[Sandon Mibut]

Thought I'd take a conference by conference look at the various tournaments (starting only with last night's games) and who is still in the running to win the respective championships and automatic bids.

AMERICA EAST @Stony Brook, NY
Yesterday, fifth seed UMBC beat top-seed New Hampshire 2-1. No. 3 Hartford tied No. 2 Stony Brook 0-0 but SB advanced on PKs and will host the final Sunday.

ATLANTIC 10 @Kingston, RI
Thursday No. 6 St. Bonaventure faces No. 3 Fordham while No. 4 Rhode Island hosts No. 5 Charlotte. Friday, top-seed Dayton hosts the worst remaining seed while No. 2 SLU plays the best remaining seed.

ATLANTIC COAST @Cary, NC
Yesterday, No. 5 Virginia beat No. 4 Maryland 1-0 and advanced to face top-seed Wake Forest, which beat No. 9 Clemson 3-0. In the other half of the bracket, No. 3 BC beat No. 6 Duke 1-0 in OT. BC faces No. 7 NC State, which eliminated 2 seed North Carolina in PKs after a scoreless draw. The semis are Friday.

ATLANTIC SOCCER
I just don’t care. They don’t get an automatic bid (conference too small) and none of their members have an RPI in 2 figures so no one from this conference is going to the NCAAs.

I've said it here several times before but THEY NEED TO GET ALABAMA A&M IN THE CONFERENCE ASAP TO HAVE ENOUGH TEAMS FOR AN AUTOMATIC BID! IT'S A WIN-WIN FOR BOTH SIDES.

ATLANTIC SUN @Buies Creek, NC
Semis were supposed to be Thursday but were pushed back to Friday because of rain. No. 1 Campbell hosts No. 5 Mercer and No. 3 East Tennessee State plays No. 2 Stetson.

BIG EAST @Morgantown, WV
Friday, No. 2 (R) St. John’s plays No. 5 (B) Providence and No. 2 (B) Notre Dame faces No. 1 (R) Louisville.
(R and B stand for the Red and Blue divisions within the Big East.)

BIG SOUTH @High Point, NC
The quarterfinals were pushed back to Friday because of rain. No. 4 Winthrop faces No. 5 Gardner-Webb; No. 1 Coastal Carolina faces No. 8 VMI; No. 3 Liberty plays No. 6 UNC Asheville and No. 2 High Point hosts No. 7 Radford.

BIG TEN @Bloomington, IN
Thursday, No. 2 Penn State faces No. 7 Michigan; No. 3 Northwestern faces No. 6 Michigan State and No. 4 Indiana hosts No. 5 Wisconsin. The winner of the IU-WIS game faces No. 1 Ohio State, which earned a first round bye.

BIG WEST @Santa Barbara, CA
Yesterday, No. 1 UC Santa Barbara beat No. 4 Cal State Northridge 1-0 and No. 3 UC Irvine beat No. 2 Cal Poly-SLO 2-1 in OT. The final is Saturday.

COLONIAL ATHLETIC @Wilmington, NC
Friday, No. 2 William & Mary faces No. 3 Northeastern and No. 1 UNC Wilmington hosts No. 4 Old Dominion

CONFERENCE USA @Tulsa, OK
Friday, No. 2 Marshall faces No. 3 Alabama-Birmingham and No. 1 Tulsa hosts No. 4 Kentucky.

HORIZON, @Indianapolis, IN
Friday, No. 2 Wisconsin-Green Bay faces No. 3 Valparaiso and No. 4 Cleveland State faces top-seed Butler.

Ivy
No tournament. Harvard is in first place with 13 points and plays Penn Saturday. Tied for second at 12 points are Brown and Dartmouth, who play each other Sunday. Princeton, who faces Yale Friday, has ten points. Harvard, which holds tie-breakers over Brown and Dartmouth, can win the title with a win or a tie and a tie between Brown and Dartmouth. Brown or Dartmouth can win if they beat each other and Harvard loses.

I’m not sure what happens if Harvard loses, Princeton wins and Brown and Dartmouth tie and all four finish with 13 points.

METRO ATLANTIC @Fairfield, CT
Friday, No. 3 Fairfield hosts No. 2 Loyola and No. 1 Iona faces No. 4 Niagara.

MID-AMERICAN @Akron, OH
Friday, No. 2 Hartwick faces No. 4 Western Michigan and No. 1 Akron hosts No. 4 Northern Illinois.

(It should be noted that for reasons that I don’t actually know – though I bet someone here does – the MAC winner doesn’t get an automatic bid so if one of the lower seeds pulls an upset, they could still not get in to the NCAAs.)

MISSOURI VALLEY @Des Moines, IA
Friday, No. 2 Drake hosts No. 3 Creighton and No. 1 Missouri State faces No. 4 Evansville.

MOUNTAIN PACIFIC @Denver, CO
Thursday in the QFs, No. 3 San Jose State faces No. 6 UNLV and No. 4 Denver hosts No. 5 Air Force. Friday, top-seed Sacramento State plays the lowest remaining seed while No. 2 New Mexico faces the highest remaining seed.

NORTHEAST @W. Long Branch, NJ
Friday No. 2 St. Francis (NY) plays No. 3 Quinnipiac and No. 1 Monmouth hosts No. 4 Farleigh Dickinson.

PACIFIC-10
No tournament. UCLA has won the regular season and the automatic bid.

PATRIOT @Lewisburg, PA
Friday, No. 2 Lehigh vs. No. 3 American and No. 1 Bucknell hosts No. 4 Lafayette.

SOUTHERN @Spartanburg, SC
Friday, No. 2 Charleston vs. No. 3 Elon and top-seed Wofford hosts No. 4 UNC-Greensboro.

SUMMIT @Rochester, MI
Friday, No. 4 UMKC plays No. 1 Oakland and No.3 IUPUI plays No. 2 Western Illinois.

WEST COAST
No Tournament. San Diego is in first place with 25 points, 5 ahead of St. Mary’s. The two teams face each other Friday and USD can clinch the conference with a tie. If St. Mary’s beats USF, they then have to beat Loyola Marymount Sunday and hope San Diego loses to Santa Clara. If St. Mary’s wins out and USD ties Santa Clara, they’ll both have 26 points and split the head-to-head games and I couldn’t find what the conference’s tiebreaker is.

[justakid]

It is my understanding that the MAC lost it's "automatic" when they went one year a team short, IPFW left the conference ....until FAU and Hartwick joined the conference in to bring the numbers back up.

[Paul Nasta]

Regarding the America East, Stony Brook had an awful first half of the season but has 4 wins and 2 ties (counting last night) in it's last 6 games to salvage the season. As I recall, UMBC started out hot but cooled off some as the season progressed. UMBC beat SBU 2-0 earlier in the season; that game was at UMBC. The conference final will be at SBU. I don't think it will be much of a home field advantage except that SBU plays on a turf field.

Thinking about the America East and the ASC, the AE has nine members but only eight in mens soccer, Maine having dropped the sport. Adelphi, of the ASC, is DII in all sports except for mens soccer. The AE could use a school to join only for mens soccer and Adelphi could use a higher profile conference for it's mens soccer team only, not any of it's other sports. With Stony Brook, the AE is already on Long Island and adding Adelphi would allow teams to easily play two conference games in a weekend. Seems like maybe a good match.

[JoeSoccerFan]

Originally Posted by Paul Nasta

Regarding the America East, Stony Brook had an awful first half of the season but has 4 wins and 2 ties (counting last night) in it's last 6 games to salvage the season. As I recall, UMBC started out hot but cooled off some as the season progressed. UMBC beat SBU 2-0 earlier in the season; that game was at UMBC. The conference final will be at SBU. I don't think it will be much of a home field advantage except that SBU plays on a turf field.

UMBC plays on a turf field as well, except for a few night games at the Stadium which is a field-turf field. The match between UMBC and SB was at the Stadium (field-turf).

[fishon]

Originally Posted by Sandon Mibut

Thought I'd take a conference by conference look at the various tournaments (starting only with last night's games) and who is still in the running to win the respective championships and automatic bids.

AMERICA EAST @Stony Brook, NY
Yesterday, fifth seed UMBC beat top-seed New Hampshire 2-1. No. 3 Hartford tied No. 2 Stony Brook 0-0 but SB advanced on PKs and will host the final Sunday.

ATLANTIC 10 @Kingston, RI
Thursday No. 6 St. Bonaventure faces No. 3 Fordham while No. 4 Rhode Island hosts No. 5 Charlotte. Friday, top-seed Dayton hosts the worst remaining seed while No. 2 SLU plays the best remaining seed.

ATLANTIC COAST @Cary, NC
Yesterday, No. 5 Virginia beat No. 4 Maryland 1-0 and advanced to face top-seed Wake Forest, which beat No. 9 Clemson 3-0. In the other half of the bracket, No. 3 BC beat No. 6 Duke 1-0 in OT. BC faces No. 7 NC State, which eliminated 2 seed North Carolina in PKs after a scoreless draw. The semis are Friday.

ATLANTIC SOCCER
I just don’t care. They don’t get an automatic bid (conference too small) and none of their members have an RPI in 2 figures so no one from this conference is going to the NCAAs.

I've said it here several times before but THEY NEED TO GET ALABAMA A&M IN THE CONFERENCE ASAP TO HAVE ENOUGH TEAMS FOR AN AUTOMATIC BID! IT'S A WIN-WIN FOR BOTH SIDES.

ATLANTIC SUN @Buies Creek, NC
Semis were supposed to be Thursday but were pushed back to Friday because of rain. No. 1 Campbell hosts No. 5 Mercer and No. 3 East Tennessee State plays No. 2 Stetson.

BIG EAST @Morgantown, WV
Friday, No. 2 (R) St. John’s plays No. 5 (B) Providence and No. 2 (B) Notre Dame faces No. 1 (R) Louisville.
(R and B stand for the Red and Blue divisions within the Big East.)

BIG SOUTH @High Point, NC
The quarterfinals were pushed back to Friday because of rain. No. 4 Winthrop faces No. 5 Gardner-Webb; No. 1 Coastal Carolina faces No. 8 VMI; No. 3 Liberty plays No. 6 UNC Asheville and No. 2 High Point hosts No. 7 Radford.

BIG TEN @Bloomington, IN
Thursday, No. 2 Penn State faces No. 7 Michigan; No. 3 Northwestern faces No. 6 Michigan State and No. 4 Indiana hosts No. 5 Wisconsin. The winner of the IU-WIS game faces No. 1 Ohio State, which earned a first round bye.

BIG WEST @Santa Barbara, CA
Yesterday, No. 1 UC Santa Barbara beat No. 4 Cal State Northridge 1-0 and No. 3 UC Irvine beat No. 2 Cal Poly-SLO 2-1 in OT. The final is Saturday.

COLONIAL ATHLETIC @Wilmington, NC
Friday, No. 2 William & Mary faces No. 3 Northeastern and No. 1 UNC Wilmington hosts No. 4 Old Dominion

CONFERENCE USA @Tulsa, OK
Friday, No. 2 Marshall faces No. 3 Alabama-Birmingham and No. 1 Tulsa hosts No. 4 Kentucky.

HORIZON, @Indianapolis, IN
Friday, No. 2 Wisconsin-Green Bay faces No. 3 Valparaiso and No. 4 Cleveland State faces top-seed Butler.

Ivy
No tournament. Harvard is in first place with 13 points and plays Penn Saturday. Tied for second at 12 points are Brown and Dartmouth, who play each other Sunday. Princeton, who faces Yale Friday, has ten points. Harvard, which holds tie-breakers over Brown and Dartmouth, can win the title with a win or a tie and a tie between Brown and Dartmouth. Brown or Dartmouth can win if they beat each other and Harvard loses.

I’m not sure what happens if Harvard loses, Princeton wins and Brown and Dartmouth tie and all four finish with 13 points.

METRO ATLANTIC @Fairfield, CT
Friday, No. 3 Fairfield hosts No. 2 Loyola and No. 1 Iona faces No. 4 Niagara.

MID-AMERICAN @Akron, OH
Friday, No. 2 Hartwick faces No. 4 Western Michigan and No. 1 Akron hosts No. 4 Northern Illinois.

(It should be noted that for reasons that I don’t actually know – though I bet someone here does – the MAC winner doesn’t get an automatic bid so if one of the lower seeds pulls an upset, they could still not get in to the NCAAs.)

MISSOURI VALLEY @Des Moines, IA
Friday, No. 2 Drake hosts No. 3 Creighton and No. 1 Missouri State faces No. 4 Evansville.

MOUNTAIN PACIFIC @Denver, CO
Thursday in the QFs, No. 3 San Jose State faces No. 6 UNLV and No. 4 Denver hosts No. 5 Air Force. Friday, top-seed Sacramento State plays the lowest remaining seed while No. 2 New Mexico faces the highest remaining seed.

NORTHEAST @W. Long Branch, NJ
Friday No. 2 St. Francis (NY) plays No. 3 Quinnipiac and No. 1 Monmouth hosts No. 4 Farleigh Dickinson.

PACIFIC-10
No tournament. UCLA has won the regular season and the automatic bid.

PATRIOT @Lewisburg, PA
Friday, No. 2 Lehigh vs. No. 3 American and No. 1 Bucknell hosts No. 4 Lafayette.

SOUTHERN @Spartanburg, SC
Friday, No. 2 Charleston vs. No. 3 Elon and top-seed Wofford hosts No. 4 UNC-Greensboro.

SUMMIT @Rochester, MI
Friday, No. 4 UMKC plays No. 1 Oakland and No.3 IUPUI plays No. 2 Western Illinois.

WEST COAST
No Tournament. San Diego is in first place with 25 points, 5 ahead of St. Mary’s. The two teams face each other Friday and USD can clinch the conference with a tie. If St. Mary’s beats USF, they then have to beat Loyola Marymount Sunday and hope San Diego loses to Santa Clara. If St. Mary’s wins out and USD ties Santa Clara, they’ll both have 26 points and split the head-to-head games and I couldn’t find what the conference’s tiebreaker is.

Thoughts on conference USA regarding overall strength of league? When they put this league together they were talking about getting 4-5 bids a year? How many will they get this year, last year?

[Sandon Mibut]

Originally Posted by fishon

Thoughts on conference USA regarding overall strength of league? When they put this league together they were talking about getting 4-5 bids a year? How many will they get this year, last year?

Well, they're not getting 4 this year, that's for sure.

The CUSA team with the second highest RPI, South Carolina (42), has a losing record and didn't make the CUSA Tournament. So they aren't getting an at-large bid.

After that, the next highest RPIs are Kentucky (52) and UAB (53). Both have good records but their RPI likely isn't high enough to get an at-large bid. However, a run to the finals for one of them might get them in if they don't win the automatic bid as they'd have a lot of wins and their RPI should sneak up a little. Kentucky's RPI would likely get a nice bump by beating Tulsa in the semis.

At best, I see the CUSA getting 2 bids and if Tulsa beats Marshall in the final it's a one-bid league.

[Sandon Mibut]

Originally Posted by Sandon Mibut

BIG TEN @Bloomington, IN
Thursday, No. 2 Penn State faces No. 7 Michigan; No. 3 Northwestern faces No. 6 Michigan State and No. 4 Indiana hosts No. 5 Wisconsin. The winner of the IU-WIS game faces No. 1 Ohio State, which earned a first round bye.

Michigan State won the first game 1-0 and Indiana ousted Wisconsin 2-0.

The wins should seal at-large bids for IU and MSU and end Wisconsin's season. Northwestern was probably getting in win or lose.

[Sandon Mibut]

In the final BT game of the day, Penn State and Michigan are trudging towards OT as its scoreless in the 85th minute.

The most notable event so far appears to be offsetting redcards in the 52nd that saw Michigan's leading scorer Justin Meram and Penn State's mammoth defender Mark Fetrow sent off.

[justakid]

PSU just scored to win it in Dbl OT over Michigan

[Sandon Mibut]

Originally Posted by justakid

PSU just scored to win it in Dbl OT over Michigan

I think this might be death blow to Michigan's at-large chances.

They have a decent RPI - 33 - and there's no shame in losing to PSU (13) but Michigan only has 10 wins and their only "good" wins are over Drake (27) and Northwestern (3).

I'm just not sure that's enough to get them in.