As Dan Stratford gears up for his seventh season as head coach of West Virginia men’s soccer, he does so with more on his mind than how the Mountaineers will go about readying themselves for the first of three exhibition matches August 7 against Pitt.
“It always sneaks up on us. We always feel as though we have a little bit more time than we do, but the simple reality is we have about half the boys back this weekend and should have the entire squad back by next weekend,” Stratford said Monday as a guest on Citynet Statewide Sportsline. “They can do some early captains practice and voluntarily workouts from a strength and conditioning perspective. But it’s pretty crazy what we do.”
Stratford’s team begins organized practice August 4 — exactly 16 days before the regular season opener at Charlotte. That’s the first of the Mountaineers’ 17 regular season matches in a span of less than 11 weeks.
If WVU is successful enough to play well into November and beyond, theoretically, it could finish its campaign the first week of December, when the annual College Cup is held in Cary, N.C. The semifinals and National Championship are set for December 3 and 6, respectively.
Yet in the near future, Stratford will discover if the wishes of he and many others for a two-semester men’s soccer season split across the fall and spring will go into effect starting in August of 2027.
In mid-May, the Division I Men’s Soccer Oversight Committee adopted legislation to change the men’s soccer playing and practice season to two semesters.
Teams would maintain the current maximum contest limit of 25 and be permitted up to 18 matches in the fall segment of the season spanning from late August through the Saturday before Thanksgiving. The spring segment of the season would begin in mid-February and allow teams a maximum of 10 contests before the Division I Men’s Soccer Championship, which would be held in the spring with exact postseason dates released in the future.
“West Virginia is in favor of it,” Stratford said. “I feel very fortunate to have the support of [Vice President/Director of Athletics] Wren [Baker] and the athletic department — not only from an administrative perspective, but from a resources perspective with field crew, maintenance, event staff. It will have change and aspects of that need to be accounted for and recognized.
“I certainly appreciate the flexibility and accommodations that are going to be made within the athletic department in order to accommodate this should it get passed. But I think it’s for the betterment of all of men’s soccer and the question I had to answer selfishly was while I may think it’s better for the vast majority of Division I men’s soccer, is it better for West Virginia? Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that it is.”
On June 24, the Division I Cabinet had an opportunity to put into action the legislation, but opted to remand the proposal from the D-I Men’s Soccer Oversight Committee.
In announcing it would reconsider the matter, the Cabinet made note of efforts from the committee to modernize the calendar, grow the sport and referenced broad support from student-athletes for what would be significant change.
The Cabinet also revealed the proposed change was opposed by 20 Division I conferences that raised concerns about the duration of the season and the lack of clarity regarding related rules and the impact on championship selections, including eligibility surrounding midseason enrollees.
Additionally, the Cabinet raised concerns regarding what a two-semester season would mean for the student-athlete experience and remanded a proposed accompanying change to the men’s soccer notification-of-transfer window, which was to be adjusted to align with a change to the playing season.
At present, the Division I men’s soccer transfer window is split into two windows and spans a total of 45 days. Changing it would mean one consecutive window of 15 days in the spring opening the day after the National Championship.
“I love the idea of competitive games year-round,” Stratford said. “What we do in the spring segment only has so many positives. There’s a lot more we can gain from the group when we’re still playing competitive games. Playing certain games in late November and December in the national tournament, as great as it is to be in that part of the season, it sounds a lot nicer if you’re doing that in mid-April going into May.”
The Division I Cabinet is to vote on the matter again August 3 — the first day Stratford is permitted to have contact with West Virginia’s 2026 squad.
“There’s a window in the televised seasons for some potential revenue driving that way,” Stratford said. “But ultimately my decision was determined by do I think West Virginia can compete at the level that it has and maintain the kind of top 10 recognition that we’ve had over the last five years, and I came to the conclusion that the answer was yes. Once I got there, it was kind of full steam ahead to advocate for this and hopefully continue to push it in the right direction. We’ll be very interested to learn of what the Cabinet’s decision is on August 3 and obviously that’ll send a ripple going into 2027 that some of what we’re dealing with this preseason we’d never have to deal with again.”
Over the last three seasons, the Mountaineers are 43-10-14 with five wins in the NCAA Tournament, including at least one in each campaign.
The 2025 squad finished 13-5-3 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament before falling at High Point, 3-2.
WVU has 15 holdovers from that team and 13 new additions to its 2026 roster to replace 13 players no longer with the program from last year.
“Our reality is there is not enough time to prepare, so we have this condensed preseason if you like where there’s an expectation the players just have to come back with a level of conditioning that means they’re ready to compete and play 90 minutes straightaway,” Stratford said. “But that’s a lot easier said than done. The more challenging thing is making sure we are prepared tactically and that we’ve had an opportunity to acclimate new players that may have only just stepped foot in the country or into Morgantown for the very first time. They need to get to know their teammates, all of the staff, the landscape of Morgantown in general and then be ready to compete two weeks later. It comes with its challenges.
“History keeps repeating itself and it just continues to sneak up on us. We’re kind of frantically making sure we have everything prepared as best as possible and that we maximize what we can do in the little time that we have.”