Tiger93

That is awesome! Thanks for sharing.

Hopefully setting the tone for a successful 2026-27 athletic season in many ways. Good job ladies!

Both losses would do significant damage to any chance of an NCAA Tournament bid. This is a pretty absolute statement, but if the goal is to make the playoffs we likely need to be 9-3 and 7-1 assuming that Monmouth and Rhode Island are the only ranked teams we might be play, (right now those are two teams in the conference that are ranked while UNH and Elon are receiving votes), and we probably need to beat at least one of them to have a solid resume (Stony Brook could be ranked too at some point). With William & Mary and Villanova gone, we just have to assume this is a two-big league at best minus some surprises. That being said, it is too early to start making these proclamations (I know I am speaking out of both sides of my mouth). One game at a time.

O-line and stopping the run feel like two of the top three priorities to me. Above average QB play is right there too. If we can be solid against the run and run it well on our own, I feel like that will take care of a lot of things. I think penalties (pre-snap), time of possession, running the ball and giving the QB time to be accurate are all byproducts of a good offensive line. It feels like when we have been good (as is the case with most teams) our offensive line has been very good. Turnovers can be such a random wild card and the defense needs to either make plays or be stout (preferably both, but that is a tall ask). During that 2011-13 stretch, those defenses didn't necessarily stop by teams, but they came up with turnovers and stops at big times. I don't think we will ever have a dominant defense, but I just want a defense that isn't awful and can make some big plays.

I meant to say Sunday, August 16. Looks like yesterday's game was postponed and the 2026-27 athletic season won't officially began until today at 4 p.m. at Mount St. Mary's.

I believe women's soccer kicks off the 2026-27 Towson athletics calendar by traveling to Mt. St. Mary's on Saturday, August 16. They are picked to finish fourth in the North, and Kale’a Perry is the Preseason Player of the Year. https://caasports.com/news/2026/8/9/elon-stony-brook-chosen-as-womens-soccer-divisional-favorites-towsons-perry-tabbed-caa-preseason-player-of-the-year.aspx

Agreed on the coach. I actually thought as long as Mack was there they would never really dominate in the way they did with Kelsey. Now in John Groce they have a guy who knows how to win big at the mid-major level, is right in the prime of his coaching career, and is hungry to prove himself and get back to a Power 5 job. I feel like with that hire and transfer portal they had even before this they vaulted to being the favorites in this conference. Now (put aside how I feel about all of this eligibility nonsense) they can take that to an even higher level in year one of Groce.

This by no means is close to perfect and it is missing a lot of data, but I view this as Charleston is way out ahead of the pack, then UNCW is slightly ahead, and after that it is a clump of Hofstra, William & Mary, Stony Brook, Monmouth and Towson who could finish in any order. I don't think it is delusional to call us a possible top 3 team, but I won't be betting any money on it any time soon either. I feel like this move just vaulted Charleston into a clear-favorite and potential top mid-major (maybe even possible at-large scavenger) status. However, hard to know what we are talking about until we play games. Towson is in the top 3-5 in most of these categories. That means very little, but one of the few places that is projecting things out. https://barttorvik.com/trankpre.php?sort=tal&conlimit=CAA

Same gym, Bender Arena. I guess it has been open since 1988. I remember one of their players hit a half court show at the buzzer right before halftime. As students, I believe we had courtside seats and made the really dated (not at the time) Jack Nicholson references. I am all for playing 2-3 teams like this. I would guess they will return the trip next year.

Good find! Been a while since we played them (22 years to be exact). I was in attendance for our last win against them (at American) in 1997, which I believe was the debut of Mike Jaskulski as Towson Head Coach.

Poorly phrased on my part. The "they" is the CAA. I meant to say that if the CAA keeps adding teams that are a geographic or competitive mismatches for us we may be forced to think about a conference move within the FCS. I listed those five teams, because I feel like Elon, Rhode Island (not so much in anything but football), Monmouth, Stony Brook and Bryant (to some extent, because I believe they have potential) all match are level and don't stretch our travel that much. Certainly Maine, UNH and Albany could also be for football, but that starts stretching out our geographic convenience. I really think the goal is to get to FBS, but I am not sure how realistic that is in our current state. I feel like we have to keep several options on our mind and be proactive if we don't like what the conference is transforming into. If we are going to be traveling up and down the East Coast, we should at least have better competition. The best conference games on our schedule are Maine, Monmouth, Stony Brook, Rhode Island and Elon. None of those teams are that far off from the teams that left to go to the Patriot League, but outside of UNH I think pretty much everyone else in the conference appears far off on paper. At least right now.

That makes sense, however if we can't move up (which feels likely) and they keep adding CAA teams that either don't make sense with our geographical footprint or the level we want to be at, some of the schools that make more sense should think about proactive ways to change the situation. That is why I list those schools. It is not enough to start a conference, but it is a block that could proactively work together to be more in control of their destiny.

It is fair to ask the questions and be critical, but it is hard to know what the administration has and hasn't done behind the scenes. What is clear as day is we have not been good enough in the last 6-8 years to be attractive to another conference that would be a step up, we don't have the fanbase and facilities that would make use attractive without winning, and the CAA has just fallen apart. That is a hard hand to play with for any AD. I still think the best group of schools in some order to latch on to for our future, if we can't make a move ourselves, are Stony Brook, Monmouth, Elon, Rhode Island and Bryant. I don't know if those schools want us, but particularly Monmouth and Stony Brook seem to fit our current geographic footprint and have a similar level of success now that our Virginia friends, Villanova (in football) and Delaware have left us to go play in better sandboxes. Any move to a Southern Conference or something like that should probably be done with Elon if possible. Any Northern conference in the future that doesn't involve us moving to the FBS (which feels unrealistic to me) should be done with some combination of those other four universities. The other ones in our conference either feel below our level or a mismatch from a geographical standpoint (even Rhode Island and Boston are stretching it a little bit). When you look around the landscape it does feel like it is 1:50 a.m. at the bar, someone has turned the lights on, and no one is left to hang out with.

Looks like the top teams in the recent past (post JMU) CAA (mostly) are predicted to be the top teams in the Patriot League this year too. https://patriotleague.org/news/2026/7/29/patriot-league-announces-2026-preseason-football-honors-7-29-26.aspx

I hate non-D1 games and want none of them on the schedule ever. However, if one has to be on there Johns Hopkins is the most interesting one we could schedule. I don't usually watch one second of those games, but I might actually watch a little bit of that one. I still would prefer none, but that doesn't seem like it will happen. I am interested to see the rest of the schedule soon. I hope to get to the Utah game or Penn tournament. Although, selfishly I would like one closer to Minnesota. I doubt that will happen.