84. Wisconsin (3-1-2) @ Duke 89. Bowling Green (5-2-0) @ Notre Dame 117. High Point (2-2-2) @ Wake Forest 128. George Washington (2-3-1) @ North Carolina 138. Providence (2-3-1) @ Boston College 151. Cornell (1-3-1) @ Syracuse 201. Robert Morris (0-6-1) @ Pittsburgh 202. IUPUI (0-5-0) @ Louisville The marquee conference game is probably UNC at UVa. Tech, Syracuse and BC need Ws for both conference seeding and RPI purposes. Could probably throw NC State in that category, too. FRIDAY Notre Dame @ Virginia Tech North Carolina @ Virginia Boston College @ Louisville Pittsburgh @ Clemson Duke @ Syracuse SATURDAY Wake Forest @ NC State
Conferences goes 9-1-1 Tuesday with the Cornell embarrassment the only loss. The other results... Boston College 2, Providence 1, 2OT Simon Enstrom with the PK game-winner (his 5th goal of the year) Clemson 3, UCLA 0 Diego Campos with the 3rd minute PK game-winner and an assist on the second goal. Louisville 3, IUPUI 0 Mohamed Thiaw's 3rd of the year the game-winner; Jake Gelnovatch didn't have to make a save for the shutout. Wake Forest 1, High Point 0, 2 OT Jon Bakero's 5th of the season was the difference along with Wake not allowing a shot on goal. Duke 4, Wisconsin 3 Blue Devils rally from 2 goals down as Cameron Mosely gets the tying and winning goals. North Carolina 4, George Washington 1 Zach Wright with three assists. Notre Dame 2, Bowling Green 1 Substitute Thomas Ueland with the game-winner (his 4th of the year). Pittsburgh 2, Robert Morris 1 Josha Gaspari's first collegiate goal was the game-winner. Virginia Tech 2, Davidson 1 Freshman Kristo Strickler's first of the season the game-winner. NC State 0, Elon 0 Leon Krapf with 5 saves for the shutout.
Virginia Tech 2, Notre Dame 1 Marcelo Acuna with the brace. North Carolina 2 @Virginia 1 OT Jelani Pieters with the game-winner. Louisville 4, Boston College 0 Tate Schmitt with 2 goals and an assist. Clemson 3, Pittsburgh 0 Diego Campos and Robbie Robinson each with a goal and an assist. Duke 2, @ Syracuse 1 Markus Fjortoft with the game winner.
Virginia beats a plucky Davidson team 2-1 on a goal scored with one second left in regulation. Meanwhile, Syracuse shutout Colgate 2-0. Here is the current RPI and record of the ACC teams heading into the rest of this week's games. 2. Virginia - 6-1-1 3. North Carolina - 8-1-0 5. Louisville - 6-1-1 6. Notre Dame - 6-1-0 7. Virginia Tech - 4-4-0 8. Duke - 6-1-1 11. Wake Forest - 8-1-0 12. Clemson - 7-1-0 45. NC State - 3-3-1 57. Syracuse - 5-3-2 58. Boston College - 3-5-0 77. Pittsburgh - 3-5-0 TUESDAY Notre Dame @ 9. Indiana (6-0-2) 47. West Virginia (6-1-2) @ Pittsburgh 53. South Florida (4-3-0) @ Louisville 70. Charlotte (3-1-2) @ Clemson 92. South Carolina (4-3-1) @ Wake Forest 98. Rhode Island (3-2-2) @ Boston College 148. Appalachian State (3-4-1) @ Duke 175. Winthrop (2-5-1) @ North Carolina 190. UNC Asheville (1-7-0) @ NC State 194. Longwood (0-6-1) @ Virginia Tech FRIDAY Virginia @ Notre Dame Clemson @ Wake Forest Virginia Tech @ Boston College NC State @ North Carolina Syracuse @ Pittsburgh SATURDAY Louisville @ Duke This could be a huge week for Pittsburgh. WVU is a good team but Pitt has played better teams close and this could be their first signature win. And then Syracuse, which has been weaker then it's been in 2-3 years, playing AT Pittsburgh could be the program's first ACC win. Notre Dame at IU is also an obviously big game. The rest are pretty "meh," though Charlotte and South Florida should provide good tests.
Clemson @ Wake could go a long way in deciding the Atlantic. Would give Wake tiebreakers over the next best (Louisville, Clemson, NCSU) with, on paper, an easier 2nd half schedule outside of the game against UNC (VT, @BC, Syracuse).
It's almost like the Pitt players were really motivated to play their school's biggest historic rival (for the first time in forever because the former coach wouldn't schedule WVU...)
Louisville fired AD Tom Jurich today. Needed to happen, in light of recent events, but he played a big role in helping the men's soccer program become a national power.
Wake had a come from behind win to beat South Carolina 2-1. Outshot them 22-1. Interesting to note that 23 of Wake's 28 goals have come in the second half. They honestly haven't looked great in the first half of most of their games. The game this weekend against Clemson should be a good one. Clemson has been their only loss in the ACC regular season since Muuss has been in charge.
There are some really good matchups this weekend that I'm really looking forward to. The Wake-Clemson game is a toss up. Clemson hasn't played a very good team yet this year, and Wake really struggled against the only good team they have played. (Louisville, while they still had 11 men). Notre Dame-Virginia, Notre Dame is looking to not have a train wreck of ending to their season like they did last year. Meanwhile, UVA has been narrowly pulling off results against good teams. If I was a betting man, I would have to take Notre Dame in this game, mostly because they will be looking for vengeance after the IU result. Louisville-Duke, Duke has had a surprisingly good start to their season, but Louisville has looked like the better team so far this season. I expect Louisville to take this one. As with all ACC games, any team is capable of beating any team. Should be a great weekend of soccer!
Current RPI heading into this weekend's games: 1. Virginia @ 9. Notre Dame 10. Clemson @ 11. Wake Forest 16. Virginia Tech @ 90. Boston College 69. NC State @ 2. North Carolina 66. Syracuse @ 46. Pittsburgh SATURDAY 12. Louisville @ 7. Duke Pitt gets a win tonight and they are suddenly in the at-large conversation.
It needed a fifth season to get this 1st ACC win for Pitt........ My son did not live it but I am sure he is very happy for them, as he has still some friends playing there and keeps a lot of good memories from Pittsburg as Pitt looked very well after him during his injury spells. Tonight's win marks Pitt's first...🔹ACC win🔹Conference win since 2011🔹Win over a ranked opponent since 2008#H2P pic.twitter.com/jIWLunSrPh— Pitt Men's Soccer (@Pitt_MSOC) September 30, 2017
And the goals were not bad, see by yourself: The Panthers recorded a 2-1 win over No. 21 Syracuse tonight!#H2P pic.twitter.com/1g4SEzSlje— Pitt Men's Soccer (@Pitt_MSOC) September 30, 2017 PS: they are so happy to finally have the old chip off their shoulders: shown by their excited Twitter activity
I caught some of the game and Pitt was playing some quality soccer. The turnaround may be happening quicker than we all anticipated!
Hey, look at that! While I'm a little smug for having guessed correctly, I am thrilled for the Pitt players and for Jay Vidovich. Congrats to all of them and the rest of the Pitt family. Those were some sweet goals. A lot of good passing, off-the ball movement and excellent finishing. Real nice stuff.
Latest records - including conference, RPI and this week's schedule. (Divisions listed in parenthesis; A = Atlantic, C = Coastal.) 2. North Carolina --- 10-1-0 --- 4-0-0 (C) 4. Virginia ------------- 6-1-2 ---- 1-1-2 (C) 5. Wake Forest ------ 10-1-0 --- 4-0-0 (A) 6. Louisville ----------- 7-1-2 ---- 3-1-0 (A) 7. Notre Dame ------- 6-2-1 ---- 2-1-1 (C) 10. Clemson ----------- 8-2-0 ---- 2-2-0 (A) 12. Duke ---------------- 7-2-1 ---- 2-2-0 (C) 18. Virginia Tech ------ 6-4-0 ---- 2-2-0 (C) 39. Pittsburgh --------- 5-5-0 ---- 1-3-0 (C) 74. NC State ------------ 4-4-1 --- 1-3-0 (A) 89. Boston College ---- 3-7-0 --- 0-4-0 (A) 93. Syracuse ------------ 5-4-2 --- 0-3-1 (A) Upcoming games... MONDAY 3. Portland (5-4-1) @ Virginia TUESDAY Pittsburgh @ 3. Columbia (5-0-2) 23. Akron (5-2-1) @ Syracuse 83. James Madison (4-3-3) @ North Carolina 87. Elon (3-1-6) @ Duke Virginia Tech @ 108. South Carolina (4-5-1) 119. Belmont (3-3-2) @ NC State 142. Northwestern (2-8-0) @ Notre Dame Portland should give UVa a tough game (and some good RPI help) and Akron is a golden chance for 'Cuse to get their season back on track and jump up in the RPI. Elon always plays the ACC tough, JMU upset UNC a couple years ago when they were No. 1, Northwestern always gives Notre Dame fits and South Carolina at home is no pushover. But the non-con game of the week involves suddenly-relevant Pittsburgh. The Panthers currently hold the last projected at-large spot but because of Columbia's hot start, a win over the Lions would fault Pitt way up in the RPI. FRIDAY Wake Forest @ North Carolina Notre Dame @ Clemson Louisville @ Virginia Tech Duke @ Pittsburgh Boston College @ Virginia NC State @ Syracuse Louisville-Tech is a game between two top 20 RPI teams and it's only the third best ACC matchup this weekend. Wake-UNC should be a tremendous game between two top 5 teams while Notre Dame and Clemson is a matchup of top 10 teams. And keeping with the Pitt theme, if they beat Columbia, that matchup with Duke suddenly gets real interesting. Having said all that, the most crucial matchup is likely Cuse-State because the loser is likely completely out of the running for an at-large bid.
Portland's no help. It's a home game, so the only thing that's important for Virginia's RPI is Portland's win-loss-draw record. Virginia's current raw SOS is .6241, and Portland is just 5-4-0 (.5556). Virginia's SOS will drop as a result. LATE EDIT: Portland leads 1-0 midway through the 2nd half, thanks to a 12th-minute goal. Pitt's game at Columbia, though, is huge for the Panthers -- a win over a top 15 team on the road earns the max bonus. ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE STANDINGS
How much would Columbia drop though if they eat a home loss against Pitt? I can only imagine they're going to start dropping anyway with their albatross of a conference schedule coming in to wreck their SOS.