Funny, I was thinking UNCG could fit anywhere from 8-15, and College Soccer News agrees. The first part of the scheudule looks like this: ============================================== Aug. 21 at Duke (exh.), 7 pm; Aug. 27 vs. North Carolina State (exh), 7 pm; Sept. 1 vs. UNC Wilmington (UNCG/Davidson Classic), 7 pm; Sept. 5 vs. Charlotte (UNCG/Davidson Classic), 7 pm; Sept. 9 at Brown (at Brown Classic), 7:30 pm; Sept. 11 vs. Connecticut at Brown (at Brown Classic), 12 noon; Sept. 16 at UAB (at UAB Classic), 8:30 pm; Sept. 18 vs. Birmingham Southern (at UAB Classic), 1 pm; Sept. 24 vs. William & Mary, 7 pm; Sept. 27 at North Carolina, 7 pm; ------------------------------------------------------------- It's a shame Duke and State wouldn't play us in the regular season. Remember this name Michael Fitzgerald(and read the excerpt below). He was as good as Patterson up front in the spring after a redshirt and a bulkup year. UNCG is going to be VERY dangerous.
Not anymore, and not the soccer team. Now I'm just an aging alum with two kids and a mortgage . But I sure do enjoy the hour ride back to Greensboro to take in the games. I have to say though, Wake, UNC, UVA, Va. Tech and Clemson have all taken their lumps from us in the regular season over the past two years. Duke and State haven't, and I know for a fact we've been trying to get a game with them for two years. Heck they'd rather play App State and Elon than UNCG, which I don't think does anything for them. Well, maybe for N.C. State. Go figure.
I'm all in! Pushes all chips to center of the table. I'll trade you my five kids and mortgage for your two kids and mortgage and throw in my trophy wife? Glares @ uncgfan with steely poker eyes...
i believe South Florida this year will be a surprise again....last year they seem to be shocking everyone by being 7-0-2 by the middle of the season...beating teams such as SMU not to mention 3-0 and FIU 2-1 at FIU....also beating C-USA champions Memphis 2-0.... they only lost two starters...who to be honest were never even mentioned in any stats....also word in the street is that a new Trinidadian could be possibly the Big East freshman of the year...their schedule seems to be tough as they will be facing SMU...FIU....NEW Mexico...and Seton Hall in their first 5 games....i believe if they start off in a good foot they will be a team to watch...i put them in the top 25!
A little bump to see how we all fared after the first week of the Regular Season. So who are the real contenders and who are the pretenders?
1 - IU 2 - 25 Maryland UCLA Duke Akron UC Santa etc. etc. the rest will jsut have to play out, but Maryland, Duke, and UCLA chould meet up with IU in North Carolina for a good tournament, ultimately favoring the boys from Bloomington
I thought this was a fun thread to kick off the College Season. Most teams are just past the halfway point of the Regular Season. How are your Pre-Season picks faring? I know I was way off with my pick of Boston University. I really felt they would be much better. They had some injury problems like all teams do and started really slow. Northwestern was a team that I expected to dominate and NW suffered from a slow start as well mostly due to key players being injured. Of course my SLU Billikens are not among the current top 10 teams but they will be there right?? Here are my pre-season Top 25 and Honorable Mention Picks, 1. IU 2. New Mexico 3. UCLA 4. Duke 5. Santa Clara 6. Northwestern 7. Maryland 8. Boston University 9. Ohio State 10. Saint Louis 11. Notre Dame 12. Creighton 13. SMU 14. UCSB 15. Portland 16. St. John's 17. UCONN 18. Portland 19. Memphis 20. Virginia 21. UAB 22. North Carolina State 23. Akron 24. UNCG 25. Penn State Honorable Preseason Mentions: Virginia Comm Loyola Marymont Washington Wake Forest ODU California Boston College Michigan ODU College of Charleston Kentucky South Carolina Clemson Florida International Coastal Carolina Wisconsin Milwaukee Stanford-Oh my how they have fallen!
Links to the various D-1 Rankings, http://www.nscaa.com/rank/20051011/D1M/0/index.html http://collegesoccernews.com/index_files/page0273.htm http://soccertimes.com/ncaa/top25/men.htm http://www.socceramerica.com/article.asp?Art_ID=562136474
There is definitely something wrong with the NSCAA rankings, they are frankly, embarassingly inaccurate as is proven every year in playoffs
I disagree. While I may think they are innacurate at times, they do as good a job as any other pole in any other college sport. Look at the last NCAA Mens basketball tournament, Vermont beat Syracuse, Bucknell beat Kansas, Michigan State made the final four. Or the current college basketball season, South Florida beats top ten U of L, Oklahoma starts the season ranked number 5 but loses to TCU, MTSU beats Vandy, and I could go on and on. So while I may at times disagree with the poll, they do as good a job as can be expected. You can't expect upsets not to occur in a one and done format. That is the nature of sports and part of what makes them so great. Heck, look at last summers European Championship! Greece!?!?!?! Come on, no poll could have predicted that. If results of any sport could be predicted on any fairly consistent basis, no one would watch them because we would already know the outcome. It isn't the fault of the polls that the best team doesn't always win.
How are we all doing here? I just looked at my pre-season picks and noticed that I picked Portland twice as the 15th and the 18th team. I can now unequivocally admit to being dead wrong in both instances!! I also picked ODU twice in my Honerable Mention choices. I'm an IDIOT! Slaps self in the forehead. All in all I think I did a decent job. I love my top 5 Picks. Northwestern @ 6 seems out of place but I know they are a really good team that struggled early with injuries. Boston U was a big miss and quite frankly they have been a disappointment. BU has played pretty well as of late though. I was way off with Ohio State @ 9 as well. My 10 through 14 picks I find very interesting at this point. I still feel that SLU is a top 10 team. They are among the hottest teams in the country and have won 6 consectutive matches. SLU has a big head to head win over SMU @ SMU. SLU was also a little unlucky in the double ot loss to Notre Dame where SLU hit the post twice in Regulation. I knew Creighton was way overranked in the early season polls and that fact is bearing out along with the same for UCSB. 10. Saint Louis 11. Notre Dame 12. Creighton 13. SMU 14. UCSB I had St. John's @ 16 which seems about right. I listed Akron @ 23. I don't think Akron is a legitimat # 1 but they are for real and deserve a top 10 ranking. Let's see how they fare vs IU. I still feel that UVA was an overranked team in the polls and I like them @ # 20. North Carolina should have been ranked.