thought we could get some things rolling now that we are only a short time away from the season starting. Anyone care to put out a top 25?
I was hoping CollegeSoccerNews would stop slacking...... It says "Will be released the later part of July 2011" when you click Preseason Ranking 2011
Agreed. that was one of the reasons I wanted to get the convo going on here! I don't know about a top 25, but I'll give out a top 15: 1. UNC 2. Maryland 3. Louisville 4. UCLA 5. Creighton 6. Notre Dame 7. Virginia 8. UCONN 9. South Carolina 10. Akron 11. Indiana 12. Wake 13. SMU 14. UCSB 15. Duke
My bad...You asked for a top 25 but only went to 15...Thought you wanted help. Must have just dozed off...
Carolina has to adapt to a new system. They lost Eddie Ababio, Michael Farfan, Stephen Mccarthy, Dustin Mccarty, Jalil Ananba, Alex Dixion. That's a lot of talent turn over. #1 start the season? I don't see it.
I don't think there's a huge gap in the Top 10, maybe even 15 teams. If you pushed me to name a preseason No. 1, I suppose I'd lean towards Louisville or UCLA based on what they did last year and what they bring back as opposed to what they lost. But after that, I don't really think there's enough difference between, say, Connecticut, Creighton, North Carolina, UC Santa Barbara, Notre Dame, Akron, Virginia, Indiana and Maryland to be able to say that one of them deserves to be No. 3 and the other 5 or 8 or 11. There just isn't a huge gap among the top teams right now.
Furman will have a good keeper and good back line, but to be anywhere near the Top 25, they'll need some attacking players to step up consistently. It hurts that their leading scorer from last year (who had a whopping 4 goals) isn't coming back. They have a lot of talented young guys who need to step up.
A key member of Louisville's team, one mentioned in the above article, was injured this summer. If the rumors are true, he will not be a factor for a significant (if not the entire) portion of the season. No formal announcement has been made from Louisville so I am holding out hope its not as bad as is being said, but time will tell.
I still feel Louisville is a top 5 team, and could very well be in the final again. They return a ton of talent and have some promising new players.
College Soccer News Check In with their Pre-Season Poll http://www.collegesoccernews.com/index_files/Page424.htm
Re: College Soccer News Check In with their Pre-Season Poll Two rankings are much more interesting than one. http://www.collegesoccernews.com/index_files/Page424.htm http://api.viglink.com/api/click?fo...lsons Top 25&jsonp=vglnk_jsonp_13123361171621 Judging the significant disagreements Indiana (#15 CSN, #6 Eskil) Indiana has good young talent, but it's too soon to put them near the top five. Verdict: CSN. Boston College (#13 CSN, unranked Eskil) Talented team with a lot of returning players. Verdict: CSN Cal (#14 CSN, unranked Eskil) Had a great team last year but lost a ton of players. Verdict: Eskilson Brown (#10 CSN, unranked Eskil) Pat Laughlin inherited a very good team by the standards of a mid-major conference. Verdict: draw Ohio St, Mich St, LMU (#17-#19 CSN, unranked Eskil). All good picks in the high teens. Verdict: CSN x 3 Georgetown (unranked CSN, #9 Eskil). Improving program that hasn't reached national prominence yet and also lost a good senior class. Verdict: CSN FGCU (#24 CSN, #14 Eskil). Promising program that's tough to pin down. Verdict: good pick by both, draw Wake (#25 CSN, #15 Eskil). Should be ready to return to national prominence after spending 2010 rebuilding. Verdict: Eskilson South Carolina, Providence (unranked CSN, #17 & #20 Eskil) - Two teams that will struggle to recover from big losses. Verdict: CSN x 2 Final Score CSN 8, Eskilson 2, draw 2. Nice work by whoever runs CSN.
Sacramento State should at least be honorable mention in the polls. They are back to back Mountain Pacific Sports Federation champs and have advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament the past two seasons. They are only losing three from their starting lineup from last season and have sixteen letterwinners returning from a squad who eliminated Santa Clara last season, before losing at UCLA in the second round (very few beat UCLA in the NCAAs in Westwood).
I think Santa Clara should have been given a low ranking (20-25) as I believe they lost zero starters.
Outside of the Pac-10, the state of California looks strong this year. I'd certainly put Santa Clara, UCSB, and LMU in the top 25, and I'd also give serious consideration to Sacramento State, Cal Poly, St Mary's, and CSU Bakersfield. Not saying I'd select them all, but I'd certainly take any of them ahead of Michigan. Unfortunately, what's likely to happen is that they all beat up on one another and none of them gets a good RPI. If Sacramento State has another good year, they'll probably end up in a second-round game with UCLA, yet again.
Re: College Soccer News Check In with their Pre-Season Poll It will all start in less than a month so we will see how it all falls out...can't hardly wait.