Men’s Soccer: The NCAA Tournament Explained

Every soccer game during our season is really just a step towards something much bigger: the NCAA Tournament. This is how the National Champion is determined, which is the ultimate goal of any and all collegiate soccer programs.

How do you get in to the tournament? Only about 54 teams make the NCAA tournament out of hundreds nationwide. You can get in 2 ways. You can be an automatic bid, which you get by winning your conference.  You can also be an at-large bid, which is much more complicated. At-large bids are determined by a committee of coaches across the country by looking at teams' regional rankings, strength of schedule, quality wins, bad losses, results against similar opponents, as well as head-to-head results between teams.  This is an extremely subjective and unscientific way to determine who's in and who's out.  Typically, to be an automatic bid you need to be ranked roughly in the top 4 or 5 in your region, have a strong record, typically at least 10 wins with fewer than 4 losses, and typically play a strong schedule.  

How do WE stand? Currently we sit with a record of 9-3-3, are 3rd in region and 15th in the country, and have a very strong strength of schedule.  We have one game remaining against Case Western Reserve, which is tomorrow, Nov. 3 at 7:30 p.m. in Fauver Stadium.  With a win here, we will move to 10-3-3 and hopefully secure ourselves an at-large bid.

Prediction: Hopefully the committee is kind and we make the tournament.  If so, we will most likely play some of the other best universities in New York as well as other top tier universities in the east in the first round of the tournament.  Then we can hopefully go on a little run and make it all the way to San Diego for the Final Four.

Check out our Varsity Men's Soccer page to view our schedule, roster, and more information.