TennZip

https://getsomemaction.com/news/2021/11/10/mac-announces-mens-soccer-all-mac-specialty-award-winners.aspx

Most people on the board are very negative about the zips chances to be one of 25 at large selections for the NCAA tourney. As of this morning, the zips are currently number 24 in Gaucho Dan’s RPI calculations. I want to say that Gaucho Dan is a college soccer rock star. He keeps that site updated constantly. College soccer fans owe him a debt that can not be repaid. 23 conferences send their automatic qualifiers to the NCAA tourney. The Ivy League, PAC 12 and the West Coast Conference do not have conference tournaments. By my count, 12 of the 23 conferences have expected winners…that are ranked higher than the zips in RPI. Let’s go …conference by conference to look at the expected winners. PAC-12 1. Washington is currently ranked #1 in RPI I looked at other teams in the current top 40 RPI for each league 2. Oregon State 27. UCLA has a record of 9-6-1 They did just beat Oregon State yesterday 3-2 36. Stanford has a record of 6-6-5 Stanford has a record of 2-4-3 in the PAC 12 Stanford has one league game remaining against an awful California team If Stanford were to lose that game, they could not make the NCAA due to a losing record. Washington and Oregon State each have 1 league loss and 1 league tie. They each have 1 game left ….against each other Winner gets NCAA automatic bid Loser obviously claims one of the 25 at large spots Big East 3. Georgetown Other teams in top 40 19. Providence 9-3-4 23. Creighton has a record of 8-7-2 Their regular season is over after losing to Villanova in tournament quarterfinals Creighton is ranked ahead of Akron in RPI. Will NCAA selectors choose a team with a 8-7-2 record? 26. Villanova 11-6-1 30. St. Johns 10-5-3 37. Butler 7-8-3 Their season is over after losing in tournament quarterfinals. Despite being 37 in RPI. They can not make NCAA due to losing record. Atlantic Coast Conference 4. Pittsburgh (Pitt has lost this year to Akron and West Virginia) Other teams in top 40 5. Clemson 6. Duke 14. Notre Dame 10-5-2 will play this week in semis 20. North Carolina 11-6-1 Regular season over after losing to Clemson in conf. QF 22. Va. Tech 10-5-3 (one of 2 teams to beat Marshall this year) Regular season over after losing to Pitt in conf. QF 34. Wake Forest 11-6-1 Regular season over after losing to Duke in conf. QF 38. Louisville 10-6-1 Regular season over after losing to Notre Dame in conference QF IF NCAA decides to put Wake Forest and Louisville in tournament, that would mean that there are 8 ACC teams in tourney and that they would have received 7 of the 25 at large bids. I don’t feel that Louisville deserves a bid. Wake Forest should be a bubble team. American East Conference 7. New Hampshire This is a conference where Akron really needs to root for New Hampshire to win conference tourney. Next highest rated RPI team is Vermont at 53 with an 11-4-2 record. New Hampshire will obviously get an at large bid if they do not win conference tourney. American Athletic Conference Tulsa is currently #8 in RPI SMU is the next highest rated RPI team at 48 with an 8-4-3 record. Root for Tulsa to win conference tourney. Colonial Athletic Hofstra is currently #9 in RPI Other teams in top 40 35. Northeastern has a record of 11-5-2 Conference USA 10. Marshall has the highest RPI in the league Other teams in the top 40 12. Kentucky – they have not lost this year…have 3 or 4 ties 18. FIU - last week, they beat Marshall 4-1 Early in the year , Bowling Green defeated FIU 2-0 31. Charlotte has record of 10-5-0 Marshall, Kentucky and FIU will obviously all get into the tourney even if they don’t win the league. Charlotte is a bubble team if they don’t win the league. Atlantic 10 conference 11. St. Louis ….has had a phenomenal year Other teams in the mix 32. Rhode Island 10-4-2 42. VCU 9-7-2 Mid American Conference 13. West Virginia is the highest ranked MAC team Other teams in the mix 24. Akron 39. Northern Illinois - regular season conference winner 42. Bowling Green 51. Georgia State In my view, the NCAA will definitely not take more than 3 teams from the MAC. As an Akron fan, I want Bowling Green and Georgia State to lose in the conference semis on Wednesday. If Bowling Green or Georgia State wins the conference tourney, Akron has no chance of getting an at large bid. West Virginia will get an at large bid. I would think that NIU …with a 4-0-2 record in the league and the regular season winner …will get an at large bid…despite a low RPI Big Ten conference Indiana is surprisingly the highest ranked team with a 16 RPI In the Big Ten semis , 3 seed Indiana faces 7 seed Northwestern and 1 seed Penn State plays 4 seed Michigan Other teams in top 40 21. Maryland – regular season is over after losing in conference QF to 6-8-3 Northwestern Maryland has record of 12-3-2 25. Penn State 11-6-1 record Lost in regular season to Akron and West Virginia 33. Michigan – current record of 8-6-3 Missouri Valley Conference 15. Missouri State Highest ranked other team in conference is Loyola Chicago with an RPI of 83. Root for Missouri State to win Conference tourney Western Athletic Conference Grand Canyon currently has an RPI of 17 Seattle has a 12-7-0 record with a current RPI of 43 West Coast Conference Santa Clara currently has an RPI of 57….but they will receive the automatic bid with a current 5-0-1 league record There is no conference tourney. They have 1 league match left against Loyola Marymount. In the coaches poll this past week, coaches had Santa Clara at #21 Other teams in the mix 29. Portland has an overall record of 9-6-1 Currently tied for 4th in league with 3-2-1 record Loyola Marymount is currently 41 in RPI and has overall record of 12-4-1 and is 4-2-0 in league Let’s say that the conference tourneys go as expected for the conferences above….we know that there will be upsets !!!! 13 teams with automatic bids Washington , Georgetown , Pitt, New Hampshire, Tulsa, Hofstra , Marshall, St. Louis, West Virginia, Indiana, Missouri State, Grand Canyon and Santa Clara Who will get the other 10 conference automatic bids? Ivy League – no conference tourney. Princeton has 1 league match left but they have locked up automatic bid with 6-0-0 league record Princeton RPI is currently 69 Other team in the mix Cornell is currently #28 in RPI. They have an overall record of 11-3-1 and are currently 4-2 in the league. 2 league losses are to Princeton and #68 Yale. (Akron beat Yale in regular season). Yale has a 4-0-2 record in league and can’t win the league but they could help Akron by beating 6-0-0 Princeton in final league match. Big South Conference – Campbell is highest ranked team at 54 Big West conference - Cal Santa Barbara - at 88 Horizon Leage – highest ranked teams are Oakland at 92 and Cleveland State at 111 MAAC - Marist is highest ranked team at 66 (former zip Henrique Cruz had been a good player for them) NEC league _ LIU at 93 Patriot League – Loyola Maryland at 86 Southern League - UNC Greensboro is the highest rated RPI team at #45. In last week’s coaches poll, UNC – G was rated #25. Former zip Marco Milanese has been a big part of their team Summit League – Denver has an RPI of 76 Atlantic Sun - #40 Central Arkansas will face #52 Lipscomb in conf. final If there are no upsets, and the 13 teams from the major conferences win as expected, what are the RPIS of the teams fighting for one of the 25 at large selections? Oregon State at #2 Clemson at #5 Duke at #6 Kentucky at #12 Notre Dame at #14 Fla. International at #18 Providence at #19 North Carolina at #20 Maryland at #21 Virginia Tech at #22 Creighton at #23 - again, their record is 8-7-2 Akron at #24 In this scenario, there are 11 at large teams with higher RPIs than Akron. Would the NCAA select 14 teams with lower RPI’s than Akron? Penn State at #25 -if they beat Michigan and Indiana, they would jump over Akron in RPI. Indiana would get an at large bid Villanova at #26 UCLA at #27 Cornell at #28 Portland at #29 St. Johns at #30 Charlotte at #31 Rhode Island at #32 Michigan at #33 Wake Forest at #34 Northeastern at #35 Stanford at #36 (has to win last game to finish above .500) Butler at #37 (not eligible for NCAA) Louisville at #38 Northern Illinois at #39 Loyola Marymount at #41 VCU at #42 Seattle at #43 Lots of soccer to be played in last week. Zips fans need to root for Pitt to win the ACC and for Penn State to win the Big Ten. Zips have regular season wins over both and those 2 teams winning…would greatly help the zips RPI and tournament chances. Also, zips fans want to root for Hofstra, Tulsa, New Hampshire, Missouri State and Grand Canyon to win their conference tournaments.

A score....from the middle of this week......that hurts all Mid American conference teams in RPI Regular season conference champNorthern Illinois (NIU) played at Portland on wednesday night November 3rd Portland was 8-5-1 coming into the match NIU was 30 in RPI before the match; Portland was 41 in RPI before the match NIU stunk up the joint and lost 4-0 to Portland

Marshall moved up to #1 in coaches poll this week. tonight, they played for the conference USA regular season championship at Fla. International - #19 in coaches poll Marshall was 5-0-2 in league ; FIU was 6-0-1 Final score from tonight FIU 4 Marshall 1 before the match, Marshall was 7 in RPI ; FIU was 22 after match, Marshall drops to 10 ....FIU moves up to 16 as a side point, early in the year...Bowling Green had their best non conference result when they beat FIU 2-0

Akron's record would have been worse ...than 9-5-3......if they had a balanced home/road schedule Akron was fortunate to play 11 at home and 6 on the road If Akron has to play Pitt, Indiana, Penn State and Michigan on the road in 2022, Akron is going to have to figure out quickly how to play better on the road.

Akron played Southern at 7 thursday and State played at BG at 7 thursday turnaround was the same for State at Akron Saturday at 7 State used a lot of subs on Saturday. Akron used very few subs

8-1-2 at home 1-4-1 on the road UNACCEPTABLE

Western Michigan is just huge and physical..... I don't have a good feeling right now Injury to Malik Henry has really hurt the zips on attacking.... Zips need Clapier or Kingsford or Pacheco to have a great individual moment

if Akron ties....and Georgia State ties Southern...Akron also gets in

stop with the negativity Arth was 3-24 Jared has taken the team to 3 college cups and lost in the finals of 2018 there is one soccer coach to be fired and her name is Noreen Herlihy She has been there 6 years lady zips were 3-15-1 this year and 1-9-1 in the MAC

Akron is fortunate......to be 2-2 at the half Akron needs to play Akron soccer too many long balls in the air up the field by Akron......when it is 1 vs 4 Akron can not play ball in the air with Western Michigan.... Western Michigan has too many tall, strong guys great pass by Shokalook...to set up 2nd goal....great finish by Pacheco ball on the ground soccer.......and the zips.....win....this one... go, Zips

fknbuflobo....posted an excellent article......in MAC 2021 tourney topic probably deserves its own topic https://www.herald-dispatch.com/sports/sun-belt-confirms-mens-soccer-being-reinstated/article_e08dea8c-b0bd-51cd-9810-0a1365bdc1e5.html#utm_campaign=blox&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social my comments MAC down to 4 soccer teams (Akron , NIU, WMU and BUGS) when GA State and GA Southern return to Sunbelt West Virginia had announced plans to move to conference usa for soccer Conference USA has imploded...they would be down to Fla Intl and affiliate teams....Kentucky, South Carolina and West Virginia...well short of 6 teams needed makes sense for WVU to join Marshall in Sunbelt....Kentucky would be a good soccer fit for the Sun Belt

Akron soccer has also been impacted by the financial troubles of the university. Program used to have head coach, 2 full time assistants , a volunteer assistant coach and a director of soccer operations. In Spring 2021, they had Jared, Ger, and Michael Nanchoff. This fall, there appears to be a volunteer assistant coach on the sidelines. I would think that the budget for recruiting trips was also cut. Prospective student athletes are smart enough to distinguish between well run universities and a university that is having to cut back on essentials. With Covid, face to face recruiting was also limited and international recruiting did not happen for fall 2020. Former Athletic Director Larry Williams.....always prioritized football and basketball over Men's soccer. I am confident that Charles Guthrie and the new associate AD Marcus.....will value the excellence of the soccer program. I do strongly disagree with the MLS pipeline comment. The players that joined Akron from 2007 to 2011 (Nagbe, Yedlin, Trapp, Kitchen, Sarkodie, Caldwell etal)....would never go to college in today's environment. The top 17 year olds and top 18 year olds are going to MLS academy teams or they are going to Europe. In the Porter era, it was not unusual for Caleb to sign 5 of the top 25 ranked seniors. Now, if you look at Top Drawer soccer's top 25, 23 or 24 of those young men have already turned pro. No college is signing 2 or 3 of the top 25...much less 4 or 5. If you look at top drawer soccer.....26 to 50th ranked players, a large % of that group is turning pro. For 2022, Jared has already signed two young men ranked....around 75 or 80 in the country.(Levi Stephens and Stefan Dobrijevic). If Jared can sign 2 more domestic players in the top 100 and add the usual good international recruits, 2022 should look promising.

NIU has a very good team. Very disciplined on the back line. Their players on offense that had the ball....were able to keep possession and advance the ball in their half of the field. They beat West Virginia 2-0....in addition to yesterday's win over Akron. Credit to NIU for proving the MAC coaches wrong. https://getsomemaction.com/news/2021/8/25/west-virginia-selected-to-win-2021-mac-mens-soccer-title.aspx

Western Michigan 1 bowling green 0 at half time

NIU leads 5-1 in shots on goal and 5-1 in corner kicks... zips not playing possession soccer

NIU should be embarrassed to charge $6.95 for this horrible camera angle.... camera operator missed the goal.... pitiful , awful camera work

Northern Illinois has high scoring twin brothers Nick has 13 goals and 4 assists twin has 5 goals and 5 assists NIU scores 2.57 goals a game only gives up 0.46 goals a game https://niuhuskies.com/news/2021/10/29/mens-soccer-16th-ranked-huskies-host-no-19-akron-in-final-conference-match.aspx

https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer-articles/weekend-preview:-title-deciders_aid50089 Saturday, October 30 No. 20 Akron (9-3-3) at Northern Illinois (11-1-2), 3 p.m. (ESPN+) Five of the seven teams will feel that they are in contention for a MAC regular season title, but if NIU can put Akron away on Saturday, it shrinks the field. Akron’s playing very well of late, scoring nine times in the past two games. Jason Shokalook and Jonny Fitzgerald have been playing well in the final third for Akron. Stopping the Markanich brothers and coping with the away trip are critical for Akron, which is in a good spot for an at-large bid even if they miss out on finishing first in the MAC. Nick Markanich is one of the nation’s top scorers with 13 tallies on the year, and he’ll look to power the home side to the win.

West Virginia improves to 2-1-1 in the league.....with a 2-1 win at home over Georgia State WVA, BGSU and Akron are all tied for 2nd in the league.....with 7 points (2-1-1 record) Georgia State drops to 2-3 in the league....(their remaining game is against Georgia Southern) GA State can only reach 9 points and is probably the team (of the top 5) most at risk of not being one of the 4 teams in the semis Western Michigan is 1-3 ....so they could reach 9 points if they win at BG and win at home against Akron NIU is the only team that has clinched a spot in the semis.....with 11 points as GA State and GA Southern and WMU can't get to 11 WVA can clinch a spot in the semis with a win sunday at GA Southern (that would give them 10 points)....they end the season hosting BG on Nov. 4 a loss to Southern and a win over BG would also get them to the semis BGSU can clinch a spot in the semis with a win at home against WMU a loss to WMU and a win at WVU would also get them in the semis finally, AKRON......a win in either of last 2 games...gets them in the semis Saturday at NIU ...Nov. 4 at WMU IF BGSU and AKRON both win their last 2 games...Akron would host tourney...based on 5-1 head to head win if it is AKRON and WVU at 4-1-1....I do not know Just win, zips !!! https://wvusports.com/news/2021/10/28/mens-soccer-late-winner-helps-wvu-earn-500th-program-win.aspx https://wvusports.com/news/2021/10/28/mens-soccer-late-winner-helps-wvu-earn-500th-program-win.aspx

If NIU wins, they will have 14 points and they can not be caught for first place. WVU and BGSU could end up with 13 points if they win out (they play each other on Nov. 4....so they both can not end up 4-1-1)

MAC showed their dominance tonight against the top 2 teams in the horizon league Cleveland State leads horizon league with a 8-1 league mark. Zips played very well tonight Bowling Green played 2nd place Horizon league team Oakland (6-1-1) tonight BG led 3-0 at halftime and that was the final.