The Southern Conference has announced plans for conference play in the Spring and has released the conference schedule. Teams can play non-conference games. At this point, we have the four conferences that are having their conference competitions in the Fall plus eight that are having their competitions in the Spring -- and we are not close to when the Spring season will begin, so there is plenty of time for others to join the Spring group. All 12 of these conferences have their conference competitions and tournaments timed so as to have Automatic Qualifiers for the NCAA tournament.
The Ohio Valley and Summit conferences have announced their plans for playing in the Spring and published their conference schedules. Ohio Valley says their teams are playing 10 matches -- a full round robin -- conference only. That sounds like no non-conference games, but I am not certain. They will play on Tuesdays and Fridays, from March 2 to April . They will announce conference tournament details later. Summit is playing a double round robin, with paired opponents playing Friday and Sunday games at the same site. That amounts to 16 games per team. Each team will have a week with no conference games. They do not say anthing about non-conference games. The conference schedule will run from February 12 to April 11. There will be a 4-team conference tournament in Omaha, April 15-17. (Denver would have hosted this year, and instead will host the Fall 2021 tournament.)
The American AC has not announced anything, but a team (Tulsa) has posted its schedule: Full round robin, 1 game a week, February 21 to April 11. 4-team conference tournament, April 15 and 17. No word on non-conference games, but they have room for them.
Does anyone know what the tie-breaker order is in regards to seeding for the upcoming ACC Tourney? 1. Head to Head 2. Goal Diff/Goals For/Goals Against I can’t find a link anywhere online. Thanks!!
The Mountain West has announced plans for Spring soccer. Each team will play a 10-game conference-only schedule. Conference will have two divisions of 6 teams each, with a double round robin in each division, from March 5 to April 11. Games will be Friday and Sunday. Division winners will play for championship on April 17.
Only 6 games can be fit in during that time period for the AE? Thought it would be more than that. As a BU/Patriot League fan (the PL still hasn't announced their plans for the spring yet), all I'm looking for is a conference only regular season in the spring where everyone plays everyone and the team with the best record in those games is declared champion. There doesn't even need to be any post season conference tournament. The ACC and SEC are having conference tournaments this fall but when the schedule is more condensed in the spring, they should just give the team with the best record in conference play the title and the NCAA bid.
The Big Sky has announced plans for Spring Soccer. Round robin, 9 games for each team, games Friday and Sunday from March 12 to April 11. No conference tournament. No word about non-conference games.
The Big South has announced plans for Spring soccer. Will play round-robin (Hampton not playing), 9 games each, from February 12 to April 8. Up to 2 non-conference games each. 4-team tournament, campus sites, dates TBA.
I think alot of conferences will have these kinds of plans. Didn't the NCAA say that transfers and early-enrollees for Spring 21 in D1 are not eligible to play? So, some teams could have some Srs that already moved on, kids who 'opted out' for personal or soccer reasons, some new players that cannot play yet, and then of course, covid issues. Is that correct? It will be interesting to see how any school or conference at any level handles basketball. That will tell us if competitive Spring soccer, or any sport, has a chance or is just going to be another plan.
I think the answers to your questions are yes. Interestingly, it looks to me like just six games so far have been lost in the Fall for virus-related reasons. That is very surprising to me. It suggests that perhpas the teams playing in the Fall have been very careful. Maybe the desire to play is getting the student-athletes, at least the women, to not take chances. On the other hand, the virus situation now is much worse than it was when the Fall season began.
Regarding the count of missing or canceled games, are you accounting for NC State who decided not to field a team. Did every other ACC/Big12/SEC team compete in women's soccer in the Fall? Curious if you looked at mens soccer by chance? Pitt just canceled 2 games and was the nations #1 ranked team. Assume they will play again at Duke next Sunday as scheduled in the ACC Tournament. About Transfers - below is what I just found. Your typical mid-year early enrollee coming early in their Sr year of HS cannot participate in competitive games this Spring. Neither can a transfer who played in the Fall. So, an SEC/ACC/Big12 player cannot transfer and play Spring games anywhere else in D1. It does mean that 'delayed' enrollees can play now. So someone who committed but then took a 'gap semester' or opted out for Fall can enroll and play in Spring 21. That would be good for internationals as well. Provided of course, that there is actually a competitive Spring season to play at the school they committed to and they can get a visa and get into the country. ------------------------------------------------- Oct 29: The Division I Council adopted emergency legislation allowing some fall sport midyear enrollees to compete during the 2020-21 academic year in limited circumstances. The Council met virtually Thursday. The decision applies to midyear enrollees who plan to compete in the Football Championship Subdivision and other fall sports. The legislation supersedes an earlier decision to prohibit participation by midyear enrollees. Football Bowl Subdivision student-athletes are not included because they are not conducting their fall seasons in the spring. To qualify for spring competition, freshmen who enroll at midyear must have graduated in the spring or summer of 2020 and made a written commitment to a school indicating intent to enroll in the fall 2020 term. If a transfer engaged in competition in the fall or winter term of 2020, the student-athlete is not eligible to compete at the new school in spring 2021. The legislation is intended to address roster attrition and management issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
No, I have not counted NC State as having missed games. And, I am curious to see if they will sit out the entire year or try to play during the Spring season. Yes, every other ACC, Big 12, and SEC team -- and Sun Belt, too -- did play in the Fall. No, I did not look at the men. I would be curious to know if they had to cancel more games than the women.
There is no way that NC State could play a full slate of ACC games in the spring given that everyone else in the conference has already played, what, 8 games, right? Isn't the idea in the spring to finish what would have been a complete fall schedule--meaning if you played 8 conference games in the fall but typically play 12, you'd play 4 more in the spring plus some non-conference games? It's bizarre that one team in a conference would choose not to play. Some of its players must be PO'd.
Its not so bizarre when you have a roster with a meaningful number of International players. Their website shows 19 players. Thats nowhere near enough given the uncertainty at the time.
The Atlantic 10 will be playing in the Spring, with regionalized conference schedules. They will have a 4-team tournament at the site of the #1 seed. They have announced no other details.
The Northeast Conference is working on plans for the Spring and expects to announce them in early December. It appears they are intending to play in the Spring and to allow non-conference games. They have announced no other details.
Here is a summary of what I have seen about conference plans, to date. If I have not indicated conferences are limiting games to conference-only in the Spring, I am assuming for the present that they can play non-conference games in the Spring. Played conference competitions in the Fall (I assume all can play non-conference in the Spring): ACC (also allowed to play non-conference in the Fall although only Pittsburg played opponents outside the conference) Big 12 (no conference tournament, conference only in the Fall) SEC (conference only in the Fall) Sun Belt (also allowed to play non-conference in the Fall) Announced conference competition in the Spring: With conference schedule announced: Atlantic Sun Big Sky (no conference tournament) Big South (with non-conference limited to 2 games) Ohio Valley (conference only) Southern Southland SWAC Summit With conference schedule not publicly announced: America East (Stony Brook has published its conference schedule, so it appears the teams have the schedule) MidAmerican (Buffalo, Central Michigan, Kent State, Miami OH, Toledo, and Western Michigan have published their conference schedules, so it appears the teams have the conference schedule) MIssouri Valley (Evansville, Indiana State, SIU Carbondale, and UNI have published their conference schedules, so it appears teams have the conference schedule) Mountain West (conference only) No announcement: American (but Tulsa has published its conference schedule, so it appears the teams will play and have the conference schedule) Atlantic 10 (but Davidson is showing up as a Spring opponent for 2 non-conference teams) Big East Big 10 Big West Colonial Conference USA (but UAB played 3 and Louisiana Tech 2 non-conference games in the Fall; and Florida Atlantic, Marshall, North Texas, Rice, UTEP, and Western Kentucky each are showing up as a Spring opponent for a non-conference team) Horizon Metro Atlantic Northeast Pac 12 Patriot (but Navy played 2 non-conference games in the Fall) West Coast (but BYU is showing up as a Spring opponent for a non-conference team) Not playing during the 20-21 season: Ivy
I just have posted at my RPI and Bracketology blog a brief article showing the RPI ratings and rankings of the teams that have played this Fall and looking forward to problems the RPI and Women’s Soccer Committee may encounter in the Spring, based on the Fall schedules and what we know so far about school and conference Spring plans. For those interested, you can find the article here: RPI RANKINGS BASED ON FALL GAMES: A LESSON ON HOW THE RPI WORKS.
The Northeast Conference has announced its plans for play in the Spring. Teams will play a 9-game round robin, with games on Tuesdays and Fridays from February 23 to April 9. The top two teams will play a championship game the week of April 12-18, at the #1 conference regular season finisher. Teams can play non-conference games so long as they are before February 23. (There is no indication whether the non-conference games will be with players wearing snow shoes.)
The West Coast Conference has announced its plans for play in the Spring. Teams will play a 9-game round robin, with games on Saturdays, from February 20 to April 17. The WCC is one of the conferences that does not have a conference tournament. Although the announcement does not say anything about non-conference games, Utah Valley shows BYU as an opponent on Wednesday, March 17, so it appears teams will be able to play non-conference games. My understanding is that the WCC was waiting, before deciding on its plan, for the Pac 12 to decide whether it would allow non-conference games. The WCC playing a single round robin and no conference tournament suggests it may believe that the Pac 12 will be allowing non-conference games. So, although I easily could be wrong, I am expecting to see a significant number of Pac 12 v WCC non-conference games. The two conferences already are each other’s most common playing partner.