Rio Grande holds at No. 2, WVU Tech moves up to No. 17 in NAIA Top 25 Poll
Rio Grande holds at No. 2, WVU Tech moves up to No. 17 in NAIA Top 25 Poll
NAIA TOP 25
By Chad Waller, NAIA Director of Communications & Sports Information
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — With 16 first-place votes, Oklahoma Wesleyan holds the No. 1 ranking for the second-straight week in the NAIA Men's Soccer Coaches' Top 25 Poll, the national office announced Tuesday. No new teams entered the top 10, with some minimal shifting taking place.
Top 25 Highlights (historical information dates back to 2000):
• Top-ranked Oklahoma Wesleyan gathered 527 total points for its second-straight status at No. 1. The Eagles are 5-0-1 on the year.
• The Eagles have the second-longest active unbeaten streak at 21-straight wins or ties in NAIA Men's Soccer. Since September of 2015, Oklahoma Wesleyan has gone 19-0-2 during that period. The last loss was at the hands of John Brown (Ark.) on Sept. 22, 2015.
• Oklahoma Wesleyan has already defeated four Top 25 opponents this season, with the last one coming over then-No. 23 Southwestern Christian (Okla.) on Sept. 24. Next up on the schedule is York (Neb.) on Wednesday.
• Through six matches, Oklahoma Wesleyan has yielded just one goal – in the 1-1 draw to John Brown on Sept. 14. The offense has out-scored the opponents by a 12-1 margin.
• With two first-place votes, No. 2 Rio Grande checks in with 512 total points. The RedStorm recently improved to 8-1-0 with a 2-1 win over then-No. 19 Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) in the NAIA Match of the Week on Sept. 23.
• No. 3 MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.), No. 4 Hastings (Neb.) and No. 5 Davenport (Mich.) all switched positions in the top five. Hastings grabbed the remaining first-place vote.
• With a 9-0-0 record, Hastings leads the NAIA in victories. The Broncos own four wins against the Top 25 already this season.
• With a NAIA-best 22-match (20-0-2) undefeated streak (prior to Monday contests), No. 8 Campbellsville (Ky.) is 6-0-0 this year.
• A pair of teams – No. 18 Marymount California and No. 17 WVU Tech (W.Va.) – enjoy the best positive swing with a four-spot improvement.
• Three teams drop three positions for the worst fall within the Top 25.
• Three newcomers highlight the list: No. 22 Cumberland (Tenn.), No. 23 Reinhardt (Ga.) and No. 25 Midland (Neb.). Prior to this week, Cumberland most recently landed in the 2016 Preseason Top 25.
• Both Reinhardt and the Warriors are ranked for the first time since 2014 – Reinhardt was No. 22 on Nov. 11, 2014 and Midland was No. 19 on Aug. 19, 2014 (preseason).
• Fourteen of the 19 conferences are represented this week. The Appalachian Athletic Conference, Heart of America Athletic Conference and Mid-South Conference each send three teams each into the Top 25, the most of any conference.
• Overall, eight leagues send 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.
• With the addition of Oklahoma Wesleyan to the list of all-time No. 1-ranked teams, 21 different teams have now been ranked No. 1 at some point in program history for the NAIA.
• Rio Grande is trying to become the first time to be ranked preseason No. 1 and win the national championship in the same season since Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) did it in 2001
• Last season, there were 44 different teams to be ranked at least once – eight teams appeared on each poll last season, including the preseason poll
• Lindsey Wilson is the longest consecutively-ranked active school at 98-straight polls, dating back to the first installment of the 2007 Top 25 Poll (Sept. 5) and Rio Grande is next in line with 91-consecutive rankings.
• With a drop out of the Top 25 in the Sept. 27 edition, Missouri Valley snapped a streak of 57-straight rankings, which was the third-longest streak at the time.
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. 2 (Sept. 27)
| RANK | LAST WEEK | SCHOOL (1ST PLACE VOTES) | 2016 RECORD | TOTAL POINTS |
| 1 | 1 | Oklahoma Wesleyan (16) | 5-0-1 | 527 |
| 2 | 2 | RIO GRANDE (Ohio) (2) | 8-1-0 | 512 |
| 3 | 4 | MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) | 6-1-1 | 478 |
| 4 | 5 | Hastings (Neb.) (1) | 9-0-0 | 474 |
| 5 | 3 | Davenport (Mich.) | 6-1-1 | 468 |
| 6 | 6 | Thomas (Ga.) | 8-0-1 | 457 |
| 7 | 7 | Northwestern Ohio | 5-1-2 | 421 |
| 8 | 9 | Campbellsville (Ky.) | 6-0-0 | 404 |
| 9 | 8 | Vanguard (Calif.) | 6-1-0 | 395 |
| 10 | 10 | Baker (Kan.) | 6-2-1 | 379 |
| 11 | 13 | Union (Ky.) | 8-2-0 | 350 |
| 12 | 14 | Grand View (Iowa) | 6-1-1 | 325 |
| 13 | 15 | Bryan (Tenn.) | 7-0-1 | 323 |
| 14 | 11 | Corban (Ore.) | 8-1-0 | 314 |
| 15 | 12 | Biola (Calif.) | 6-2-0 | 300 |
| 16 | 18 | John Brown (Ark.) | 5-1-1 | 275 |
| 17 | 21 | WVU TECH | 7-1-1 | 233 |
| 18 | 22 | Marymount (Calif.) | 5-2-1 | 205 |
| 19 | 16 | Indiana Wesleyan | 5-3-1 | 194 |
| 20 | 20 | Lindenwood-Belleville (Ill.) | 5-3-0 | 168 |
| 21 | 19 | Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) | 4-3-0 | 147 |
| 22 | RV | Cumberland (Tenn.) | 6-2-1 | 135 |
| 23 | RV | Reinhardt (Ga.) | 7-1-0 | 131 |
| 24 | 25 | Rocky Mountain (Mont.) | 5-2-0 | 113 |
| 25 | RV | Midland (Neb.) | 8-1-1 | 109 |
Dropped from rankings: No. 17 Missouri Valley, No. 23 Southwestern Christian (Okla.), No. 24 Tennessee Wesleyan.
Others Receiving Votes: Southwestern Christian (Okla.) 103; The Master's (Calif.) 102; William Carey (Miss.) 94; Madonna (Mich.) 92; Tennessee Wesleyan 61; Columbia (Mo.) 28; Johnson & Wales (Colo.) 27; McPherson (Kan.) 16; Spring Arbor (Mich.) 14; Menlo (Calif.) 13; Middle Georgia State 10; Oregon Tech 6; Central Methodist (Mo.) 3.