The most prestigious award in men's college soccer is announced at the Missouri Athletic Club downtown St. Louis in early January where, similarly to the Heisman trophy, three finalists await the results. IU senior Palmer Ault deserves to be in attendance.
With the Hoosiers’ regular season nearing completion, Ault has already put together one of the best campaigns in college soccer.
In Tuesday night’s 4-1 rout of Wisconsin, Ault added a trio of assists to an already stacked resume. As it stands, he leads the entire country in points with 36, is second in the country in goals with 14, and top 10 in assists with eight.
His head coach is the first person to say how deserving Ault is of the award.
“He is playing at the level that is, to me, gotta be in the top group for player of the year,” head coach Todd Yeagley said. “I don’t even think there needs to be much of a campaign.”
Yeagley knows a thing or two about the trophy. He took home the MAC National Player of the Year when he was a senior at IU in 1994, back when the MAC Hermann was split into two awards.

Seven Hoosiers including Yeagley have taken home either the MAC National Player of the Year, the Hermann Trophy or the MAC Hermann trophy, as it stands since 2002. Ault’s numbers match up with those Hoosiers of the past, and college soccer’s best in the last decade plus.
Indiana's most recent MAC Hermann recipient was defender Andrew Gutman in 2018 who had 11 goals and nine assists along with helping the Hoosiers keep 15 shutouts. That IU squad reached the College Cup.
To put Ault’s season in perspective, he has the most goals and points by a Hoosier since Eriq Zavaleta’s 2012 season when he recorded 18 goals and led IU to its most recent national championship.
Ault has the most goals by a Big Ten player since 2018, and has already surpassed the 2024 MAC Hermann winner Ohio State’s Michael Adedokun’s 33 points.

This year, there are a couple of names who will give Ault a run for his money come January.
The only player who has scored more than Ault is NC State junior Donovan Philip. His 15 goals lead the third ranked Wolfpack, a team poised to make a deep NCAA run that could find Philip holding the trophy in St. Louis.
Midfielder Zach Zengue of Georgetown has 12 goals and six assists, both team highs for the 15th ranked Hoyas who sit atop the Big East.
Richie Aman is the other Big Ten player vying for the award as he leads the country with 11 assists, including two against Indiana, helping the Huskies hold on to the top spot in the Big Ten.
A pair of Portland sophomores have led the Pilots to a remarkable season where they rank fifth nationally and are yet to suffer a defeat. Both Joe Highfield and David Ajagbe have eight goals and a combined seven assists.
The in-season honors and performances are mounting for Ault, but it’s the team’s success down the stretch that matters most to his chances. The past four men’s MAC Hermann winners all appeared in the Men’s College Cup, the Final Four in collegiate soccer. That accomplishment matters most to Ault.
“The individual accolades are second to me,” Ault said. “It’s all about stacking wins and keeping this thing rolling.”
Yeagley shared the same sentiment after Ault’s hat trick last Friday against Hanover.
“The deeper we go the more that will help him,” Yeagley said. “Obviously the team's success will push that player above and beyond.”

Ault joined the team as a transfer this season after three years just down the road at Butler. Yeagley knew the type of player he was bringing into the locker room.
“We knew he was really good,” Yeagley said. “He’s not exceeding our expectations because we had such big ones coming in but boy it’s right there, he’s doing an amazing job.”
Ault’s veteran presence in the locker room field has mirrored his impressive play.
“Off the field he’s just a great person, great guy to be around, he’s a leader in the locker room, leader as a person himself,” junior defender Alex Barger said. “Just having that role model to be able to look up to is something that’s really special.”
The Hoosiers are going to need all of that experience and leadership on the tough road ahead.
After a slow start to Big Ten play, they currently sit fourth in a heavily-congested table, six points behind first place Washington.
With just three matches left, the chances are slim for IU to repeat as Big Ten regular season champions. They need a positive result at Maryland on Friday, who is just one point behind Washington and ranked as the best team in the Big Ten, and fourth best team in the country.
Not even the Big Ten tournament is a guarantee for No. 14 Indiana due to the format change. This is the first year where only four teams make postseason play and the Hoosiers lie just a single point ahead of UCLA and two points in front of Rutgers, the team IU closes the regular season with, at home, on Nov. 7.
Thanks to their dominant non-conference play where Ault dazzled, scoring five goals against top-25 opponents, the Hoosiers have all but locked up another trip to the NCAA tournament. It’ll be up to IU’s performance in their last three games, and beyond, to confirm Ault’s seat at Missouri Athletic Club in January.