2018 Men’s Soccer Coaches’ Preseason Top 25
Wahland Baptist (Texas) lands No. 1 rating to open 2018 season
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Following its first championship in program history, Wayland Baptist (Texas) claims the No. 1 spot in the NAIA Men’s Soccer Coaches’ Preseason Top 25 Poll, the national office announced Tuesday. Wayland Baptist captured 15-of-16 first place votes and a total of 436 points.
-Wayland Baptist closed out the 2017 season with their first red banner
-Wayland Baptist will lose two key players from the 2017 season but will return four top players that contributed to the 2017 title. The team will also benefit from four top newcomers.
-Teams that joined the Top 25: Reinhardt (Ga.), Northwestern Ohio
-Rio Grande (Ohio) currently holds the record for the most No. 1 rankings all-time with 57 total.
-No. 9 Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) holds the record for the longest consecutively-ranked active school at 117-straight polls, dating back to the first installment of the Top 25 in 2007. Rio Grande (Ohio) is second on the list with 108-straight polls.
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 rating) 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 appear on. -Teams that receive only one point in the ballot are not considered “receiving votes”.
2018 Men’s Soccer Coaches’ Preseason Top 25 Poll – (Aug. 14)
| RANK | WEEK | SCHOOL | RECORD | POINTS |
| 1 | 1 | Wayland Baptist (Texas) [15] | 17-5-3 | 436 |
| 2 | 2 | Missouri Valley | 19-3-3 | 422 |
| 3 | 3 | Oklahoma Wesleyan [1] | 22-1-2 | 409 |
| 4 | 4 | Marymount California | 15-4-2 | 394 |
| 5 | 5 | William Carey (Miss.) | 18-2-1 | 380 |
| 6 | 6 | Mobile (Ala.) | 18-4-3 | 361 |
| 7 | 7 | Columbia (Mo.) | 19-2-3 | 351 |
| 8 | 8 | Georgia Gwinnett | 13-4-2 | 341 |
| 9 | 9 | Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) | 14-4 | 323 |
| 10 | 10 | Baker (Kan.) | 16-5-2 | 313 |
| 11 | 11 | Hastings (Neb.) | 19-3-1 | 295 |
| 12 | 12 | St. Thomas (Fla.) | 14-1-2 | 277 |
| 13 | 13 | Vanguard (Calif.) | 16-4-4 | 276 |
| 14 | 14 | Cardinal Stritch (Wis.) | 16-4-2 | 248 |
| 15 | 15 | Madonna (Mich.) | 16-4-1 | 234 |
| 16 | 16 | Rio Grande (Ohio) | 14-2-2 | 227 |
| 17 | 17 | Rocky Mountain (Mont.) | 16-1-2 | 209 |
| 18 | 18 | Central Methodist (Mo.) | 13-3-3 | 197 |
| 19 | 19 | MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) | 12-5-3 | 176 |
| 20 | 20 | Cumberland (Tenn.) | 15-3-2 | 168 |
| 21 | 21 | Corban (Ore.) | 15-3-4 | 158 |
| 22 | 23 | Westmont (Calif.) | 10-5-5 | 126 |
| 23 | 24 | UC Merced | 13-2-4 | 92 |
| 22 | RV | Reinhardt (Ga.) | 11-4-2 | 92 |
| 25 | RV | Northwestern Ohio | 14-6-1 | 87 |
Dropped From Top 25: No. 25 Benedictine (Kan.), No. 22 Truett-McConnell (Ga.)
Others Receiving Votes: Benedictine (Kan.) 84, Spring Arbor (Mich.) 55, Campbellsville (Ky.) 50, Dalton State (Ga.) 38, Bryan (Tenn.) 34, William Woods (Mo.) 19, Grace (Ind.) 13, Truett-McConnell 12, Hope International (Calif.) 9, Keiser (Fla.) 8, Southern Oregon 6, Science & Arts (Okla.) 5, Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) 3, McPherson (Kan.) 3, The Master’s (Calif.) 3
