How about a thread where people can comment generally on the Div. 1 collegiate soccer season--opinions on teams, games, conferences, players, rankings, whatever! It seems that when it comes to games, most here tend to comment only on threads devoted to their favorite team or conference; this is meant to expand our opinion market a bit--so that a fan of say, Boston College can make a comment about a Pac12 game or player, if s/he wishes to do so, or a Pac12 fan can opine about, say, the ACC, or about an exceptional individual performance they happened to notice. This is the first day of the season, I believe, and there will be lots of great games worth comment, I am sure.
Well, UNC is playing Illinois at the moment--and the match is tied at 1 in the second half. Illinois scored in the 19th minute to take the lead at the half, which was very surprising. I did not see first half but UNC is dominating play now and may have done the same in the 1st half. Illinois had one shot on goal in the 1st period--and it went in the net. I think UNC has lots more shots and SOG, and I expect the Tar Heels to win this game. Also tonight: Duke vs. Ohio State, in Durham, which should be a good match, and St. John's vs. Tennessee. I'm sure there are a number of others.
I think I'll post my thoughts here on which teams I think will be selected as 1- and 2-seeds in the Tournament. I project these 5 teams battling for a 2-seed: PSU, Florida, West Virginia, TAMU, Santa Clara. PSU, Florida, and West Virginia will bring back experienced squads. What may prevent these teams from playing in the final weekend is firepower to prevail over the favorites. For West Virginia, this also looks to be the final year of a long Canadian pipeline. TAMU should have enough firepower and experience. Can they do better than last season’s early exit? There’s usually a mid-major selected as a 1- or 2-seed. This year it could be Santa Clara. SCU can score goals in buckets, but can give up a ton as well. If they can tighten them up, they have enough firepower and talent to compete. If their own conference don't produce a handful of sub-200 RPI teams, they have a good chance of getting a 2-seed. There are 4 teams, to me, who are clearly on the top tier. I project that these 4 teams will be selected as a Tournament 1-seed: Stanford, UCLA, FSU, North Carolina. Stanford were the 2017 national champions. Notable loss will be Andi Sullivan; otherwise, that high-scoring offense looks intact. UCLA played in last season’s title game. With another year’s worth of experience and with a brutal non-conference schedule, expect that talented team to earn a 1-seed. FSU have the most-experienced team amongst the favorites, and with a talented offense, should be playing through the final weekend. North Carolina have the experience and with College Cup in Cary, NC, will be super-motivated to be the home team for 4 weeks in the Tournament and College Cup. Let the season begin.
I’m happy to see that as an FSU fan! Though not quite as optimistic. If the back line gels and they realize the expected upgrade in the mids with the freshmen contributing, could be a big season for them. The team just hasn’t seemed to mesh the last two seasons like previously in their college cup streaks. Getting to a 1 seed will require them to come together quick to avoid too many losses in a brutal schedule. I expect them to be very dangerous come tournament time (barring injuries) no matter the record.
Duke with a solid 2-0 win over Ohio State in Durham--a good start for the Blue Devils who lost a lot of all-conference performers from last year's exceptional team but have a lot of young talent. They scored twice in the second half to beat an OSU team that is pretty well organized defensively but didn't show much in attack. Tennessee beat St. John's 2-0, also scoring twice in the 2nd half to beat the Big East competitor. The Vols were ragged in the first half, trying to force the ball into Bunny Shaw too often, but settled in the second half. St. John's was well-organized and double-teamed Shaw all night and UT will need better attacking play from their midfield. M.A. Vignola with an excellent game for the Vols.
I'm wondering if there should be more discussion about Princeton. It's easy to focus on the power conferences, but there are a few other teams out there that could be real competitors but are easy to overlook.
They have some really good frosh coming in. I am afraid to say too much since got some negativity from maybe trolls when I said nice things about specific kids
Sorry if I ask very stupid questions, but I am an European observer and I am not really familiar with US school-structure: what's the difference (if any) between a college and an university? And are there separated leagues for them, or is it a same league (or system of leagues)? I ask because I really have a difficult time following the various leagues covered by this youth soccer section under the general tag of "Women's college" (not to mention all of the acronyms as BIG, PAC and such that leave me flabbergasted! ). Those who know me are aware that I am interested in Japanese women's soccer in particular: there is a sophomore at University of Kentucky, Yuuka Kurosaki, who have captained a very successful High School team in the past, when she was in Japan, and who now scored back-to-back goals in two wins by one goal margins that opened the season for University of Kentucky, on 17h and 19th of August. Since I don't think this team is covered by a single thread here on BigSoccer, I was wondering if this general thread was the right place to ask if anyone had seen the games or had other inside info, but of course I am not sure if we're talking about "Division 1" or what! So I will thank anyone willing to give me some tip about where University of Kentucky could possibly belong to on these boards!
So universities are going to be generally larger than colleges but a lot of times people will use college and university interchangeably when referring to post-education studies so I can understand the confusion. I've been in California pretty much all my life so I'm only familiar with the school systems in my state so I'm not sure where University of Kentucky falls into. I'm assuming since it's a large university, it would be Division 1 NCAA but I could be wrong. The link I'm posting is from a recent NCAA Equalizer blog that provides a nice introduction to NCAA structure better than I can. https://equalizersoccer.com/2018/08/15/crash-course-to-ncaa-soccer/
Games I've partially watched: --The Florida v. Washington game was a good one. The teams looked evenly matched, but Florida won it late on a mistake by the Husky keeper, who came out to the top of the 18-yard box to clear a ball that a Washington defender was in a position to handle; the keeper kicked the ball into a Florida player, who then gathered in the deflection and scored the winning goal at around the 80' mark or so, the gators prevailing 2-1. Washington had taken the lead in the first half, then Florida tied it in the 2nd before getting the winner. Washington was well-organized and played well-enough to get a result, though they got a bit leaky late and gave up some chances. Ohio State is taking its lumps early. They lost 0-2 to a fairly young Duke squad in Durham on Thursday then got fairly dominated by UNC yesterday, losing by the same score. Ohio State is solid and hard-working and well-organized, but seems to lack dynamic playmakers in attack--but then the quality of the opposition must be takent into account. They did well to only lose by 2 in a game in which the Tar Heels apparently dominated possession and outshot the Buckeyes by 23-4 (with SOG 12-3). Dorrance starts 11 top-rated recruits then mixes and matches those players with about 11 other top-rated recruits as games progress--wearing opponents down with his talent, and he's got a TON of talent. Speaking of talent, Tennessee has quite a bit of it and is 2-0. Now the challenge for coach Brian Pensky and the Vols is to play soccer at a level that one sees with UNC. Team needs to make better decisions in the attacking half of field. In their first game against St. John's they spent too much time trying to force the ball to their star center-forward, Bunny Shaw, which didn't work; yesterday, against George Mason, they moved the ball around better and didn't fixate on Shaw, and won easily 4-0. Vols freshman Abby Burdette is a player to watch--The Maryland Gatorade Player of the Year is strong and fast and reminds me of former UVA star M. Doniak. She is playing outside back now, and well, but my guess will be UT's center forward next year. Pa. State with a big 1-0 win over West Virginia. Did not see the game. WVA had better numbers but the Nittany Lions coach praised her team's defense and "grit" and Pa. State--after barely registering a shot in the first half, got a goal late to win it. Gotta try and follow the UCLA Bruins over their next three games as they play Pa. State, Florida and Florida St. in succession. That's a crucible. They beat Long Beach State in OT the other night in a match that was much tougher than it should have been. Oregon with a nice, and surprising win over Clemson, 1-0. Certainly has be considered an upset. Any other upsets?
[QUOTE="blissett, post: 37025515, member: 193219" So I will thank anyone willing to give me some tip about where University of Kentucky could possibly belong to on these boards! [/QUOTE] Th University of Kentucky plays in Division 1 in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The SEC is one of the best conferences for women’s soccer and has a board devoted to it.
Th University of Kentucky plays in Division 1 in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The SEC is one of the best conferences for women’s soccer and has a board devoted to it.[/QUOTE] Thanks very much!
Watching and following Southland and Conference USA this fall. Although UIW has new coaching staff, the team appears to be in free fall just like the last few years under old coaches. Playing the same way and expecting a different result is going to make the season a very long one despite some early on success last spring with different style of play and players. Noticing the same trend at Texas State with a tenured coaching staff that seems stale and arbitrary, despite the talent pool. UTSA, which has a brand new coaching staff, appears to be changing the direction of their program, which seems to be evading these other programs. I realize these are low men on the totem pole so to speak conferences, but athletic directors should care when crazy coaches affect their teams so negatively.
In further answer to your question, in the US a "college" offers a four-year program resulting in a degree, but ordinarily does not offer advanced degree programs that would result in an advanced degree such as a masters degree or a doctorate degree. A "university," for purposes of your question, offers a similar four-year program but also advanced degree programs. Division I includes both colleges and universities. For women's soccer Division I has 335 schools that field teams. In most cases, teams' rosters consist only of "undergraduate" students, meaning those that are in their first four years. Students are eligible to play for four years, so occasionally a player will miss a year of play (mostly due to injury) and have an extra year of eligibility that allows her to play when she is in an advanced degree program. The teams are organized into 31 conferences. Teams play either a full or nearly a full conference round robin. Teams also play non-conference games. There are conferences that are considered "power" conferences, and they are the Southeastern Conference (SEC), the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), the Big Ten, the Big Twelve, and the Pac 12. For Division I women's soccer, other strong conferences ordinarily include the Big East, the American, the West Coast, and the Ivy, and maybe one or two others. As a prior poster said, Kentucky is in the SEC. Last year, according to the NCAA's rating system, the SEC was the top conference. The SEC has 14 teams, and last year Kentucky was #11 in the intra-conference competition. Overall, again according to the NCAA's rating system, Kentucky was #123 in Division 1.
Your #1 seeds will be the top 2 in the PAC-12 (I’m saying Stanford and USC), with the winner being the #1 overall seed. The ACC winner (UNC) and the SEC winner (Florida). #2 Seeds will be #3 in the PAC-12 (UCLA), ACC runners up, Big 12 and Big 10 Winners (FSU, WVU and Penn State). Your highest non-P5 seed could be a #3 as long as they have 2-3 losses at most. UCF, Princeton and USF come to mind. Your best bet for a lower seed to win a game in the tournament will probably be a FGCU or Pepperdine.
from espn.com: http://www.espn.com/espnw/sports/ar...bruins-look-leg-2018-ncaa-women-soccer-season Additional musings on the Tournament: All four 1-seeds need to be league champions. This is patterned from the UEFA Champions League, where Pot 1 are all league champions. As a result, each bracket would have a true league champion. So redoing last year's 1-seeds would have been champions from the Pac, ACC, SEC, AAC. As a result, a non-P5 team got a 1-seed. Right now, it is too easy for P5 teams to piggyback on each other's successes to get a 1- or even a 2-seed. I recall when UCLA won the Tournament as a 2-seed, the 1-seeds were all from the ACC. I felt that UCLA got shafted out of a 1-seed that year, of course I was biased because I saw them play. But my instincts were proven correct when UCLA went to Charlottesville and won, and ultimately won it all. Just another incentive to win your league. And it will quiet speculation about Mark sandbagging his own conference tournament coz his team has a good-enough resume. Tournament-eligible teams need to finish in the top half of their league. This is a no-brainer. This need not even be debated nor discussed. It is far too easy for the 7th-place Pac team to make the dance. Just look at the number of qualifiers from the ACC and the SEC. Why reward a bottom-half team from a league when they are obviously piggy-backing on the success of the top teams in their own league? If UEFA operated like the NCAA Tournament, 11 teams from the Bundesliga would qualify in the Champions League. If the NCAA are all about participation, then let the the leagues' top half be eligible for participation. Too many participation invites for hangers-on from a P5, just like present-day participation medals for finishing a 5-k. Reduce Tournament to 56 teams. The eight 1- and 2-seeds get a 1st-round bye. 48 teams to go at each other in the 1st weekend. 24 winners from the 1st week plus the eight 1- and 2-seeds equals 32 teams to clash on the 2nd weekend. Eliminating eight slots is another way to rid the Tournament of hangers-on from the P5 conferences. Take a look at who the last 8 in usually are and you'll get an idea how over-represented the P5 conferences are in the dance. And another huge incentive for P5 teams to win their league.
They are not low men on the totem pole...great kids, some terrific players! Conference USA has gone downhill except for North Texas... ..would be nice to see some fresh coaches. Will be interesting to see how UTSA does... good school that shouldn't be at the bottom. WKU has good players but can never do anything with them.
I like some of these ideas! Namely number 1 seeds have to be conference champs. Either reg season or tourney. Good change. You have to be in top half of conference to make ncaa as an at large. LOVE IT! This will have a trickle effect Into recruiting for more parity. And teams in power 5 will have to go play. Right now they play cupcake teams preseason and then just lace up their shoes and show up for conference. (I know they care and I am over simplifying but it would add so much meaning for the 6/7th place teams in the pac 12 to BATTLE for their final landing spot). Keep tourney at 64 but change to a national seeding. Regional seeding is lame and amateur. Good ideas here!
Sure you can hate on the P5 conferences getting a lot of teams in but at the end of the day they are usually better than a 2nd or 3rd place team from mid major conferences. not always but most of the time. ACC got 8 teams in last year and they went 8-0 in the first round