Gäste Forum » entire 2015 season. Or the 2014 season

(STATS) -- Now you see, now you dont.Thats the scenario with the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers, who are playing their final season in the FCS as an independent while they transition to the FBS level next season.Officially, Coastal is already a member of the Sun Belt Conference -- having joined on July 1, just one day after the Chanticleers baseball team won the College World Series while representing the Big South Conference.But Coastal isnt eligible for the FBS level until next year, so its football program will play a lame-duck, 12-game schedule against FCS teams. While the Chants arent eligible for the FCS playoffs after making appearances each of the last four years, they should win often this year behind their growing talent under coach Joe Moglia and eight games at home.Yet, a question persists: Will Coastal get its due in the STATS FCS Top 25?The Chants have appeared in the national media poll for 44 consecutive weeks over three seasons. But recent history suggests some backlash, as voters demonstrated in 2013 while FCS national powers Georgia Southern and Appalachian State played their final season in the subdivision before rising to the FBS, also in the Sun Belt.Voters were lukewarm about recognizing the two Southern Conference members, whose programs combined for nine FCS national titles, as poll-worthy.Both teams were coming off playoff seasons in 2012, with Georgia Southern reaching the national semifinals for the third consecutive year. But Georgia Southerns No. 9 ranking in the preseason poll was the only time either team was ranked in the Top 10. Once both teams fell from the rankings during the season, they didnt return.Appalachian State deserved it, falling to 4-8 -- its first losing season in 20 years. But Georgia Southern finished 7-4 with a season-ending win at Florida and probably deserved to be part of the final Top 25.Like those two teams, Coastal Carolina is going above the FCS scholarship limit of 63 as part of its transition to the FBS maximum of 85. That gives voters more reason to discount the Chants than just negativity over a program leaving the FCS behind.But the NCAA recognizes Coastal as an FCS member this season and 12 FCS schools didnt have a problem with scheduling the Chanticleers.It will be interesting to see how voters perceive them this season.Austin Riley Jersey . -- There were a lot of firsts for the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night. Hank Aaron Jersey . The Redskins announced Monday that the quarterback who led the team to the Super Bowl championship in the 1987 season will serve as a personnel executive. https://www.cheapbraves.com/193o-francisco-cervelli-jersey-braves.html . Thats about all he can do right now, so hes trying not to think about when he might be able to play again for the Los Angeles Lakers. Andy Messersmith Braves Jersey . Batiste, who briefly signed with the Eskimos in 2006, has spent time with several NFL teams including the Pittsburgh Steelers and Washington Redskins. Phil Niekro Jersey . -- Al Jefferson found a groove just in time for the Charlotte Bobcats.What went down in the fourth week of college soccer? The aim each week is to bring you five stories that defined the week in college soccer or help navigate the long road to the Womens College Cup.And sometimes to point out goals like this.South Alabama takes down No. 1 Florida StateWhat a difference a year makes. When South Alabama played Florida State in the second round of the NCAA tournament a year ago, the Jaguars trailed by a goal after 116 seconds. They trailed by four goals after barely 10 minutes. A 5-0 loss appeared, in the end, almost merciful.So on the surface, South Alabamas 1-0 win over top-ranked Florida State that began the past week seems like one of the more surprising results in recent memory. After all, no one in a Seminoles uniform had lost to an opponent other than Duke, Florida, UCLA or Virginia, the only teams to beat Florida State since 2012. And on a day that saw the Seminoles outshoot South Alabama 28-3 and force Jaguars goalkeeper Justice Stanford to make eight saves, the whole thing might come off as an anomaly, a hiccup in the normally smooth order of college soccer.Yet over the past decade, Florida States nonconference losses usually proved indicators of the quality of opposition. And if South Alabama was fortuitous to win the day on the strength of Charde Hannahs first-half goal, the program doesnt look much like a fluke in the long run. Led by Hannah, the Jaguars this season returned their six leading scorers from a team that went 18-3-2 a season ago. They won at Ole Miss on Sunday. Even their losses so far this season, in double overtime at both Auburn and Mississippi State, hardly constitute meaningful regression.That Florida State has plenty to offer was clear in a 3-0 win over No. 17 Connecticut later in the week (although goals were again hard to find in Sundays 1-0 overtime win against Troy). So while the names make the Labor Day stunner sound like the upset of the season, hindsight may once again prove it nothing more than the Seminoles stumbling against a very good opponent.Georgetown (and the country) serves notice to ACCFrom an exhibition a week ago against the under-20 national team from Papua New Guinea, not a noted power, to a 3-2 upset against No. 3 Virginia, it was quite a seven days for Georgetown. And that despite ceding the favorite two goals before Sundays game was even 10 minutes old.Yet by halftime, on the strength of goals from Taylor Pak, Amanda Carolan and Rachel Corboz (her seventh in as many games), Georgetown had surged ahead to stay.Virginia hadnt lost a regular-season nonconference game since the 2012 season, let alone surrendered a two-goal lead, but there may be a lesson in that. Florida State lost. Duke lost at home. Notre Dame came away from an admittedly difficult Bay Area trip with two draws but no wins, and North Carolina soundly lost the finale of its California road trip at USC.Granted, North Carolina also won at UCLA. Florida State beat Connecticut. Notre Dame had reason to be proud of Sundays draw. And with the ACC season starting this week, the league is still the best bet in the country in which to catch a quality game. But not the only place this year.Stanfords ascennsion runs aground .dddddddddddd.. for nowStanford couldnt quite complete a perfect weekend that would have made No. 1 a foregone conclusion. By most accounting, the second-ranked Cardinal enjoyed a productive weekend with a commanding 4-1 win over No. 10 Minnesota and a 2-2 draw with No. 20 Notre Dame. But a world-class free kick from Notre Dame freshman Jennifer Westendorf, a low line drive that might still be traveling if not for the net, highlighted a second half that disrupted what had been a smooth Stanford operation through one and a half games.No matter what the polls say Monday, Stanford has the means to be No. 1 when it matters, because there may not be another team that can match what the Cardinal have in the middle of the field with All-American Andi Sullivan and freshman Tierna Davidson. Sullivan scored her own highlight-reel free kick against Minnesota, while Davidson scored her first career goal, but its the control they exert in all the space from box to box that marked much of the weekend.West Virginia makes its case for No. 1Like Stanford, No. 4 West Virginia showcased a concentration of talent in one area of the field that could well lead a team to a national championship. But in the case of the Mountaineers, it was the all-Canadian back line that so impressively put its imprint on a 3-1 win at No. 6 Duke.That starts, of course, with Kadeisha Buchanan. Even on a day that took a physical toll on the World Cup and Olympic veteran -- Buchanan was in the middle of several collisions and was briefly forced to the sideline in the second half with what looked like a leg injury -- she stood out on a field with plenty of talent. But it isnt just Buchanan. Left back Amandine Pierre-Louise scored the first goal after a long run forward with the ball and a strike from distance, but she and right back Ashley Lawrence, another Canadian international more familiar in a midfield role, effectively pinned down Duke with their ability to not only defend in wide space but attack out of it.South Florida snowbirds roll onFlorida State lost. Virginia lost. Stanford tied. Heck, even George Washington lost to Liberty on Sunday. It wasnt a great week for maintaining perfection, as in unbeaten and untied records. But it wasnt a complete bust. Central Michigan, UC Santa Barbara and Wake Forest each won two games to maintain perfect starts. Now 7-0-0, Central Michigan already has more wins than it did the entire 2015 season. Or the 2014 season. A year after she led the team with four goals, sophomore Alexis Pelafas is vying for the national lead with nine goals in six appearances.Best of the unbeaten and untied, however, is No. 14 South Florida. With a roster that reads like one of those most often associated with the team in Tallahassee (Ghana, Iceland, Jamaica, Mexico and Norway represented), USF is 7-0-0 and hasnt allowed a goal the past two weeks. The best import of all for Canadian-born coach Denise Schilte-Brown at the moment is one of her own, freshman and Quebec product Evelyne Viens coming off a four-goal weekend. ' ' '