Well... It has been quite a year... but the time has finally come for most collegiate players in and from around the region.
Here is a round-up of where things stand with area leagues and programs since we last checked in with things at the end of 2019. The following summation begins with area leagues with significant representation in the inland northwest and conclude with leagues with one or two members in the region.
*** Needless to say, the following is all subject to change ***
NATIONALLY
NCAA - DI Women's Championship: April 23 to May 15
NCAA - DI Men's Championship: April 30 to May 17
NCAA - DII Women's Championship: Canceled
NCAA - DII Men's Championship: Canceled
NCAA - DIII Women's Championship: Canceled
NCAA - DIII Men's Championship: Canceled
NAIA - Women's Championship: April 15-17 & April 27-May 3
NAIA - Men's Championship: April 22-24 & May 4-10
BIG SKY CONFERENCE
As with most leagues, the schedule has been significantly altered to reduce travel. The league has been split into two divisions. One oddity of the divisions is that Idaho State was separated from Idaho despite the fact that Sacramento State is arguably just as 'spaced out' from the other members of ISU's Southeast Division as it is from the Northwest Division in comparison to Idaho State from the NW. The two will square off, however, in 'non-league' play on Valentines Day. The schedule will see each match-up repeated Friday & Sunday (similar to hockey or baseball) per trip, resulting in four games between each opponent in divisional play. As you will see below, non-league play schedules will vary greatly between programs due to pandemic regulations and weather / field availability.
Northwest: Eastern Washington, Idaho, Montana, Portland St, Sacramento St
Southeast: Idaho State, Northern Arizona, Northern Colorado, Southern Utah, Weber State
League Play Starts: Friday, March 12
Postseason: Top two from each division advance to Big Sky Spring Soccer Championship April 15-17 at Weber State (Ogden, Utah)
Non-League Openers of Note:
Feb 5 - Idaho v Oregon State
Feb 15 - EWU @ Gonzaga
Feb 26 - ISU v Northwest Nazarene
Mar 7 - Montana v MSU Billings
Looking Back: Montana won the regular season conference title in 2019 with a 6-0-3 record, edging up fellow unbeaten Sacramento State (5-0-4). EWU was the only other inland northwest-based program to reach the Big Sky tourney, finishing third (6-2-1) at the close of the season. Idaho was seventh (2-5-2) and Idaho State ninth (1-6-2). Prior to the Vandals' second place finish in 2018, the inland northwest group of schools had finished atop the table in the league four consecutive seasons. In 2019, preset tournament host Northern Colorado won the league title out of the fourth seed, downing Northern Arizona 2-1 in overtime in the quarterfinals and Montana 2-1 in overtime of the semifinals before edging Eastern Washington 1-0 in the final.
GREAT NORTHWEST ATHLETIC CONFERENCE
Though teams will play, there is no official 2020-21 season from men's or women's soccer per the league's announcement in January: "the Management Council of the GNAC has approved institutional autonomy in scheduling for the spring 2021 seasons for men's soccer, women's soccer, volleyball and cross country. As the independent scheduling format is intended to provide maximum flexibility to the GNAC's member institutions, the Council also decided that the conference will not declare regular season champions or conduct postseason championships."
The resulting fully non-league slates for the GNAC programs will see schools in the inland northwest region playing their regional rivals and a handful of other league opponents in abbreviated campaigns along with additional games against schools from the Cascade Conference, Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference among others.
League Play Starts: None
Postseason: None, fully Non-League Season
Men's Non-League Openers of Note:
Feb 13 - NNU @ College of Idaho
Feb 14 - MSUB v Rocky Mountain College
Women's Non-League Openers of Note:
Feb 12 - NNU v College of Idaho
Feb 18 - MSUB @ Rocky Mountain College
Apr 10 - CWU v Saint Martin's
Changes: Not that it is all that noticeable with the non-league nature of the spring campaign, but the GNAC takes to the field without Concordia as the university's itself shuttered following the end of the spring 2020 semester.
NORTHWEST CONFERENCE
The league has chosen to split its membership into Washington and Oregon divisions for the spring campaign with each of the schools playing its opponents twice in a weekend Saturday and Sunday both home and away for four meetings total. There will be no non-league games.
League Play Starts: February 6
* Though league play starts February 6, the Whitworth Men announced per Covid-19 protocols it has postponed its first two weekends of play at Whitman and Puget Sound. Additionally, the Whitworth Women will not play rival Whitman on opening weekend.
Postseason: Though there is no national tournament, a NWC postseason championship event is still classified as To Be Determined per their latest announcement December 28.
Non-League Openers of Note: None
Changes: Jeremy Payne will begin his tenure as coach of the Whitworth Men after being brought into the role in March of 2020. The Messiah College (PA) grad was a two-time NSCAA Division III Player of the Year (2012, 2014) and helped lead the program to NCAA DIII titles in 2012 and 2013. He found success early in his coaching career. After two seasons at Eastern University (PA) as a graduate assistant he was promoted to head coach in 2017 and narrowly missed the DIII tournament in his first year before leading the school to tourney appearances the next two years.
Down in Walla Walla the Whitman Women also welcome a new head coach with Michelle Voiland having been named to the post in March 2020. She comes to the Blues with 11 years of DI experience at Oregon State on her resume, having served as associate head coach or interim head coach of the program from 2008-2018. The Beavers ranked as high as 13th at one point during her tenure. The former goalkeeper hails from the University of Portland, where she ranked as the all-time saves leader and was All-Conference First Team all four seasons. She also played for the USL W-League Southern California Blues and spent eight professional seasons in the German Bundesliga. Between OSU and Whitman, the 1994 Portland grad was head coach of Western Oregon, which went 10-6-3 (7-3-2 in the CCC), a marked improvement from 5-9-3 (2-5-1) the year before and first winning season since 2013.
Looking Back: Rivals Whitman and Whitworth split in men's soccer in 2019, but a 4-2 record against their Washington foes helped the Blues to second in the league while the Pirates were 3-3 against their in-state foes. The Whitman Women swept rival Whitworth as they went 2-4 against their Washington foes back in 2019 while Whitworth went 0-6.
CASCADE COLLEGIATE CONFERENCE
The league has moved to a divisional format for the spring 2021 campaign with schools split into east and west, though some programs have opted out for the season. Opting out are: Walla Walla University Men and Evergreen State College Men & Women. The men's and women's programs will travel to the same opponent and play two game Saturday-Sunday weekends in their sole meetings against each of their five opponents as they will not be playing a balanced home-away schedule. RMC, EOU and Multnomah will have three home weekends in the East while the others only two.
East: Carroll, College of Idaho, Eastern Oregon, Multnomah, Providence, Rocky Mountain
West: Bushnell, Corban, Northwest, Oregon Tech, Southern Oregon, Warner Pacific
League Play Starts: March 7
Postseason: No CCC tournament. Automatic entrants to NAIA Tournament
Men's Non-League Openers of Note:
Feb 20 - Carroll @ MSU Billings
Feb 20 - COI v Northwest Univ
Feb 21 - EOU v Northwest Univ
Feb 24 - RMC v MSU Billings
Women's Non-League Openers of Note:
Feb 12 - COI @ NW Nazarene
Feb 20 - EOU v Corban
Changes: The first noticeable change in the league this season is the renaming of Northwest Christian University to Bushnell University, officially utilizing the new name since last June. Bushnell is the name of the school's first chairman of the board of trustees and was adopted as a branding decision per the university's website announcement that said it was to reach "beyond the Northwest, to students nationally and globally" and did not reflect any changes in mission or administration. Beacons will remain as the athletics moniker along with its existing color theme. Quick History Sidenote - The school's name originally denoted the location of Eugene in its early years from 1895 to 1934 when it merged with the distant and Great Depression financially challenged Spokane University (founded by a former Eugene Bible College employee) and became Northwest Christian College.
The lone coaching change among the inland northwest programs is the appointment of Danny Burstein as interim head coach of the Providence Men after having served as assistant in 2019. The former Adams State (CO) men's and women's assistant coach was named to the post in the August 2020. The Brandeis University grad's resume also includes time with well known St Louis club Scott Gallagher.
Looking Back: The Corban Men were unbeaten at 12-0-1 during the 2019 campaign with Rocky Mountain second at 11-2. The regular season champs went on to double as tourney champions as well. After finishing second to Oregon Tech (10-0-2) during the regular season Eastern Oregon (9-2-1) won the conference tournament. Rocky Mountain was also 9-2-1 on the year.
PAC-12 CONFERENCE
Each women's team in the conference will play all 11 other opponents only once this season in league play. Each program will also play their conference rival in an additional non-league match on March 19 and are permitted as many as four other non-league games (including Pac-12 opponents). The men's contingent, which consists of only six teams, will play a more traditional schedule with home and away contests against their conference foes along with up to five non-league affairs.
League Play Starts: Men on February 20; Women on February 26
Postseason: Teams are immediately chosen by the NCAA Selection Committee with a conference tournament per usual.
Women's Non-League Openers of Note:
Feb 7 - WSU at Seattle Univ
WEST COAST CONFERENCE
Both the men and women will play each of their opponents only once this season with the ladies taking the pitch for nine games and the men seven. The women will play on Saturdays with the men on Sundays with the exception of a Saturday fixture in place of Easter Sunday. There was no note of how many non-league games were permitted, but the Gonzaga women had five originally scheduled and the men four.
League Play Starts: Women February 20; Men February 28
Postseason: Teams are immediately chosen by the NCAA Selection Committee with a conference tournament per usual.
Men's Non-League Openers of Note:
Feb 3- Gonzaga @ Seattle Univ
Women's Non-League Openers of Note:
Feb 3 - Gonzaga @ Dixie State
MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE
The 12 schools have been divided into two six-team divisions in which they will play one another home and away for 10 matches. No additional non-league games are scheduled.
West: Boise St, Fresno St, Nevada, San Diego St, San Jose St, UNLV
East: Air Force, Colorado College, Colorado St, New Mexico, Utah St, Wyoming
League Play Starts: March 5
Postseason: Divisional winners will play April 17 to determine NCAA Automatic Qualifier
Women's Non-League Openers of Note: None
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