So the College Cup lineup is set and to say it will be a Midwestern affair would be a huge understatement. With three Big Ten teams and a fourth from Northeast Ohio, this year's College Cup should be in Columbus or Indy or Detroit. The Big Ten joins the ACC (08, 09, 13) in having three College Cup teams in the same year. All four of this year's College Cup participants are former national champions. That also happened in 91 (Virginia, Santa Clara, Saint Louis, Indiana), 97 (UCLA, Virginia, Indiana, Saint Louis), 99 (Indiana, Santa Clara, UCLA, Connecticut), 03 (Indiana, St. John's, Santa Clara, Maryland), 08 (Maryland, North Carolina, St. John's, Wake Forest) and last year (Stanford, Indiana, Akron, North Carolina). How much college soccer royalty is here? Akron, which won it all in 2010 and has now been to the Cup three of the last four years, is the least successful, historically, among these programs. Indiana has now been to the College Cup/Final Four 20! times (that's a record) and won it all eight. Maryland is making its 14th College Cup trip and has won three national titles. Michigan State is in the Final Four for seventh time and won a pair of championships. This is Akron's sixth trip to the Cup and they've won one NCAA crown. Michigan State is making its first Final Four appearance in 50! years. To be polite, that's a record. The second longest gap in College Cup appearances belonged to Maryland, which went 29 years - 1969 to 1998 - between appearances. Next was Akron, which went 23 years (86 to 2009). Of course, in 1968, Maryland and Michigan State both made the final and when the game ended in a draw they were named co-NCAA champions. In terms of the individual coaches, Michigan State's Damon Rensing is making his first College Cup appearance - as a player, assistant or head coach, all of which were at MSU. IU's Todd Yeagley made it to the Final Four as a player (but didn't win a national title), assistant coach and head coach. This is his third Cup as HC and he's won one national title in charge. Jared Embick made the Cup twice as an Akron assistant and was the No. 2 on their national title team and how now guided the Zips to three Cup appearances (the most for one coach in program history). For Maryland's Sasho Cirovski, the College Cup is nothing new. He's now been this far nine times and won two national titles. Only Indiana's Jerry Yeagley (16 Final Fours) and Bob Guelker (11 - 7 at Saint Louis, 4 at SIU-Edwardsville) have been to the Final Four more. So, some very interesting story lines and a lot of college soccer history represented at this year's College Cup.
Yep, I'm sure the UCSB Athletic Dept is not especially happy about Akron ousting Stanford: that's going to cost a couple of K in attendance.
At least it won’t be freezing cold and snowing. The stadium in philly is nice and there are a lot of soccer fans in the area but it is just too late in the year to be playing that far north. Personal opinion is it has to be on grass so it needs to be somewhere warm where soccer is highly regarded. There should be lodging and restaurants within walking distance. Any suitable grass field stadiums in Atlanta? Dallas would work but that area is more highway than walkway. Cary is a nice stadium but also only accessible via car. Great crowd for women’s cup although UNC really helped that. Not much better weather than Philly but Audi stadium in DC has all the other factors.
Dallas has been a bust in the past for College Cups.. Poorly attended. Atlanta is an interesting thought with the buzz around Atlanta United.... The final should be amazing atmosphere this weekend.
The College Cup location is mapped out for the next 3 years. It's back at Wake Med (Cary) next year in 2019, then back to Santa Barbara in 2020, then Cary again in 2021. Atlanta would be a good location. The field that Atlanta United plays on, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, wouldn't be a good option. It has a synthetic surface and is cavernous. It would not be a very intimate setting. A good Atlanta location would be Kennesaw State University at Third Bank Stadium. It is easily accessible off of 285 in the north-western suburbs. It hosted the Women's College Cup in the early '10s. Third Bank Stadium was the home field of the now defunct women's professional team, the Atlanta Beat. Interestingly, Atlanta United did use this facility this past summer when they played a USL team in the Lamar Hunt Cup. The venue seats a bit over 8000 and is home to Kennesaw State's men's football team, the women's soccer and lacrosse teams, and the Atlanta Blaze men's professional lacrosse team. Also, of interest at this venue, is the playing surface. I'm a soccer purist and believe that soccer should be played on grass but the KSU facility uses something called PlayMaster. PlayMaster is really unique in that it is natural grass that is combined with artificial fibers. KSU may have been the first venue in the United States with this surface. I was a bit skeptical about this surface when I first heard about it but Man U uses it at Old Trafford. If it's good enough for Man U, it's good enough for the College Cup. GrassMaster is another variation of the surface and is made by the same company. Ajax, Juventus, Liverpool, Barcelona, and many other clubs are beginning to install this surface in their stadiums. It's going to become a big thing over the next few years. I'm not sure that enough College Cups have been held in Dallas to draw the conclusion that they've been a "bust." The last time the College Cup was in Dallas was in 2008. It was actually held in Frisco, TX - about 30-45 minutes north of Dallas. Maryland was champion that year and attendance wasn't that bad at their semi-final or the final vs UNC. In both games there were over 6000 in attendance. The venue in Frisco, Toyota Stadium, would not be a bad venue to revisit. It is a soccer-specific stadium that is the home of FC Dallas and has a Bermuda grass surface. Prior to 2008 you would need to look all the way back to 2002 for another College Cup in Dallas. In 2016 the event was held in Houston and attendance at those games was also > 6000. It was held at a Bermuda grass facility that hosts The Houston Dynamo and the women's team, Dash. It's a good facility but Houston is a very expensive city to fly in and out of.
6,000 stinks for a College Cup.. In addition, every kid in the associated tournament is given a ticket to the game but usually don't wind up attending... As someone who has attended both College Cups in Dallas, I can tell you not a great atmosphere.
I'll agree that an attendance if 6000 isn't great for the College Cup but it's as good or better than most College Cups over the past 20 years. What kind of attendance do you expect? I haven't been to a College Cup in Dallas so I can't speak to the atmosphere I like the Kennesaw State venue. It should be seriously considered.
anyone want to talk about kickoff times? iu doesn't play until "10:30" which probably means more like 11:00, and that's assuming the first semi ends in 90. the NCAA, espnU, and the rest of the decision makers really stepped on their dicks with this one, and for what? at least make the games watchable for the people on the east coast who want to watch their teams. it's not like anyone on the west coast is going to care if you start the games at 3:00 local time. if they care, they'll be there in person.
United Soccer Coaches (formerly NSCAA) continues to operate archaically. Move your national convention to the College Cup weekend dates. You'll have a guaranteed great audience. Give everyone who attends convention a pass for the College Cup, and boom...10,000+ more added to attendance.
And if we're here in person, it would be nice to have at least one game in the sun! Why not noon and 3 PM starts? Weather is much nicer here (in Santa Barbara, where I live) during the day. Today (for example) it's shirtsleeve weather before sundown, but it will cool off rapidly after. I remember being very bundled up for the night games in 2010. People not watching on TV can DVR it. Or get off work and watch the first game live during the day, if it's that important.
Is this a no-brainer? Are there any holes in this suggestion? Why is this not instituted immediately?
Is there a way to have the final four around the Ussoccer Academy Showcase? Easy way to get a big crowd. I'm sure people a lot smarter then me have thought of this. Just a thought
My guess is that the bracket with the #1 seed gets the first game, no matter who actually won out. And why is the final at 5 PM?? Another stupid idea. In 2010 it was in the afternoon.
I was thinking the same, but then I processed thru it.......First, the hotels during USSDA showcase are already saturated in Bradenton....and the range of hotel quality is wide, with some teams putting out some money for the nicer hotels and others in not so nice hotels, many a good 15-20 miles away. Lots of need for vans and coach buses too. With all the college coaches also in attendance and the four Nike international teams, it would be tough to add the whole college audience. And right now the attendance at the Nike U17 friendlies seems spotty with only a portion of the DA clubs getting their players back to the fields for those U17 national team matches which are in afternoon and evening. So to have a NCAA final four in the area, I really wonder if academy teams all would go anyway. Is there really that much tie between the USSDA and the NCAA? Who it would help would be the college coaches who likely would want to see the Final Four games without having to travel twice. But likely a Tampa/USF stadium would need to be used to handle the attendance which is 45 miles from the Lakewood Ranch fields. The real solution might be to put it all in Orlando and use Orlando City Stadium or UCF. .
To be fair, the College Cup is scheduled way in advance of USSDA events. United Soccer Coaches and NCAA can (and have) collaborated before to get scheduling done for an event — not like NCAA and USSF/USSDA have really done anything together for a long time.
That's fixed bracket for you. You might also ask why the two seeded teams have to play each other in the semis. Same answer.
I like the idea of the convention coinciding with the College Cup instead of the draft, which needs to be scrapped anyway.
That makes too much sense and the NCAA is not into making sense... Two final fours in the last five years in Philadelphia. C'mon Man!
Not only are we playing the late game, NCAA has us listed as the away team: Semifinals (Santa Barbara) Home vs. Away Akron vs. Michigan State Friday Dec. 7 8:00 p.m. ESPNU Maryland vs. Indiana Friday Dec. 7 10:45 p.m. ESPNU Talk about no respect!
Akron represented well in 2010 and we adopted them as our second team. I think it'll be the same lovefest with the locals this time around. The attendance won't suffer at all.
Compared to 2010, maybe not, but compared to what it could have been? The same number of general soccer fans will show up, but there are many more local Stanford alums than local Akron alums, and many more Stanford people willing to drive 5 hours from the Bay Area than Akron people willing to fly 2500 miles from Akron. The situation would be reversed for a midwest College Cup venue. It's just logistics. But as an Akron native who's been in Santa Barbara for the last 30+ years, I'm quite happy to have UCSB fans adopt Akron! Go Gauchos and Zips!
Does anyone know if the ESPN app allows streaming of games that are on ESPNU? I'm probably going to be somewhere on Friday without access to ESPNU Also, and talk of this is probably frowned on here, does anyone know what websites offer streaming. Again, it's illegal, so it probably can't or shouldn't be discussed