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NCAA Top 25: Akron stays on top

Akron Zips players stand arm in arm during the penalty kick shootout. The Virginia Cavaliers defeated the Akron Zips 3-2 in a penalty kick shoot out after a scoreless game and overtime in the finals of the 2009 NCAA Men's College Cup at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, NC on December 13, 2009. Photo via Newscom

By JOHN BOSCHINI

Akron maintained the top spot in the NSCAA/Adidas national rankings after the first full week of men's collegiate action. The Zips received all 21 first-place votes after opening-week victories over traditional powerhouses North Carolina and Wake Forest. Defending national champions Virginia stayed in the runner-up spot with a 2-0 start of its own.

Tulsa moved up four spots to number three while North Carolina was forgiven its early loss to Akron and retained its hold on fourth position. Boston College moved up seven spots to round out the top five. 

No. 15 Penn State, No. 19 California, No. 20 Georgetown and No. 24 Creighton all made their debut in the top 25 after undefeated starts while UNC-Wilmington, South Florida, Stanford and Northwestern, ranked ninth in the preseason poll, dropped out.

Wake Forest fell from third to 12th after an opening loss and a draw while UC Santa Barbara tumbled from eight to 21st after an overtime upset by CSU Bakersfield. UC Irvine and Connecticut jumped highest in the rankings, climbing 11 and 12 places respectively.

Despite Wake Forest's tough start the ACC still dominates the top-half of the rankings, claiming six of the top 12 spots. 

1. Akron (21) 525 pts. (2-0-0)
2. Virginia 504 (2-0-0)
3. Tulsa 451 (2-0-0)
4. North Carolina 392 (1-1-0)
5. Boston College 390 (2-0-0)
6. Harvard 366 (2-0-0)
7. Monmouth 354 (2-0-0)
8. Duke 338 (1-0-1)
9. Maryland 336 (1-1-0)
10. Connecticut 326 (2-0-0)
11. Ohio State 304 (2-0-0)
12. Wake Forest 280 (0-1-1)
13. Louisville 271 (1-0-1)
14. UC Irvine 227 (3-0-0)
15. Penn State 190 (2-0-0)
16. Portland 185 (1-0-1)
17. UCLA 170 (1-1-0)
18. Indiana 163 (1-1-0)
19. California 123 (1-0-1)
20. Georgetown 115 (2-0-0)
21. UC Santa Barbara 100 (0-1-1)
22. Drake 94 (1-1-0)
23. Michigan State 84 (1-1-0)
24. Creighton 72 (2-0-0)
25. St. John's 58 (1-1-0)
Others receiving votes: George Mason 44, Southern Methodist 36, South Florida 34, Loyola Marymount 31, Butler 31, Lafayette 25, UNC-Wilmington 24, Florida Gulf Coast 23, Northwestern 22, New Mexico 22, Adelphi 16, South Carolina 14, St. Mary's (Calif.) 13, North Carolina State 12, Dartmouth 9, Stanford 8, West Virginia 8, Cal State Bakersfield 8, Evansville 7, Old Dominion 7, San Francisco 4, Oregon State 4, Princeton 3, Pennsylvania 1.

What do you think of the rankings? Is Akron the early favorite for the title? Surprised by Wake Forest's poor start?

Comments

  1. The more I think about it the more I like your argument. If all the preppy white schools on the list like North Carolina, Duke, Georgetown, Cal and UCLA, weren’t so preppy and white they might be competitive in other sports like…basketball. Imagine these schools could win something like 22 national championships between them. But alass, they’re too white and preppy to ever do that.

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  2. Seriously, These are college teams; many of the top 20 actually have high academic standards that they impose on would-be student athletes. It is not like basketball where some schools with less than high academic standards do all they can to admit marginal students. Now if your question is why are asians, europeans and white suburban kids over represented on teams that have high academic standards, then you are asking about social issues, not soccer.
    The upsetting thing is not that other minorities aren’t playing college soccer, it is that they are not graduating high school with the qualifications to attend college at the rate they should be. The failure is not the college soccer programs, but the schools that fail them before college.

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  3. Very happy for UCONN, but they do this to me every year. Once we play some decent teams we seem to drop back down to reality. I’m hoping that this year we are actually a top 10 team.

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  4. UNM beat Tulsa in preseason, railed on St Louis, and drew with UCSB, which is a solid squad that has started the year out unlucky. ONLY 22 votes? Get out of town.

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  5. I’m sure all these non-white, non-preppy kids are not being recruited despite the fact that they are both good and smart enough…I guess there is a small chance that they aren’t good enough…or they aren’t smart enough.

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  6. As a University of Tulsa alumnus, I am very excited about this season. Here’s to hoping we finally break through into the top tier of soccer powers. The Golden Hurricane have been good for a long time, but not great. Maybe this is the year!

    Reply
  7. What’s a shame is that most of these ranked teams are white preppy schools which means that they’re not getting our best athletes.

    Reply

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