NCAA Soccer Bracket 2014: Schedule, Teams and Preview
The road to the Men's College Cup is officially set.
All 48 participants for the 2014 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship have been placed into the tournament bracket, which can be found here. Twenty-three conference champions were awarded automatic qualifying bids, while the final 25 spots were determined by the selection committee.
First-round play will take place on Thursday for most teams, while 16 clubs have earned a bye to the second round.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Here's a full look at what stands in the way of each school and a run to the national semifinals in Cary, North Carolina:
| Akron vs. Ohio State | Thur, Nov. 20 | 5 p.m |
| Fordham vs. Dartmouth | Thur, Nov. 20 | 5 p.m. |
| SIUE vs. Northwestern | Thur, Nov. 20 | 5:30 p.m. |
| Florida Gulf Coast vs. Coastal Carolina | Thur, Nov. 20 | 6 p.m. |
| UAB vs. Furman | Thur, Nov. 20 | 6:30 p.m. |
| UNCW vs. Bucknell | Thur, Nov. 20 | 7 p.m. |
| Hartwick vs. Penn State | Thur, Nov. 20 | 7 p.m. |
| Old Dominion vs. St. Francis College (Brooklyn) | Thur, Nov. 20 | 7 p.m. |
| Monmouth vs. Xavier | Thur, Nov. 20 | 7 p.m. |
| Wake Forest vs. UMBC | Thur, Nov. 20 | 7 p.m. |
| Oakland vs. Kentucky | Thur, Nov. 20 | 7 p.m. |
| North Carolina vs. James Madison | Thur, Nov. 20 | 7 p.m. |
| Oregon State vs. Denver | Thur, Nov. 20 | 8 p.m. |
| Tulsa vs. Saint Louis | Thur, Nov. 20 | 8 p.m. |
| UC Irvine vs. UNLV | Thur, Nov. 20 | 10 p.m |
| San Diego vs. CSU Fullerton | Thur, Nov. 20 | 10 p.m. |
| No. 16 Virginia vs. UNCW/Bucknell | Sun, Nov. 23 | 1 p.m. |
| No. 8 Georgetown vs. ODU/St. Francis | Sun, Nov. 23 | 1 p.m. |
| No. 5 Indiana vs. Monmouth/Xavier | Sun, Nov. 23 | 1 p.m. |
| No. 3 Michigan State vs. Oakland/Kentucky | Sun, Nov. 23 | 1 p.m. |
| No. 12 Creighton vs. Oregon State/Denver | Sun, Nov. 23 | 1:30 p.m. |
| No. 9 Syracuse vs. Hartwick/Penn State | Sun, Nov. 23 | 2 p.m. |
| No. 10 Charlotte vs. UNC/James Madison | Sun, Nov. 23 | 2 p.m. |
| No. 15 California vs. SIUE/Northwestern | Sun, Nov. 23 | 4 p.m. |
| No. 4 Maryland vs. Wake Forest/UMBC | Sun, Nov. 23 | 5 p.m. |
| No. 13 Louisville vs. Tulsa/Saint Louis | Sun, Nov. 23 | 6 p.m. |
| No. 1 Notre Dame vs. Akron/OSU | Sun, Nov. 23 | 7 p.m. |
| No. 11 Providence vs. Fordham/Dartmouth | Sun, Nov. 23 | 7 p.m. |
| No. 7 Clemson vs. FGCU/Coastal Carolina | Sun, Nov. 23 | 7 p.m. |
| No. 14 Washington vs. UAB/Furman | Sun, Nov. 23 | 8 p.m. |
| No. 6 Stanford vs. UC Irvine/UNLV | Sun, Nov. 23 | 8 p.m. |
| No. 2 UCLA vs. SD/CS Fullerton | Sun, Nov. 23 | 10 p.m. |
| Matchups TBA | Sun, Nov. 30 | TBA |
| Matchups TBA | TBA | TBA |
| Semifinal 1 | Fri, Dec. 12 | 5 p.m. |
| Semifinal 2 | Fri, Dec. 12 | 7 p.m. |
| National Championship | Sun, Dec. 14 | 12 p.m. |
The defending champs, Notre Dame, are the No. 1 overall seed. Led by the brilliant attacking trio of Patrick Hodan, Leon Brown and Evan Panken, future MLS player Nick Besler in the central midfield and Patrick Wall (perhaps the most appropriate last name in the country) in goal, the Irish went 11-4-4 on the year.
Outscoring opponents 33-16, Notre Dame is in tremendous position to become the first team to repeat since Indiana in 2003 and '04. But head coach Bobby Clark knows it will be difficult, via the school's official website:
"This is the third year in a row that we've been a top-three seed and that's a nice feather in our cap. It's justification for how we've played this season, but beyond that it doesn't mean too much. I just look at our bracket and the potential teams that we could play and it looks unbelievably difficult. There's a long road still ahead, but that's the fun of being in the NCAA tournament.
"
Akron serves as a potentially intriguing opponent in the second round.
Ranked No. 23 in the nation, the Zips are consistently one of the best teams in America. They have made a whopping 25 tournament appearances, won it all in 2010 and have produced a slew of MLS stars, including DeAndre Yedlin, Darlington Nagbe and Wil Trapp.
Sophomore Adam Najem may be the next to join that group. The New York Red Bulls youth team member has 13 goals in 20 appearances this season, and he can do things like this:
Akron still has to get past Ohio State (the Zips won in August, 3-1), but that's a potentially explosive second-round matchup against the Irish.
And that's just one-sixteenth of the bracket. There is immense talent—Cristian Roldan, Leo Stolz, Joshua Yaro, to name a few—and compelling battles littered throughout the entire tournament.
It's going to be a captivating month of soccer.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
