Expect a wide open year in the MWC.  Not a conference that typically gets a lot of attention, but I think this year their are 5 teams that could all make some noise.  Carroll, SNC, Beloit, Grinnell, and even LFC.  Should be a real fun year

Crappy way to lose no doubt. Loras has some stuff to sort out for sure with the back to back losses. I just hope they can get back on the right path sooner rather than later. In the end though these two losses were against strong teams that typically make the NCAA's so hopefully they keep doing well (MAC and UWW) and that Loras can step their game up and get some big wins coming up. With many new faces to Loras its gonna take some time to gel but I was shocked to hear the result of the UWW game for sure. Keep your heads up Duhawks and turn it around in the next one.

If there any MIAA fans out there, lets hear from you. Obviously, Hope and Calvin will be two teams to beat and will be in the mix for the conference title, as well as national attention, but what other teams are going to be in the mix?

Ouch!!! What a tough way to lose. UWW is always competitive, but I am shocked at this result. It's a long season, though, and my guess would be that things will start to sort themselves out. 

109:57, the amount of time Loras played soccer tonight.  Controlled the OT and without a fantastic save by the UWW keeper would be a bit happier this morning.  UWW looked like they were content with a tie and were just going to hand the ball back and forth on their throw in to run out the clock.  They ho hum throw it in at mid field and the bangs around and ends up on the foot of their most dangerous player 30 yds out who put a great ball in and it is crossed and slammed home with 3 SECONDS LEFT ON THE FREAKIN CLOCK!! Really guys at home, you let this happen, REALLY!!  2 losses is a seasons worth for this team and now the eight ball is squarely staring you in the face, this is where the team either mans up are fades away.  I think this team is too good to fade away, the reality check has been written guys, wake up and play with some spirit!

WC10, Based on what I've seen over the past couple of seasons, I'd generally agree.  If things go according to form, and based on returning talent (it's hard to predict the impact of freshmen, no matter how talented), I'd see Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin and Middlebury in the upper tier.  I'd put Wesleyan and Trinity in minor rebuilding mode but with a good chance to challenge the upper tier, and I'd agree that Conn and Bates loom as spoiler teams. 

 The Cityzen, I don't know if you've seen much NESCAC soccer over the last couple of years or so, but to not have williams or midd in the top is just wrong especially when you're putting a team like trinity up there (though clearly you have some sort of connection be it as a player or parent, I'm guessing player).  Trinity's keeper hasn't been anything special over the last few years and when they had Wisner their defense was always suspect which is why they never won anything big or got to the NCAA.  After losing Wisner I'd probably put them in the spoiler category you have Bates and Conn in.

OUCH: St Olaf is down 0-5 to Luther with a few minutes left.

EDIT: And Northwestern beats Bethel...  Bethel was pretty good last year, and their game against Mac was played well (Bethel won on two nice goals) but maybe last year was an anomaly? NW looked poor against Mac, but they are now 1-1-1 vs MIAC, a bit of a surprise.

I was at the Central-Miliken game and it was very accurate the Central dominated , but didn't finish their chances. I would give credit to the Miliken goalie, though, who made 3 great foot sves on what looked like sure goals. Still, tCentral needs to put those goals away to avoid having a frustrating year like last year when they lost 9 games by 1 goal and 5 of them in overtime.

Also a clarification about the suspended player. The suspension was due to recieving a 5th yellow card against Wartburg in the last game of the season last year, so by rule the suspension needed to carry over to the 1st game this year.

Central did win their  next game 2-0 over Nebraska Wesleyn hopefully that is a sign that they are getting on track. Getting there leading scorer back probably didn't hurt at all either.

The big test will be this weekend against Gustavus though.  

Chick Chick BOOOM.

Sorry, I meant the MIAA not the MIAC for Hope and Calvin. 

I didn't see the game, but Hope should be a very quality side this year as usual. I'm betting Hope and Calvin will slug it out in the MIAC again this year.

We will see Friday how good Calvin is as they go to Wheaton to play a Thunder team who beat OWU. I'm going to go to the game and expecting to see some great soccer. I am predicting a 2-1 Calvin victory.

4-0 Carls still the first half... Concordia looks much improved but is getting drummed on the scoreline.  They have some serious issues in the back.

3 nil Carleton...  turning into a rout based on scoreline but Cobbers keep pressing on and getting chances. 

2 nil---Carleton.  Scramble in front of the box...shout for an offsides call (a Carleton player was laying on the ground in an offsides position, was he involved??)

Cobbers getting plenty of chances on goal, many of which are quality. 

maybe 5 minutes into the Concorida @ Carleton match...Carleton up 1 nil. Cobbers have had a goal called back for a foul.  end to end action. 

squarewheel,

I do not think the criteria for NSCAA's ranking have changed. They still conduct a Poll and do the national rankings in the same manner. They simply put NCAA in the title so you know what level the rankings are for. The NSCAA also does High School rankings which are titled in a similar manner.

The NCAA will continue to conduct their own ranking which begins later in the season taking into consideration all the things you mentioned.

Interesting start to the MIAC season with MAC and Concordia being the only teams in the conference to come out of the first week of matches unbeaten and untied.

Concordia plays at CarlEton today. I guess we'll see how much the Cobbers have really improved. CarlEton lost to North Park, but it looks like they controlled play (from the stats anyway). 

Video Broadcast- 4PM game time

Prediction: CarlEton 1 - Cobbers 1

The Ole's travel to Luther today as well. Luther has yet to get a win having lostgone 0-2 against MIAC opponents so far this year. Can STO make it 0-3 for the Norse?

Video Broadcast - 7PM game time

Prediction: Oles 2 - Luther 1

Let me repeat my question, because these rankings are confusing....   In the past, the NSCAA conducted a poll to determine its rankings. But the NCAA used a completely different method: points were assigned on quality of opponent, home or away, and only regional opponents were considered. Then this NCAA ranking was used (maybe not literally, but in some form) to determine the NCAA tournament selections. So this was more important (in particular schools that were not members of NSCAA were ranked by NCAA of course). People posted links on this site that allowed us to see the more-important NCAA version.

But now we find the NSCAA site list rankings called NCAA rankings. Whether these are poll-based or formula-based I don't know. I imagine non-NSCAA members are now included in this NSCAA-NCAA rankings....  Can someone shed light?

Anyone happen to catch Hope's games over the weekend? They won 2, beating Goshen 2-0 and clobbering MSOE 9-1! MSOE usually has a good defense but losing 9-1? Wow! What happened? 

MAC is the top team in the North Region at the moment therefore they will be getting a top 8 inclusion, #7 works I suppose... Although, there is a better chance of MAC finishing 7th in the conference this season then 7th in the nation.  It should be a very competitive MIAC regular season this year.  There has to be no clear favorite at this point.