What are everyone’s very early thoughts for this upcoming season. Favorites, All Americans, New Look Depth Charts, etc… DIII level is getting more competitive every year. This year should be no different.
CMS’s senior quartet of Jack Bryant, Jeffrey Koretz, Gavin Netherton, Nick Kennedy will be solid.
Goalkeeping is probably the biggest thing as they relied a lot on Jake Taylor. Bear Weigle was also a huge factor for drawing kickouts and him graduating will be a tough loss
Nelson Harris looked promising until a season ending injury
CMS and PP will both be strong as usual. Chapman is going to be a sneaky good team I think as well, strong returning core and impressive recruiting class. SCIAC will be close as always. Expecting a decrease in competitiveness from Whittier as they lost key pieces in the transfer portal.
I have not seen the recruiting classes yet, but CMS and PP should be tough this year based on returning players.
This is great information. I’m newer to the DIII scene and trying to get up to speed.
How much parity is there from the CMS and PP level down to everyone else. Is it similar to the Big 4 in DI? Or does an Augustana, or a Occidental or a Johns Hopkins have a chance any given year?
I am less familiar with the east coast, but with the sciac conference there is a ton of parity. Chapman had 2 really close game with PP and didn’t make playoffs, Occidental gave CMS 2 of their hardest conference games (1 or 2 score games, leading in the 4th) last season but lost to Whittier by like 10 in the playoffs. The east teams like Augustana, John Hopkins, and MIT are more wildcards because they only play west coast D3 teams during tournaments and playoffs but are also very competitive; John Hopkins was looking like a real contender the first half of the season last year. Any given year a team like Redlands, Chapman, Whittier, Cal Lutheran, and as of recently Occidental could give PP and CMS real trouble, but those 2 are definitely the powerhouses.
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Definitely not like D1 at all.
CMS is the most historically consistent and probably best team, they have made 4 of the 6 D3 National Championship games* but only won 2.
Redlands had a solid run for a couple years after COVID nabbing 2 national titles in 3 years. But they have fallen off a lot and aren’t likely to see another title for a couple years.
Cal Lutheran, Whittier, Chapman, and Pomona are also always competitive with Whittier and Pomona each having 1 national championship.
Honestly though, based off last year, CMS and Pomona look like the two teams to look out for on the west coast. CMS had probably the best season a D3 team has ever had last year beating Harvard and UC Irvine, but they lost some core seniors. Pomona didn’t lose much and they even took a game off of CMS last year but they are historically inconsistent and even lost to a CC school last year. Occidental and Chapman graduated a bunch of key seniors, Whittier lost a ton to the transfer portal, and Redlands still needs a couple years after graduating 15+ seniors in 2025. Cal Lutheran might be a sleeper but it is hard to know.
East coast teams in D3 have historically never done anything meaningful, but that could change soon. Last year, John’s Hopkins played a 1-goal game against Pomona, and MIT gave Pomona a good run for their money in the semifinals until the 4th quarter. It’s important to know that two East Coast teams always get 2 bids to the D3 national tournament which is 4 teams and can make you think that 2 east coast teams are comparable to west coast teams… but it’s more often than not the case that the best 4 teams in D3 are all from the SCIAC but teams #3 and #4 just get screwed. So while west coast dominance might change soon, a betting man would probably keep his money on 2 SCIAC schools making the finals next year.
With that said, it will be interesting to see this year but as people have said, there is no Big 4 in D3.
*Note that D3 has only had a national championship game for the past 6 seasons so it is definitely a new aspect of the game but it is growing fast evidenced by CMS beating Harvard and UC Irvine this year.
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Anyone know what Pomona and John’s Hopkins teams will be looking like?
Pomona-Pitzer will be stacked. Very strong senior class.