NCAA women’s soccer kicks off conference play

The GIST: Sharpen those elbows — women’s soccer conference play opens in earnest tomorrow. And as the season settles into the grind, each of the Power Four conferences faces important questions…

ACC: What will No. 1 Stanford’s impact be? The Cardinal’s offseason move to the ACC is bound to create chaos in the nation’s toughest conference, which boasts half of this week’s Top-10 teams. If Stanford can manage their multiple cross-country road trips, the ACC title race will be the hottest one in the country.

SEC: Can No. 4 Arkansas run the table? The Razorbacks dropped just one conference matchup last season: a narrow 2–1 road loss to the conference’s other top team, No. 6 Auburn. This fall, Auburn’s not on Arkansas’ regular-season schedule, leaving the Hogs plenty of runway to capture perfection — and their second straight SEC championship.

Big Ten: Can No. 5 Michigan State maintain their rizz? If you’re looking to jump on a bandwagon, the Spartans are a great pick — this is a top-tier program in the making, and with conference rivals like Nebraska and No. 12 Penn State flailing, all they have to do to reach the sport’s upper echelon is, well, Sparty on.

Big 12: What’s the deal with BYU? The preseason’s No. 3 team has endured a brutal 2-3-2 (wins, losses, draws) season start. They plummeted from the Top 25 last week and didn’t receive a single vote this week. Nonetheless, they could still be the Big 12’s most dangerous team…at least until someone else steps up to fill the power vacuum.