KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) has officially released its Preseason Coaches' Top 25 Poll. Carroll College will begin the 2025 season in the receiving votes portion of the national poll.

192 Men's Soccer programs will officially begin their season tomorrow with the 2025 NAIA Men's Soccer National Championship in their sights, as Thursday opens the competition window nationwide. 

The Fighting Saints ('24: 15-4-3, 11-1-1) find themselves in the upper echelon of the national preseason ranks following an outstanding 2024 season that saw unprecedented success.

For the first time in program history, the Saints saw their name posted on the initial poll of the year. The program, entering its 12th season, has been elevated to national relevance under the direction of third-year Head Coach, Austin Shick.

Shick's Saints went on a historic run in 2024 that culminated with the program's first Cascade Collegiate Conference Championship and first berth (and win) in the NAIA Men's Soccer Championship. 

The two-time defending CCC Coach of the Year knows that nothing is guaranteed, however, and that this season's squad has a whole new set of challenges in order to remain in the national conversation. With four scrimmages already in the books, the Saints have pinpointed plenty of strengths, and more importantly weaknesses, they'll work to address ahead of what's sure to be another highly-competitive CCC regular season.

Carroll will play their first countable contests of the season this weekend, as they head to the Eastern time zone for a pair of games in Ohio. Friday afternoon, the Saints will square off with Northwestern Ohio at 2:30 p.m., before wrapping up the weekend trip with a neutral site contest against Aquinas (Mich.) on Sunday at 12 p.m.

The reigning CCC champs are the league's only representative on the Preseason Poll, and are one of just two teams in the West that made the list (Westcliff (Calif.) - RV).

The full NAIA Preseason Coaches' Top-25 Poll is as follows:
 

RANK	INSTITUTION	2024 RECORD	POINTS
1	Dalton State (Ga.)	22-0-2	472
2	William Penn (Iowa)	22-0-2	462
3	William Carey (Miss.)	15-5-3	447
4	Cumberlands (Ky.)	15-3-3	429
5	Oklahoma Wesleyan	22-2-0	420
6	Mobile (Ala.)	18-4-1	395
7	Bellevue (Neb.)	16-3-3	378
8	MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.)	11-5-5	371
9	Missouri Valley	16-3-3	344
10	Indiana Wesleyan	14-3-3	337
11	Bethel (Ind.)	13-6-2	310
12	Lindsey Wilson (Ky.)	10-6-3	287
13	LSU Shreveport (La.)	14-4-4	276
14	Spring Arbor (Mich.)	13-7-3	266
15	Baker (Kan.)	11-6-1	254
16	Oklahoma City	14-2-4	237
17	Mid-America Christian (Okla.)	14-3-4	206
18	Keiser (Fla.)	9-4-3	190
19	Indiana Tech	13-2-5	188
20	Milligan (Tenn.)	13-1-5	159
21	Marian (Ind.)	14-5-3	137
22	Rio Grande (Ohio)	12-5-1	130
23	Clarke (Iowa)	11-6-1	107
24	Governors State (Ill.)	16-3-4	93
25	Williams Baptist (Ark).	12-3-6	78

Receiving Votes: Georgia Gwinnett 59, St. Thomas (Fla.) 42, Cumberland (Tenn.) 27, Louisiana Christian 23, Huntington University (Ind.) 22, Carroll (Mont.) 13, Bethel (Tenn.) 11, Westcliff (Calif.) 10, Life (Ga.) 8, William Woods (Mo.) 4, Madonna (Mich.) 3, Union Commonwealth (Ky.) 2

Poll Methodology

• The national poll is for publicity purposes only and does not influence the selection process for national championship consideration.
• A panel of head coaches representing each conference and the Continental Athletic Conference (Independents) votes in the poll.
• The Top 25 teams are selected using a points-based system:
  • 30 points for a 1st-place vote, 29 for 2nd, 28 for 3rd, and so on.
• The highest and lowest rankings received by each team are discarded before final tallying.
• Teams receiving only one point are not listed as "receiving votes."
• For the Preseason Poll, there is no "previous ranking" column since it is the initial poll and differs from the prior rating system. 

Be sure to visit www.carrollathletics.com to continue to stay up to date on everything going on in Carroll Athletics.