2016 NAIA Men’s Soccer Coaches’ Top 25 Poll – Nov. 8
CRB No. 12, RMC No. 22
By Chad Waller, Director of Communications & Sports Information
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Oklahoma Wesleyan claims its eighth-straight No. 1 ranking in the NAIA Men’s Soccer Coaches’ Top 25 Poll, the national office announced Tuesday. This poll marks the final regular-season edition of the Top 25. The national championship qualifiers and final MRPI will be announced Monday, Nov. 14 at noon CST via live selection show.
Top 25 Highlights (historical information dates back to 2000):
• Oklahoma Wesleyan recorded 467 total points and 16-of-17 first-place votes to extend its streak to eight-straight No. 1 rankings. This marks the second-consecutive season that one program rattled through all the regular-season polls with the No. 1 position – Rio Grande (Ohio) held the No. 1 spot through all nine regular-season installments in 2015.
• The Eagles (18-0-1) are riding the longest active undefeated streak at 34-straight wins or ties (32-0-2), which dates back to September of 2015.
• The Eagles’ undefeated streak is fourth longest in NAIA history, and seven more wins or ties would catch the Hastings (Neb.) program that didn’t lose in 41-straight matches that spanned the 2009-2011 seasons. The all-time record is 66-straight by Rio Grande from 2002-04.
• Oklahoma Wesleyan has already sewed up a NAIA National Championship Opening Round berth by virtue of winning the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) regular-season championship.
• Oklahoma Wesleyan next takes on McPherson (Kan.) in the KCAC Tournament semifinals on Wednesday.
• For the third-straight week, the rest of the top five holds steady: No. 2 Hastings, defending national champion No. 3 Rio Grande, No. 4 Davenport (Mich.) and No. 5 Northwestern Ohio.
• Three teams still remain undefeated in NAIA circles: Oklahoma Wesleyan (18-0-1), Hastings (18-0-0) and No. 6 Campbellsville (Ky.) (14-0-2).
• Campbellsville is currently riding a 32-match undefeated streak, dating back to the 2015 season. With a 14-0-2 mark, the Tigers are 28-0-4 since early last year and take their streak into the Mid-South Conference Tournament semifinals against Cumberland (Tenn.) on Thursday.
• No. 20 Westmont (Calif.) highlighted the positive shift, albeit minimal, jumping up two spots. The Warriors are 5-0-1 in their last six matches to lock down the No. 1 seed in the Golden State Athletic Conference Tournament.
• In terms of negative movement, No. 14 Baker (Kan.) dropped five spots for the worst fall. The Wildcats lost to an unranked Grand View (Iowa) team on Nov. 5.
• This marks the first time all year that no newcomers entered the poll.
• There are 16 of the 19 conferences represented this week.
• The Heart of America Athletic Conference sends three teams into the Top 25, the most of any conference – No. 7 MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.), Baker and No. 23 Benedictine (Kan.).
• Overall, eight leagues land multiple teams into the Top 25.
• Rio Grande leads the all-time list of No. 1 rankings with 57, followed by 48 top mentions by Lindsey Wilson.
• Rio Grande is trying to become the first team to be ranked preseason No. 1 and win the national championship in the same season since Lindsey Wilson did it in 2001.
• This year, there have been 44 different teams to be ranked at least once.
• Lindsey Wilson is the longest consecutively-ranked active school at 104-straight polls, dating back to the first installment of the 2007 Top 25 Poll (Sept. 5) and Rio Grande is next in line with 97-consecutive rankings.
Poll Methodology
• The poll was voted upon by a panel of head coaches representing each of the conferences, Association of Independent Institutions and Unaffiliated Groups.
• The Top 25 is determined by a points system based on how each voter ranks the best teams. A team receives 30 points for each first-place vote, 29 for second-place and so on through the list.
• The highest and lowest ranking for each team (a non-rating is considered a low ratings) is removed and the team’s ranking will be recalculated with an additional point added to each team for every ballot (including discounted ballots) that the teams appears on.
• Teams that receive only one point in the ballot are not considered “receiving votes”
• For the complete men’s soccer ratings calendar, click here.
2016 NAIA Men’s Soccer Coaches’ Top 25 Poll - No. 8 (Nov. 8)
| RANK |
LAST WEEK |
SCHOOL (1ST PLACE VOTES) |
2016 RECORD |
TOTAL POINTS |
| 1 |
1 |
Oklahoma Wesleyan (16) |
18-0-1 |
467 |
| 2 |
2 |
Hastings (Neb.) (1) |
18-0-0 |
452 |
| 3 |
3 |
Rio Grande (Ohio) |
16-1-1 |
437 |
| 4 |
4 |
Davenport (Mich.) |
16-1-2 |
420 |
| 5 |
5 |
Northwestern Ohio |
15-1-3 |
409 |
| 6 |
6 |
Campbellsville (Ky.) |
14-0-2 |
390 |
| 7 |
7 |
MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) |
15-2-1 |
379 |
| 8 |
8 |
Union (Ky.) |
16-2-1 |
361 |
| 9 |
10 |
WVU Tech |
15-1-2 |
343 |
| 10 |
11 |
Marymount (Calif.) |
14-2-1 |
327 |
| 11 |
12 |
Bryan (Tenn.) |
15-1-3 |
321 |
| 12 |
13 |
Corban (Ore.) |
18-2-0 |
294 |
| 13 |
14 |
Midland (Neb.) |
16-2-1 |
278 |
| 14 |
9 |
Baker (Kan.) |
13-4-2 |
277 |
| 15 |
15 |
Thomas (Ga.) |
14-3-1 |
256 |
| 16 |
16 |
Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) |
12-4-1 |
241 |
| 17 |
17 |
William Carey (Miss.) |
13-2-1 |
222 |
| 18 |
18 |
John Brown (Ark.) |
13-2-2 |
216 |
| 19 |
20 |
Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) |
14-3-2 |
172 |
| 20 |
22 |
Westmont (Calif.) |
10-4-1 |
169 |
| 21 |
21 |
Spring Arbor (Mich.) |
13-3-4 |
161 |
| 22 |
19 |
Rocky Mountain (Mont.) |
13-4-2 |
140 |
| 23 |
23 |
Benedictine (Kan.) |
12-3-1 |
139 |
| 24 |
24 |
Georgia Gwinnett |
11-3-3 |
134 |
| 25 |
25 |
Menlo (Calif.) |
13-4-1 |
115 |
Dropped from rankings: None
Others Receiving Votes: Hannibal-LaGrange (Mo.) 71; Tennessee Wesleyan 63; Wayland Baptist (Texas) 63; Vanguard (Calif.) 43; Our Lady of the Lake (Texas) 20; Bellevue (Neb.) 15; Dalton State (Ga.) 13; Indiana Tech 7; UC Merced 5; Kansas Wesleyan 4.