There is no doubt that Maryland, Akron and New Mexico were Outstanding due to outstanding coaches. But the facts are as follows. Since 1981 only teams from four conferences have won the College Cup; They are ACC (five teams); Maryland, North Carolina, Clemson, Duke and Virginia; Big East (two teams); UCONN & St. Johns; Big Ten (Two Teams); Indiana & Wisconsin; and the PAC Ten (One Team); UCLA.....In fairness to Santa Clara, they had a co-championship in 1989. That's College Cup Champions from four conferences in the last 25 years. So did Coach Lolla improve his chances by moving to the Big East? Is Coach Fishbein bucking history? Will Coach Cirovski and the ACC continue to lead the way, having had the highest number of teams, winning the Cup? I was somewhat suprised that only one team from the PAC 10 had won and to be honest that only two from the Big Ten (thanks to Wisconsin Coach Launder; Where is he coaching?) & two from the Big East. Interesting facts to ponder.
The level of competition a team faces during league play is clearly important. Tough games make your team tougher. What if the Pac-10 were to expand to eight next season and bring in New Mexico and ???
You make it sound as if New Mexico is not getting any competition in the MPSF. It is not as if they ran away with the league. They had a loss at home against SJSU, a road overtime tie against both Air Force and Sac St. an overtime victory at home 1-0 agaist Air Force that gave them the conference or SJSU would have won it. and only beat Denver 1-0 each time. Remember SJSU could have sealed their own fate had they beat and not tied UNLV. So where are they NOT getting any competition. If it they are not than why would their assistant want the UNLV job. I guess you could make the arguement that San Diego St. Jumped from the MPSF this year took 5th out of 6 teams and got a bid into the NCAA's. They were finishing at the bottom of the MPSF as well. Maybe that makes a statement the MPSF is better than anyone gives credit for. So they did not beat an ACC team, OK it may be a better conference.... Thoughts?
Yes, unquestionably. Not his chances of winning a championship in 2006, but his chances of winning a championship before he retires. He got great players at Akron, there is no reason that he can't get even better players at U of L and expose them to better competition and better. Fishbein isn't necassarily bucking history, just being one of the few coaches to take a team deep into the tournament and not be from one of the power conferences. There are historical examples of situations similiar to New Mexico (see Santa Clara and Creighton) but they just are not that common. Bucking history? No. Joining a fairly elite club? Yes. I don't see why not. The ACC makes the most money in college sports, so those athletic programs are the most well-endowed, leading to superb facilities and pressure to perform. When Duke wins a national championship in basketball, every athletic budget gets a piece of the pie. Yes, the Big Ten, SEC and Pac 10 win national championships as well, but look for the ACC to win the most over the next decade in the 2 sports it really counts (football and basketball). With programs like Va Tech on the rise and then traditional powers also in the mix, they are only going to get stronger. http://madison56ers.org/PSC56/roster.asp Not exactly Real Madrid
He is also the head coach for Region 2 on the boys side. Still not Real Madrid, but pretty prestigious nonetheless. http://www.region2.com/launderbio.html He was also recently an assistant with the Columbus Crew.
Coach Launder isn't coaching Real Madrid, but he obviously proved when he won the College Cup that he was a great coach. He also did quite well at Dayton before leaving. Regarding SoccerSeven's comments, yes, UNM played in a pretty tough conference. In fact, in looking at their schedule, it appears that they were twice, late in the season, only one goal from losing the automatic bid in the conference. That would have probably cost them a #2 seed. Not questioning UNM, because as I stated they did a fantastic job this year. I was just laying out facts about the typical College Cup winner. Might be interesting to see if UNM decides to schedule ACC schools in non conference play, seeing that they've faced three ACC schools in the NCAA tournament the last two years. And will be even more interesting to see what happens to Akron with a new coach. That is one talented side right now. I would say however, that the ACC banging each other up all year probably is more of a plus than a negative, come big time tournaments. Also; the ACC teams schedule the toughest non conference teams as a whole. Indiana, UCONN, UCLA, Notre Dame, St. Johns, South Carolina, Penn State, Santa Clara frequently show up on their schedules. Researching Maryland's non conference schedule, they played several of the above this year. Coach Cirovski obviously accepted the toughest challenges. It PAID OFF!
If anybody ever had the right to be a bitter old man, it's Jim Launder. Guy took a program with nothing, built it from scratch, got very little help from the administration and then wins a national title and what is his reward? He gets fired a year or two later. Granted, it was the most unlikely championship runs in college soccer the past 25 years, but it was still a national title. Has UW won a national title in any sport since then? I know they damn sure haven't in soccer. They haven't even been to the NCAAs since that national title and they're currently the bottom-dweller of the Big Ten so it doesn't look like the administration made the right call in letting Launder go. Regarding the Big Conference vs. Little Conference debate, eventually a team from one of the lesser conferences is gonna buck the trend and win it all. Afterall, UCSB came THISCLOSE last year and it wasn't like New Mexico was overmatched this year or Creighton in 2000 or FIU in 96. Still, the fact remains that since 1980, every NCAA champion in D-I men's soccer, and 3/4 of the Final Four teams, have come from either the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-10 or West Coast Conference. Clearly, that's where most of the top players are going to go, in large part because they want to play against each other. And then it becomes a chicken-and-egg thing. Great facilities, great schedule, great players, great success. Again, at some point a team like SMU or Creighton or New Mexico will win a national title. It can be done without being in a major conference. But there's a reason guys like Ken Lolla and Louis Bennet are leaving very established, quality programs in smaller conferences for also-ran teams in a big conference. And it ain't just 'cause they like a challenge. They see the same thing we see and they want to increase their chances of a Final Four and a national title and think a bigger confernece is the way to do it. That's just the way things are in college soccer right now.
And that is exactly what I was referring to. He did a tremendous job at a program that was/isn't a traditional power and got jack for it. I would love to play for the guy and I am sure that many players would. He could do great things if given the chance. I don't know if he doesn't want to coach college soccer anymore or what, but I think that, if he does want back on the sidelines, someone from a major conference should give him a call.
I think that you hit it right on the head. Look at Penn State. They play a schedule second to none--Indiana twice, Maryland, New Mexico, Akron. It only made them better. Maryland the same way. The tougher the schedule the better you get by the year end (provided you are coached and prepared)
the thing with the ACC is they will always get teh top recruits beacuse they are publicized the most. on FSC they have this thing where they have the college game every friday night, where acc dominated most of the programming. another thing is there are soccer hot spots around america, hot spots being really really good youth systems and high school programs. in my opinion they are texas, california, and up and down the east coast- maryland virginia. this is why teams near these states will continou to bring in top recruiting classes. SMU being the only D1 school in texas attracts most a lto of the top club team players out of texas(minus lee nguyen) as well as mexico. On the other hand there are the more fortunate socer programs maryland and indiana who can recruit from anywhere their little hearts desire. if you look at thier starting lineups, youll see players from all over the US. maryland having 3 top players from cali and a couple from ohio, etc. But like location does have a lot to do with the continued success of these teams. The ACC benifits from the strong soccer youth programs along the east coast. on the topic of strength of schedule, smu, and new mexico are going to be in the running for the college cup every single year, beacuse they dont have a schedule anywhere close to that of an ACC TEAM. a combination of that and basically putting out a very strong team of state players. ACC teams do beat each otehr up, but having 8 out of 9 teams in the ncaa tourney shows that it pays off (as stated bfore) i think that maryland deserves everything they won this year, because if you go down this list of teams they played, you weould lose count of all the ranked opponents. new mexico-akron-smu-duke-unc-(tie with indiana). basically i think that these strong schedules gives marylanda good look at their competition (minus the powerhouses out west) and shows what they have to change to beat the best.