Photo by Jeff Camarati/UNC Athletic Communications
After a few marquee matchups in the opening weeks of the college soccer season, a new team has emerged to claim the top spot in the Fox Soccer/SBI NCAA Top 25 rankings.
North Carolina is the new No. 1 team in the land after a victory over Louisville, the team that previously occupied the top spot.
Right on Carolina's heels are the Maryland Terrapins, who are off to a 4-0 start and routed Stanford by a 4-0 scoreline on national television on Friday. Louisville dropped to No. 3 just ahead of Akron, which suffered a minor setback in being held to a draw at Cal State Fullerton before coming back and needing a golden goal from College Cup hero Scott Caldwell in double overtime to defeat Cal State Northridge.
South Florida and Indiana continue their early-season ascent into the top 10, while a host of newcomers, including 4-0 teams Virginia Commonwealth and UC-Irvine, crack the rankings after strong starts. Two teams on the way down, however, are preseason favorites UCLA and SMU, who are in danger of falling out of the rankings altogether after combining for one win in six games.
Here is the latest Fox Soccer/SBI NCAA Top 25:
FOX SOCCER/SBI NCAA TOP 25
- (Last week, 3) North Carolina (3-0)
- (4) Maryland (4-0)
- (1) Louisville (2-1)
- (2) Akron (2-0-1)
- (7) UConn (3-0)
- (8) UCSB (3-0)
- (6) Creighton (3-0)
- (10) West Virginia (2-1)
- (13) South Florida (3-0)
- (15) Indiana (2-0-1)
- (14) Virginia (3-1)
- (11) Notre Dame (1-1-1)
- (18) Boston College (4-0)
- (16) Penn State (3-1)
- (5) UCLA (0-2-1)
- (17) Ohio State (2-1-1)
- (22) Monmouth (2-0)
- (24) Central Florida (3-0)
- (NR) Virginia Commonwealth (4-0)
- (NR) UC-Irvine (4-0)
- (NR) St. John’s (2-1)
- (19) William & Mary (2-1)
- (9) SMU (1-2)
- (NR) Washington (2-0-1)
- (NR) Northern Illinois (3-0)
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What do you think of this week's rankings? Impressed with North Carolina's start? Surprised that Akron had trouble with its two California-based opponents? What do you make of UCLA and SMU?
Share your thoughts below.
Only thing obsolete about college soccer is the countdown clock and 10 minute overtimes.
Nice to see NIU getting some love. Good job guys, if there’s a good team out there who deserves to be ranked, you guys will find them. Impressed. Keep up the good college coverage, it’s something I hadn’t paid attention to before but will now. I know Klinsmann said it is important part of what he plans to do in the future with the national team.
So Penn State moved up after losing to Stetson?
Go Huskies! UCONN has a great mix of raw talent and established leaders.
No it wont. What happens to the other 99% of players that dont play in MLS Academies? There are tons of talent not in the MLS setup, the Academy winner was not MLS, and there will and are players that will forgo a contract to attend college, Wil Trapp and Jalen Robinson. Im still not convinced MLS can develope a young player any better then college can. Most of the players on the verge of Europe attended college
no love for Charlotte? NCSAA have ’em @ #21…
Come make a trip and check us out Ives…
UCLA needs to fire Salcedo asap
also time to drop Kelyn Rowe your draft boards
Academy’s are the future, college soccer will become obsolete or perhaps restructered.
There’s only one team in Kentucky. 😉
Where is Kentucky? Definitely belong on there.