In My Very Humble Opinion... Seeds 1. UCLA 2. Maryland 3. Notre Dame 4. St. John's 5. Wake Forest 6. Virginia Commonwealth 7. North Carolina 8. Saint Louis Byes into Second Round 9. Santa Clara 10. CSU Northridge 11. Indiana 12. Old Dominion 13. Oregon State 14. UC Santa Barbara 15. Michigan 16. Coastal Carolina First Round Games: 11/21-22 Game A: Florida International vs. Davidson Game B: Clemson vs. UCF Game C: Virginia Tech vs. Lafayette Game D: Hartwick vs. Binghampton Game E: Rutgers vs. Rhode Island Game F: Seton Hall vs. Saint Peter's Game G: Virginia vs. UConn Game H: Brown vs. Fairleigh Dickinson Game I: Michigan State vs. Western Michigan Game J: Cincinnati vs. Akron Game K: Creighton vs. UW Milwaukee Game L: Tulsa vs. Kentucky Game M: SMU vs. Missouri-Kansas City Game N: California vs. Portland Game O: Washington vs. Loyola Marymount Game P: San Diego vs. San Jose State Second Round Games: 11/26 Third Round Games: 11/29-30 Quarterfinal Games: 12/5-7 College Cup Final Four: 12/12-12/14 As far as the schedule, my understanding is the same as VCU Fan's.
Here is from the NCAA.com site: "Dates and sites: Preliminary-round games will be at campus sites. First-round games will be November 21 or 22; second-round games will be November 26; third-round games will be November 29 or 30; and quarterfinal games will be December 5, 6 or 7. The Men's College Cup will be December 12 and 14 at Columbus Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio, hosted by Ohio State" It looks like there will not be neutral site games this year until the semi-final and final.
sheep well done...Clemson in and ACC did not get 5 in...they got 6!! Did NC State shocked everyone?? Probably Tarantini does not even know...
tournament...sheep I am not a Clemson fan, but I got to say...very favorable two rounds. Virginia Tech and VCU? What are your thoughts? I long ride from SC to VA UVA got screwed. Setton Hall again on first round and then they play Wake. (of course if they win) Watch out for Indiana! Let the games begin! Anyone doing a "friendly" office pool?
UAB f'ed it up on Friday Obviously speculating but UAB might have gotten in even with a close loss to SLU on Friday but when they got trounced 5-1, I wasn't surprised when they missed out. Sucks considering they went unbeaten the 1st 8 games and I think only had 5 losses total(including two to SLU).
I don't think Clemson got a favorable draw at all, but then again, they don't deserve one. VT is a strong team this year, and VCU got jobbed in my opinion with only a 9 seed. I'd be shocked if Clemson made it to the Sweet 16. I think UVA got a great draw considering they're a .500 team. Somehow got a home game, and they've had Wake's number this year. I want to know how they came to these seeds. The top 3 I don't have too many problems with, but UNC at #4? Seems like it mattered just as much the name on the front of the jersey as the teams actual performance. UCLA has a tricky quarterfinal draw, with likely either Indiana or VCU coming their way, two of the hotter teams right now. Somewhat satisfied with Maryland's draw. ODU or NCSU in the second round could prove tricky. However, ODU has fallen apart. Really could do without having to go against NCSU, or more specifically Gonzalez, for a third time. Potential rematch in the quarters with St Louis from last year. Is it just me, or are there a ton of potential intraconference second round games?
I am glad that Oakland got in. They had a great year. Thre UCF-FIU winner is going to C-SUN,that will be a trip. A Santa Clara- LMU match-up could be really interesting. LMU destroyed Canta Clara right after Santa Clara won the conference title, Kind of sad to see Costal Carolina with a potentail second round match-up with UNC. Maryland is going to have a very difficult game in its second round.
UVA lost 1-0 to Seton Hall on UVA's home field to start the season. This weekend's game will give us an idea how the team has progressed. Don't forget that Seton Hall has beaten UVA in post-season play in the past. This is one of the more interesting match-ups.
My picks... UCLA over Tulsa CSU Northridge over FIU VCU over Virginia Tech Indiana over Cincinnati Notre Dame over UW-Milwaukee Michigan over Brown Loyola Marymount over Santa Clara North Carolina over Coastal Carolina Wake Forest over Virginia San Diego over Creighton UC Santa Barbara over California St. John's over Connecticut St. Louis over Fairleigh Dickinson Oregon State over Washington Akron over Rutgers Maryland over Old Dominion and then... UCLA over CSU Northridge VCU over Indiana Notre Dame over Michigan North Carolina over Loyola Marymount Wake Forest over San Diego UC Santa Barbara over St. John's St. Louis over Oregon State Maryland over Akron now the Quarters... UCLA over VCU Notre Dame over North Carolina Wake Forest over UC Santa Barbara Maryland over St. Louis Semifinals... UCLA over Notre Dame Maryland over Wake Forest The Final... UCLA over Maryland
Hey put your predictions on this link: https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=82812 I will volunteer to tabulate the results.
Nostradamus.... Fear the Tigers.................... UNC should not be the #4 seed but that got Clemson into the tournament. I see Maryland, Wake and UNC all choking before the Final Four. Notre Dame, St Johns and IU will be the strong teams early.
Well, I got the Coastal getting a bye thing wrong! A .900 winning percentage doesn't get you a bye - man, that's a tough call. One thing that really jumps out at me is that the selection committee really put an emphasis on Strength of Schedule. Despiute a .500 record, UConn got in with a SoS in the Top Ten. At the same time, Hartwick was 13 games over .500 and didn't get in, laregely because their SoS was crap. Clemson, Seton Hall, Portland and Cal are also beneficiaries of the SoS emphais and I think a lack of a strong SoS is why Coastal didn't get a bye. Another thing that seems clear is that the tournament took into account the teams that lose players to the U20 team. Indiana is arguably the hottest team in college ball and they get drawn with UCLA in the quarters? Ouch. And Santa Clara WINS their conference and doesn't get a bye while LMU and San Diego finished BEHIND them in the WCC and were seeded. The only way I see explainin this is that IU loses Grabavoy and Moor while SCU loses Cochrane and Cronin.
Portland did play a tough schedule and I'm a big fan of the Pilots program, but I don't think this year's squad really deserves a bid. Maybe they'll prove me wrong against Oregon State, but I think they might be one and done this year.
Anybody know if it's strickly seeding for determination of sites for Rounds 3 & 4? What about in the situation of two unseeded teams meeting?
Any team that wants to host has to put a bid in. Seeds are considered - but fans (read $$$) win out. Hosting a first round is no guarantee of hosting next weekend.