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Author: Matt Privratsky  Since the departure of Western Illinois just over a year ago, the Summit League has been sitting at 9 members – an inopportune number for the scheduling and travel of an athletics conference. In all likelihood, the Summit League may simply add one new member to replace outgoing Western Illinois and get its membership back up to 10. But – despite truly no one even remotely asking me to – I thought it might be fun to dream a bit bigger. In the era of the most aggressive, ambitious, and wild college conference expansion of all time, I came up with a (sort of just for fun) plan to transform the Summit League into a massive, Midwestern powerhouse mid-major athletics conference. Let’s jump in. State of the Summit & Ground Rules As I mentioned above, the Summit League currently sits at 9 members: UND, NDSU, SDSU, USD, KC, Omaha, Denver, Oral Robert, St Thomas. As you can see via the map below, membership is largely concentrated in the Upper Midwest but branches west to Colorado and south to Oklahoma. For this proposal, I used a few basic ground rules:
 The Super Sized Summit League Let’s start with the most Minnesota angle to this scenario: getting St Thomas a travel partner. Most Summit League opponents aren’t too far away from St Thomas’ home in St Paul, MN, but none are what you’d describe as natural travel partners. The two most logical options could be Northern Iowa (UNI) or Drake – both 3-ish hours away. I’d selfishly love to watch more of both programs and either could make a good option for the Summit, but as a tie breaker we’ll go with UNI because it’s a little closer. Out west, I considered building out an entire four team “Colorado wing” of the Summit League castle (in an even more aggressive buildout maybe you do) but instead went with Colorado State. Air Force and Northern Colorado are both nearby but CSU had the higher RPI last year so they won the tie breaker. Down south, I assume Omaha and Kansas city pair up with Oral Roberts in need of a new partner. There are lots of other DIs within driving distance but Missouri State wins out due to a solid 2023 RPI and its general proximity “on the way” for many of the current (and newly proposed below) members.  Now, with 12 members in place all with natural travel partners, I get into the true expansion for expansion's sake. I’ve long felt the play for the Summit League that’s both highly ambitious but also somewhat logical would be to go after longtime Horizon League powerhouse Milwaukee. Though the top of the Horizon League has tended to be stronger than the Summit, the bottom is far far weaker – leading to an average RPI of 198 last year for HL vs 174 for the SL. And the new Summit League would be even stronger (more on that later)! Come on Panthers, come west! And while we’re in Milwaukee, let’s grab Marquette right alongside MKE. If we’re venturing all the way to Lake Michigan, we might as well grab a couple more nearby to add some super convenient trips for our 4 new eastern-most members. In my head, for some reason, DePaul and the Big East seemed too likely to stick together (truly cannot tell you why Big East teams felt off limits in my brain but they did) so we’re going with Loyola Chicago and Valparaiso just a bit into Indiana as our second pairing to the east. Final Thoughts Although this specific exercise was almost entirely for fun, I do think it makes sense for some of the many midwestern mid-majors to consider ambitious expansion like this. For example, just within our rough driving distance (plus the conference opponents of those in driving distance) there are Summit League, Missouri Valley, Horizon League, Big Sky, Mountain West, and Ohio Valley members and more! Now, I’m very confident the way I’m thinking of this is nowhere near the way actual athletic directors or conference commissioners are – thus the multiple “for fun” and “not serious” tags throughout the piece. But the pieces I do think folks should take away are:
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Authors: Mark Privratsky and Matt Privratsky
Photo: Katelyn Beulke of SDSU. Photographer: Travis Gallipo
The 2024 college soccer season has officially kicked off! That once again means attempting to round up every single Minnesotan playing DI women’s soccer across the country. So far, you’ve helped us find 118 players suiting up for 46 different programs. This year, we've even put that entire master list of DI MNs into a publicly viewable, sortable google sheet that you can access and sort! Now, let’s take a look at where those players are concentrated, some early top performers, and some games to watch over the next couple weekends.
"Most Minnesotan" Programs Though Minnesotans are rostered on 46 different programs, the bulk of local players suit up for just a handful of programs. Not surprisingly, nearly all of them are either in Minnesota or just beyond the border. Only Army cracks the list without having geographic proximity in their corner. Here’s the full top ten:
Catch our Weekly Shows! For the fall season, we’ve switched to a weekly format where every Tuesday at 7PM we’ll do a full round up of all the Equal Time Soccer beats. It will be a different mix of guests, analysis, and updates every week based on the top stories of the day. Check out this week’s show, featuring star Gopher Soccer forward Caroline Birdsell and a full rundown of some top performing DI MNs, below. Early Top Performers Pohlidal Sisters Pace Army: Senior Hannah Polidal has been joined by her younger sister freshman Grace Polidal (as well as sophomore keeper Jordan Hecht) at the United States Military Academy and they’re off to a strong 3-1 start. After a respectable 0-1 loss to Wake Forest to start season, they’ve had a 3-0 win over Manhatten, a 3-2 win over Umass, and a 2-0 win over Central Conn St – with the Pohlidals seeing time in every match so far. Izzy Making an Impact for the Irish: Izzy Engle has come onto the college soccer scene in an absolutely atomic way, scoring a hat trick in Notre Dame’s win over Samford (the first Freshman since 2008 to have a hat trick at Notre Dame) and putting up 2 goals in a win vs TCU after that. To play as a freshman is impressive, to do so for a team like Notre Dame is incredibly impressive, to play *this way* on top of it is just flatout unreal. Twin Cities Crosstown Showdown: The University of Minnesota and the University of St Thomas have now faced in back to back seasons and the Gophers once again (as you’d expect on paper) came out on top — this time with a 4-1 win at the South Field of St Thomas. The Gophers now sit at 2-0 and St Thomas is 0-2-1 with both squads hitting the road this weekend (MN at MKE & Marquette, UST at Marist & Sienna: more details below) From Brown to Teal: Clare Gagne an Orono native and long time keeper for highly touted Brown in the Ivy League has transferred to UNC to play alongside fellow Minnesotan Maddie Dahlien. Dahlien notched an assist in UNC’s opening win against Denver (though is now away with the USYNT on U20 World Cup duty) and Gagne has claimed the starting spot in goal. Both will be leaned on heavily as UNC fights to maintain their place toward the top of the newly expanded ACC following the departure of ten starters from last season and the recent retirement of longtime UNC Head Coach Anson Dorrance. Berit’s Invisible Brace for Iowa: Berit Parton started her college soccer career off with a bang, scoring two goals in 30 seconds as Iowa took a commanding lead against Oregon State. In the second half, however, the game had to be called for weather – but not with enough game played for the result to be final. According to Iowa staff, Oregon State ultimately declined to schedule a makeup date/time so the game (and Parton’s goals) won’t count in the official record books – don’t worry, we made sure there’s a record (watch them for yourself below). Parton absolutely cooked in the UPSL Midwest West this summer and looks to continue the moment this fall alongside fellow Minnesotan and former South Dakota State legend Maya Hansen, who has now officially returned from injury and seen time in multiple games for the Hawkeyes this fall.
Upcoming Games to Watch! North Dakota at UNC, Thur Aug 29 3PM, ACC Network Plus USD at Drake, Thur Aug 29, 3PM Midco Sports MN at Milwaukee, Thur Aug 29 7PM, ESPN+ Penn St vs WV, Thur Aug 29, 6:30PM, BTN+ St Thomas at Marist, Thur Aug 29 St Thomas at Siena, Sun Sept 1 MN at Marquette, Sun Sept 1 1PM, Flo Sports Penn St at St Louis, Sun Sept 1, 1PM, ESPN+ SDSU at UW Green Bay, Sun Sept 1 12PM, ESPN+ Army at Providence, Sun Sept 1 12PM, ESPN+ Minnesota v Army, Thur Sept 5 5PM, ESPN+ Boston College at Cornell, Thur Sept 5 5PM, ESPN+ UNC v Duke, Thur Sept 5 6PM, ACC Network Penn St v Princeton, Thur Sept 5 6PM, ESPN+ Wisconsin v Milwaukee, Thur Sept 5 7PM, ESPN+ St Thomas at UNI, Fri Sept 6 4PM, ESPN+ Minnesota v Brown, Sun Sept 8 1PM, BTN+ Marquette v #9 Notre Dame, Sun Sept 8 12:30PM, ACC Network #18 Wake Forest v UNC Asheville, Sun Sept 8 1PM, ACC Network Penn St v Georgetown, Sun Sept 8 Noon, Flo Sports SDSU v Drake, Sun Sept 8 1PM, Midco Sports South Dakota v Portland State, Sun Sept 8 1PM, Midco Sports STREAMING Every other week we will update you with games that feature Minnesotans that you can potentially watch in person (Twin Cities focus) or via stream. There are a lot (too many?) of individual streamers in sports these days, so we will focus on the most accessible games with the most bang for your buck. Check your team’s schedules to see how many games will be on each platform to see if it’s worth it for you. If you’re a Big Ten fan, BTN+ is a bit spendy but could be worth it for the season at $12.99/month or $89.99/year. If you are a bit more in the weeds you may look into Flo Sports, but the most games by far will be found on ESPN+. Plenty of non conference games and a handful of our MN heavy conferences feature on ESPN+, along with lots of other soccer content, so you could find value there. While 100+ Minnesotans are playing (almost) coast to coast this fall, there is no Conference that comes close to the Minnesotan-ness of the Summit League, where 46 of the 109 (and counting) D1 players make their home. The Summit League Network is home to all of the soccer games in the Conference, along with all of the Conference’s sports. The Summit League Network broadcasts via the Midco Sports App, or at MidcoSportsPlus.com. The membership is $9.99/month or a slightly cheaper rate for a year. Support our Work! Appreciate our coverage of DI Minnesotans and all of Minnesota women's soccer? You can support us for a little as $2/month!
Author: Matt Privratsky
(Photo: Michael Lake)
It’s hard to believe, but we’re already entering the fourth year of the Division 1 era for St Thomas. That monster freshman class from year one is now hoping to leave their mark on the women’s soccer program by helping the team jump from scrappy upstart in the competitive Summit League to perennial headache and postseason threat. What does the team need to do in order to take that step? Let’s jump in. Quick Refresh on 2023 If you weren’t following along for last fall’s Tommie Soccer season, the short way to describe it would be to say the team was still very much in transition. Multiple formations and tactical setups were used, dramatic lineup shifts continued to happen game to game, and it wasn’t always easy to predict how the team might perform on a given day because of that. 
In terms of some top line statistical markers, the Toms saw some progression from year one to year two, but not much between years two and three. The earliest days of the Tom’s DI era saw them running a pretty consistent high line press with incredibly quick shifts and a ton of subbing/rotation. That, at times, left them exposed to counter attacks as space was created by on-charging defenders looking to turn the other team over (the standard risk of pressing). That exposure seems to have dictated most of the tactical and formation changes since then – with the team focusing on reducing those chances for exposure, both in terms of who gets playing time and how the team lines up. What to Watch For in 2024 So this fall, I’ll be watching for how quickly and firmly St Thomas seems to settle into an identity. Do they try to let that front line (and front six overall) push forward and press the opposing team? Do they sit back a bit more and let the opponent come to them, confident in their ability to defend in their own half and get out on the counter from a deeper position? Do they go even more ambitious (for a new DI team trying to climb a competitive conference) and try to possess and control the run of play? It’s not incredibly clear from the exhibition season where the team may land because there was still a fair amount of formation and rotation tinkering (as you might somewhat expect). What I’ll be watching for is whether that seems to settle in at least by the end of the non-conference schedule. If we’re entering Summit League play with the previous couple paragraphs still being vaguely accurate, it could be a challenge for them to get results against more established conference opponents. Underneath the broader questions of identity, tactics, and formation is which players actually cement their spots in the rotation? This team is absolutely loaded with players who are, at minimum, solid Summit League players. That monster freshman class from year one of the DI era? Some of them go entire matches without even seeing the field because, as I’ve said from the very very beginning, St Thomas will always be a perfect almost-by-default landing spot for really really solid DI women’s college soccer players and each class has continued to bring a handful of quality contributors. So with such a loaded pool of possible rotation pieces, let’s just start with what we know:
By the end of non-conference, I’ll be looking for whether there is a somewhat consistent starting group, a somewhat consistent bench group, and how reactive vs proactive the choices in those areas seem to be.
Sunshine and Rainbows Predictions The preseason poll picked them 8th. Because of how competitive the Summit League is (top third RPI in all of DI, nationally), that finish is obviously entirely possible. If they have fairly real improvement over last year, they’re probably more like 6th or 7th. If they achieve sunshine and rainbows level of improvement (stuff *really* goes right), I could see them finishing something like 4th (behind Denver, SDSU, battling with Omaha and Oral Roberts in that 3,4,5 range etc).
And if *all seven* of those things happen, St Thomas probably wins the Summit League! That’s why this section is titled “Sunshine and Rainbows”! But the funny thing is, you can’t look at any of those bullets individually and say they aren’t at least possible. If none of those bullets come true, they probably do finish 8th. Which is fine. They’re still a pretty new DI team. The Summit League is hard. But the truth is, I think the talent on the roster is better than 8th. At minimum, the talent on this roster should mean that St Thomas (once eligible in 2025) is in the conference tournament (finishing top 6), being a problem for other teams, and maybe even regularly making the semis/final. And until they’re eligible (thank you, NCAA), we’ll keep watching Soccer in the Capital City, baby! (if you don't get the "Soccer in the Capital City" reference it means you haven't been to a St Thomas game in person and I therefore invite you to show up sometime and I'll personally give you a Modist Brewing drink of your choice!)
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