(1) Wake Forest v. William & Mary*/Columbia (16) VCU v. Butler*/Lipscomb (9) Stanford v. Pacific*/Cal St. Fullerton (8) Clemson v. Coastal Carolina*/Mercer (5) Akron v. Washington*/Seattle (12) Notre Dame v. Wisconsin*/UIC (13) Michigan v. UMass*/Colgate (4) Louisville v. Cal*/San Francisco (3) UNC v. UNC Wilmington*/Presbyterian (14) Georgetown v. SMU*/Central Arkansas (11) Virginia v. Fordham*/St. Francis Brooklyn (6) Duke v. FIU*/Nebraska-Omaha (7) Michigan St. v. Virginia Tech*/Air Force (10) Western Michigan v. Maryland*/Albany (15) Dartmouth v. New Hampshire*/Fairfield (2) Indiana v. Old Dominion*/NC State
One team from southern California. With all the talent in SoCal, kinda stunning only one team south of the Bay Area is in. I mean, New Hampshire and South Carolina have more teams in the tournament. The Tidewater area of Virginia has more teams. The state of North Carolina sent six teams.
Congrats to my Blue Devils for finally making it back to the tourney, after 5 futile years! Hopefully they can do something, although they got a tough looking draw.
That's probably a kinder draw than my guys deserved. Annual gripe, but three of the five B1G teams in the same quarter? And that quarter is free of seeded teams from the ACC (yes, there's unseeded teams, but still)? I'd like to think there could be a little more balance.
So Charlotte really has a legit gripe. Same amount of wins (8) and losses (5) as NC State. A better RPI rating, by almost 30 percent - 32 vs. 45 - than NC State. A better strength of schedule - 16 vs. 68 - by more than 4 times than NC State. They made the final of their (7th rated) conference tournament, losing an away game by one goal. NC State was eliminated before the quarterfinals of their conference tournament. They were unbeaten in their last six (3-0-3) prior to losing in the conference final. NC State was unbeaten in its final seven (4-0-3) before losing in the ACC 1st round. That's basically a wash. The big plus for NC State is that they have two top 10 wins - Clemson and AT Louisville, which is huge - as well as a draw with top 10 UVa, while Charlotte's best results were going 1-0-1 vs. no. 21 FIU. Should that be enough to cause a leap-frogging like this? I don't think so. But apparently the NCAA disagrees.
Can someone let the NCAA know their official bracket has a mistake. http://www.ncaa.com/interactive-bracket/soccer-men/d1 It currently shows the winner of NC State/Old Dominion facing both Indiana (correct) and Dartmouth (incorrect). The winner of New Hampshire/Fairfield faces Dartmouth.
Common games? NC State W FAU (3-2) D at Elon (0-0) W Clemson (1-0) W at Louisville (3-2) Charlotte W at FAU (3-1) D Elon (1-1) L at Clemson (1-4) L Louisville (0-1)
Second round matchups are somewhat uneven. #1 & #2 seeds play teams w/ 29 & 28 RPIs (assuming higher RPI wins in first round), respectively. Meanwhile, #3-5 seeds play #36, #33, & #37 RPIs, respectively. 6-8 seeds play #'s 21-23, respectively, while the 9th seed plays #35. Yeah, I know - regionality. However, that really doesn't seem to be the case for many, such as L'ville vs Cal and Akron vs Washington! BRF
Against the RPI top-50, Charlotte is 1-5-3, NC State is 4-5-2. I know which team I would bet on in a 48-team tournament ...
And Sandon, the Southern California team is........ the crappy Cal State Fullerton at 108? What a dreadful year for the Big West. At least the PAC-6 gets 3 in and the WCC 2 (and they had two more in the mix until the last weekend).
Another unfortunate thing is that all five of the B1G teams are clustered in two regionals. We can blame all but two on seeding. Those are Wisconsin and Maryland. Both could have been put in a different regional. Instead, they are in the same regionals as (seeded) Michigan and IU/MSU, respectively. The two unseeded ACC teams are both in the same regional. However, that regional doesn't have any seeded ACC teams, so the ACC is spread out over all four regionals. The "midwest" regional with IU/MSU/MD could end up looking like another B1G conference tournament.
My dream first-round game would been UC Davis at USD, but both teams faded at the end. Now the closest to me is Fullerton at Pacifc (future home of the Sacramento Chargers). I'm not going.
What are the intriguing matches or possible matches? I see a lot of potential rematches or even rubber matches. Would rather have seen something like Maryland playing old ACC foes (CU/WF or UVA/UNC). Also, is the Akron v Washington/Seattle winner really at 1pm?
Given that this soccer tournament is played by students who are supposedly also engaged in scholarship, here are some academic insights on a few first-round match-ups – from the political/historical, military/mascot, and religious/geographical perspectives … Political/Historical: William and Mary, the nation’s second oldest college founded in 1693, chartered by King William III and Queen Mary II vs. Columbia (originally King’s College), the nation’s eleventh oldest college founded in 1754, chartered by King George II Military/Mascot: Virginia Tech (mascot: a Hokie, i.e., a Virginia turkey) with its Corps of Cadets (and the Highty Tighty Regimental Band) vs. U.S. Air Force Academy (mascot: a falcon) with its Cadet Wing and Squadrons Religious/Geographical: Fordham, a Catholic/Jesuit school located in Manhattan and The Bronx vs. St. Francis, a Catholic/Franciscan school located in Brooklyn Predictions: - Seemingly King William and Queen Mary should be able to beat King George by his lonesome. - Seemingly a falcon should be able to tear-up a turkey without too much trouble. - Seemingly the Jesuits, i.e., "God's Marines" should be able to prey on and prevail over St. Francis, as his famous prayer called each of his followers to be "an instrument of peace."
That is because you assume the NCAA selections are representative of team quality which most people by now should realize is not the case and hasn't been for some time. West had a down year this year, but even down they are much better than many teams that do get selected. For the 3rd year in row Stanford has had to win on the road to win to get to the college cup. BTW - the team that gave Stanford the most trouble was Pacific another team from the west.