They've not done a good job of explaining this, nor has my memory kept pace. I blame Akron You're right that would probably not leave enough time for a quarterfinal round unless you had it on, like, Monday Nov. 10.
I'm only about 20' from the Soccerplex in Boyds, so having the Men's and Women's BE semis and finals there has been great for us. It's also been good for Georgetown, from a playing and fan-support perspective, but it certainly hasn't meant guaranteed victory. The BE website makes no mention of a quarterfinal round this year. Last year the four QFs were on campus sites, before moving to Boyds ... 2024 BIG EAST Championship Schedule First Round – Nov. 9 – Campus Sites ^ No. 4 Georgetown 1, No. 5 Creighton 0 No. 3 St. John’s 2, No. 6 Seton Hall 0 No. 1 Akron 3, No. 8 DePaul 1 No. 2 Providence 2, No. 7 UConn 0 Semifinal – Nov. 14 – Maryland SoccerPlex ^ No. 2 Providence 2, No. 3 St. John's 1 (OT) No. 4 Georgetown 2, No. 1 Akron 1 (OT) Championship – Nov. 17 – Maryland SoccerPlex * No. 4 Georgetown 2, No. 2 Providence 1 ++++++++++++ The Women's blurb on the BE website suggests by its wording that the top four teams will directly enter the semifinals: "The 2025 BIG EAST Women's Soccer Championship kicks off on Nov. 6 with a pair of semifinal matches at 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. E.T. Semifinal winners advance to the title match on Nov. 9, slated for a noon ET kickoff. All three games will be played at the Maryland Soccerplex in Boyds, Md. for the third straight year." But that could just be imprecision. I would have written continue if there were QF matches as a preamble to the semis and final.
Why d'you have to go and make things so complicated, Akron? If it was an 11 team conference like on the women's side, they'd just do the same 6-team thing thing they do there! I'm joking, course - Akron is a welcome and tremendous asset to the conference.
There are a few conferences this year that have cut 6-team tournaments down to 4 (like the Big Ten). I'm convinced the BE is a 4-teamer this season.
You are correct. I can confirm that in men's soccer, and all Olympic sports, the BE in 2025-2026 is holding 4-team tournaments at a single site.
Matchday 15: October 17, 2025 Creighton 1 @ Villanova 1: Nova only has one SOG and got their goal on a PK. The Bluejays have to be breathing a sigh of relief that they were able to escape with a point thanks to a goal in the 84th minutes after having thrown 18(8) shots at Wildcats (shout out Nick Mantegna). Butler 1 @ Xavier 1: Believe it or not, Xavier also got their game-tying goal in the 84th after launching 18 shots at their opponent. But Butler actually has 6 SOGs to the Muskies 3 despite being outshot 18-8. Marquette 0 @ Providence 1: The Golden Eagles' nightmare Big East season continues while the Friars have clawed their way to within one game of .500 and into a three-way tie for third in the conference. Provy had 15 fouls to Marquette's 8, but the visitors collected the two yellows in the contest. All in all, I have to feel like Marquette is just having incredibly bad luck. Akron 1 @ Seton Hall 1: "He can't keep getting away with this!" I think as Andreas Lindberg grinds out another draw by uglying up the proceedings. And yet he does and he will. St. John's 0 @ UConn 1: Huskies get the goal at the 83:00 mark, making for yet another decisive tally in the 84th minute! An even affair overall, and one that might provide critical for postseason hopes, as UConn vaults into the tie for third. Matchday 15.1: October 18, 2025 Georgetown 3 @ DePaul 0: A portion of the broadcast (including the second goal) being replaced with a bright red screen (Red Screen of Death?) was a fun innovation. It's cool that Noeh got to play on the same pitch as Messi. The box score on the Big East website refers to the referee as "Hilarilo" Grajeda, which just makes me giggle. The game itself went about as expected, aside from Zengue not being among the three goal-scorers.
Matchday 16: October 21, 2025 Seton Hall 5 @ Lehigh 1: A Seton Hall game with no cards? Incredible! Lehigh is one of the better teams in the Patriot League, but The Hall is toward the top of the Big East, and the gap between the two conferences is very real. VMI 0 @ Villanova 3: US Soccer should just make a policy that any coach who posts a winning record at VMI automatically gets the USMNT head job. St. John's 1 @ Monmouth 0: 17(5)-3(0) on the shots for the Johnnies, but odd things have been known to happen in West Long Branch. "Hesse Field on The Great Lawn" is a great name for a venue. Edgewood 0 @ Marquette 2: Edgewood is 12-1-2 in Division III, so this makes for a fun experiment in the genre of "How would a top D3 team do against an average D1 team?" The answer appears to be: respectably, but probably not well enough to get a result. 24(15)-10(3) on the shots.
Matchday 17: October 25, 2025 Creighton 3 @ Butler 1: With Seton Hall and Akron (albeit at home) to close the regular season, the Bluejays needed 3 points here if they wanted to stay in pole position for the Midwest Division lead, and 3 points is what they got. Remarkably, Butler actually had one more shot on goal than Creighton, 5-4. The Omahans were dialed in this night, though, and they once again navigate the ups and downs of their season to find themselves in a "win and you're in" driver's seat with two matches remaining. Akron 3 @ Xavier 1: A 'spirited affair' with 8 yellow card total and two goals coming from the spot, but the Zips stay within striking distance of Creighton. 10-2 in corners for Akron gives you a sense of the run of play in this Ohio affair. Stefan Dobrijevic is, by all accounts, a handful and a half. Seton Hall 1 @ St. John's 0: Kind of a bizarre match, as one might expect with these two. The Pirates put all 5 of their shots on goal; the Johnnies uncorked 11 shots, but only one on frame. This felt one like where Dr. Dave's men would find a way to grind out a draw, but The Hall are looking mighty feisty this year. Villanova 0 @ Georgetown 3: 26(14)-4(2) on the shots. Big boost for the Hoyas defense to get Tate Lampman back - and he got a goal in his first appearance this season! But Matthew Van Horn was on the sideline wearing a boot, that is much less good. UConn 0 @ Providence 0: An announced attendance of 1111 in Friartown, where 3 yellows were handed out in a 2-minute span, but no goals were recorded. Both teams now have 3-2-1 conference records, along with Akron, and those three squads are your most likely competitors for the fourth and final spot in Boyds. Not quite high drama, but drama nonetheless. DePaul 1 @ Marquette 4: Congrats to the Golden Eagles on finally getting a conference win. DePaul's entire athletic department has big "We're just happy to be in a respectable conference" vibes.
Xavier's #10 Cooper Forcellini is a .... player without honor. I have come to learn that he is on the MAC Hermann watchlist. Well, not from what I have seen, neither this year nor in previous seasons. His primary involvement is simulating fouls and baiting the referee into making bogus calls. When not taking a dive, Forcellini is instigating fights with opposing players, feigning injury there as well. All players are guilty of this to some extent. But it is rare when a player makes this their signature move.
Sorry, I disagree. I've seen Forcellini play this year and he was no more onerous than other technical players. Then, again I didn't have a dog in the fight as I watching as a neutral. Much better response than mine.
Matchday 18: November 1, 2025 St. John's 3 @ Villanova 1: Wildcats outshot the Johnnies 20-10, but they conceded an own goal in the 6th minute. Things really degenerated in the second half starting in the 56th minute. The referee awarded a throw-in to St. John's in error, missing the fact that the Red Storm player - on his way down after being tackled and dispossessed - clearly contacted the ball with his hand before it went out of bounds. The Nova coaches complained, but to no avail... and then the Johnnies quickly scored on the restart, leading to the Villanova coach's dismissal for understandable but unproductive dissent (the actual final straw may have been a no call half a minute later). Literally less than a minute later, a wrestling match breaks out between two players contesting the ball, with the Wildcat winning a yellow card for the takedown...at which point the Johnny retaliates by kicking him, ever so gently, in the ribs. Presumably, as a member of the visiting team, Luca Fargnoli couldn't hit the showers after his disqualification. Maybe he went down to 30th Street and caught an Acela back to the City instead. Providence 3 @ DePaul 2: Mr. @fknbuflobo said on the Akron thread that Big East matches are ugly, and I think that's a little unfair... but this one had 9 yellows and 26 fouls total whistled. Yeesh. Only 9 minutes for Noeh, if he had been able to go for longer, maybe the Blue Demons could've gotten a result out of what was a pretty even affair as it was. Instead, the Friars got the gamewinner from the spot in the 75th and remain in the Big East Tournament hunt. Seton Hall 1 @ Creighton 1: Potentially a huge result in terms of the final table. Dropping 2 points to remain on 13 total leaves the Pirates in a 4-way - count 'em, 4-way - tie for the 3rd spot. Creighton's only claiming 1 point, meanwhile, leaves them only 1 ahead of Akron for the top spot in the Midwest and the guaranteed spot in the BET ahead of their season-ending clash in Omaha. It may well be a "Win, and you're in - lose, and you're done." Xavier 0 @ Georgetown 3: Several absences and fresh faces for the Hoyas, but it hardly mattered against a Xavier squad with nothing but pride to play for. 19(10)-3(1) on the shots. With a game to spare, Georgetown is your #1 seed in Boyds. Marquette 0 @ Akron 2: 15(4)-8(3) in favor of the Golden Eagles on the shots, if you can believe it, but Dobrijevic nets a brace and the Zips go into the final match of the regular season with their destiny in their own hands. Butler 0 @ UConn 2: The Huskies claim their spot in the fustercluck for the 3rd and 4th spots in Boyds. Scoreless until the 73:56 mark, at which point UConn got their first off a PK and then their second less than four minutes later. A deserved result, given the shot disparity of 26(10)-12(2). Matchday 18A: November 4, 2025 Holy Family University 0 @ Villanova 6: Why?
Big East Decision Day! Last matchday, all games kicking off at 7 pm Eastern. DePaul @ Xavier Akron @ Creighton Villanova @ Marquette Georgetown @ Providence UConn @ Seton Hall Butler @ St. John's My joking prediction is that all the teams currently tied on 13 points (Seton Hall, UConn, Providence, Akron) will draw, creating a 4-way logjam for the 3rd and 4th spots in the Big East Tournament. With all tie-breakers having been exhausted, we will proceed to Special Procedures: A series of Feats of Strength held at Madison Square Garden, with Val Ackerman serving as the final arbiter of who lives and who dies, like a Roman emperor at a gladiatorial battle. I don't actually want that to happen because I want Georgetown to beat Providence... but it would be funny to see how long it would take them to work through the tiebreakers if it did. It would be like a contested election!
For those who enjoy seeing all of the combinations and permutations (as I do) ... Note: I have not proofread the above - I'll just take @gauchodan's word for it.
I'd like to take credit for it, but I just re-arranged things from what they published on the Big East website. Here's the link: https://www.bigeast.com/documents/2025/11/6//BIG_EAST_Men_s_Soccer_Postseason_Scenarios.pdf?id=24257
Relevant Halftime scores at Creighton 0, Akron 0 at Seton Hall 0, UConn 0 Georgetown 2, at Providence 1 at St. John's 1, Butler 0 If results held Georgetown Creighton UConn Seton Hall
Seton Hall has taken a 1-0 lead on UConn. Akron continues to lead at Creighton. Georgetown continues to lead at Providence. If results hold Georgetown Akron Seton Hall Creighton
It's off the hook in the Big East! UConn has scored to tie it up at Seton Hall. Butler took a 2-1 lead at St. John's, and as I was typing this the Red Storm got the goal back! UConn 1, at Seton Hall 1 -- 80' Akron 1, at Creighton 0 -- 83' Georgetown 2, at Providence 2 -- 78' Butler 2, at St. John's 2 -- 73' If results hold Georgetown Akron Providence UConn