I might turn into the John Feinstein of soccer with this discussion, but it seems that the Patriot League is vastly underrated as a soccer conference. Granted, these results are only after the first weekend of the season, but Patriot League teams are a combined 9-2-4 so far. Here's some results to ponder: American (2-0): beat Howard 5-0, beat Georgetown 4-0 Navy (2-0): beat Manhattan 3-0, beat UMass 3-2 Bucknell (2-0): beat Robert Morris 3-2, beat Binghamton 2-0 Lehigh (1-0-1): tied Davidson 1-1, beat College of Charleston 2-1 Holy Cross (1-0-1): tied Duke 1-1, beat NC State 1-0 Lafayette (1-1): lost to New Hampshire 2-1, beat Vermont 1-0 Colgate (0-0-1): tied VMI 1-1 Army (0-1-1): tied College of Charleston 2-2, lost to Davidson 3-0 There was only one loss that was by more than one goal. Sure these results aren't against teams like Indiana and Stanford, but I think this should dispel all the Patriot League criticism that happens. There was a lot of moaning when American joined the conference that it was too weak of a conference. It looks pretty competitive to me, heck Patriot League teams are a combined 2-0-1 against the ACC and Big East! Sure there are some mediocre teams, but according to Feinstein these are primarily academic institutions and military academies.
I started this thread way back on September 6, and the most recent NSCAA rankings seem to somewhat support my claim. Lehigh is ranked #17 while American and Holy Cross are both ranked #24. Of course Holy Cross just lost to Harvard, but I still think the Patriot League is a small but good soccer conference. Having 3 out of 8 teams ranked is not too shabby.