United Soccer Coaches Rankings Program
General Information
1. United Soccer Coaches conducts national and regional rankings of both men’ s and women’ s college soccer programs as a service to its College Services members and the general public. These rankings are distributed to the media and placed on the United Soccer Coaches Web site( https:// unitedsoccercoaches. org) and are accessible each Tuesday afternoon during the season.
2. The intent of the college ranking program is clearly outlined by the United Soccer Coaches Awards Committee and supported by the Board of Directors:
a. To further stimulate interest in men’ s and women’ s intercollegiate soccer on a national level, b. To recognize schools with soccer programs.
3. United Soccer Coaches recognizes that the national rankings are the best attempt to balance and compare the relative strengths and weaknesses of college soccer programs across the United States. The United Soccer Coaches rankings are an indicator of the week-to-week status of qualified programs, and in no way should be used as a guide or indicator of eligibility for NCAA Championship selection.
4. Each national chair is responsible for supplying a list( name, address, phone number and e-mail address) of regional chairs no later than June 1 each year. Each regional chair must supply a list of all regional contacts serving on the regional committee no later than June 1 each year.
Ranking Procedures
1. The national and regional selection process will be headed by national chairs for each NCAA( Divisions I, II and III) and Junior College( Divisions I, II and III) for both men and women. It is the responsibility of each national chair to select a chairperson for each of the regions as defined by the NCAA within his or her division.
5. Each regional chair will then, using the information obtained from the conference call, rank the teams in the region in a top 10 format. That ranking will be then input electronically on the United Soccer Coaches website.
6. Regional and national voters must keep and consult season-to-date results for teams under consideration.
Ranking Rules
1. To be included in the rankings after October 1, institutions must be paid members of the United Soccer Coaches College Services program. Committees will be given information apprising them of unpaid members.
2. Only institutions that are in“ good standing” with their respective governing body and United Soccer Coaches will be eligible to be ranked.
3. After the fourth week of ranking, teams that do not have a winning percentage of. 500 or above will not be considered for regional and national ranking.
4. In addition to the above listed criteria, national and regional voters should consider the following factors in compiling rankings:
a. Overall won-loss percentage; b. Strength of schedule; c. Traditional strength of league or region; d. Away results versus other ranked teams; e. Comparative scores between regions; f. Head-to-head scores.
United Soccer Coaches conducts a preseason and post-tournament ranking to complement the weekly regular season polls.
2. Each regional chair will select a regional committee that will be responsible for gathering and sharing information for all institutions within their region and division. Guidelines for committee selection are as follows:
a. The committee should include three regional voters( more, if necessary, depending upon the geographical size of the region) including the chair. b. The members of the committee should represent their entire geographical region without conference or school bias. c. The members of the committee should show a balance of representation from all conferences and independents within the region. d. Efforts should be made to have representation on the committee from institutions that are not continuously included as top-ranked schools in the region.
3. NCAA DIVISION I ONLY – There will be a National Rankings Committee for Men’ s( 8 members) and Women’ s( 8 members) NCAA Division I Soccer, comprised of the regional chairs. Each of the regional committees will prepare and submit their region’ s respective ranking online no later than 2:00 p. m. Central time each Monday during the season. The National Rankings Committee members will have access to those regional polls as an information source. They will participate in a phone call on Monday afternoons to discuss and prepare to submit their rankings online no later than 2:00 p. m. Central time each Tuesday. The national rankings will be released at 4:00 p. m. Central time each Tuesday during the season.
4. NCAA DIVISIONS II & III- The regional chair, working through the national office, will set up, during the season, a weekly conference call with the regional committee on Sunday evenings or Monday mornings to establish the regional top 10. The conference call will consist ONLY of the committee members sharing the information concerning the prior week’ s activity of the institutions that have been assigned by the chair.
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