The NCAA Division I men's soccer tournament, sometimes known as the College Cup, is an American intercollegiate
soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
tournament conducted by the
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
(NCAA), and determines the
Division I men's national champion. The tournament has been formally held since 1959, when it was an eight-team tournament. Since then, the tournament has expanded to 48 teams, in which every Division I conference tournament champion is allocated a berth. Among the most successful programs,
Saint Louis won 10 titles during dynasty years between 1959 and 1973.
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
has won 8 titles beginning in 1982, whereas
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
has won 7 titles beginning in 1989. Syracuse won its first national title in its first appearance in 2022.
Although the tournament is frequently referenced as the "College Cup", the NCAA applies the title only to the semifinal and championship rounds of the tournament proper. Since the tournament began, the semifinal and final fixtures have been held at a neutral site predetermined by the NCAA prior to the start of the regular season.
Format
The NCAA Division I men's soccer tournament is a 48-team, single-elimination tournament. Currently, 23 spots are reserved for the winners of automatic bids.
As of the 2022 editions, the following conferences were granted automatic qualification:
*
America East
*
American Athletic
*
ASUN
*
Atlantic Coast
*
Atlantic 10
The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I. The A-10's member schools are located in states mostly on the United States Eastern ...
*
Big East
The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and ...
*
Big South
The Big South Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I. Originally a non-football conference, the Big South began sponsoring football in 2002 as part of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Th ...
*
Big Ten
The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...
*
Big West
The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The conference was originally formed on July 1, 1969, as the Pacifi ...
*
Colonial Athletic Association
*
Horizon League
The Horizon League is an 11-school collegiate athletic conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I, whose members are located in and near the Great Lakes region.
The Horizon League founded in 1979 as the Midw ...
*
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...
*
Metro Atlantic
*
Mid-American
*
Missouri Valley
*
Northeast
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...
*
Pac-12
*
Patriot League
*
Southern
*
Summit League
The Summit League, or The Summit, is an NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletic conference with its membership mostly located in the Midwestern United States from Illinois on the East of the Mississippi River to the Dakotas and Nebraska on the W ...
*
Sun Belt
*
West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to:
Geography Australia
* Western Australia
*Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia
* West Coast, Tasmania
**West Coast Range, mountain range in the region
Canada
* Britis ...
*
Western Athletic
Each conference determines the format for its conference championship, which determines the school that receives its automatic bid. Many use conference tournaments, although three conferences award the championship and automatic bid to the regular season champion. The remaining 25 teams have received at-large bids. The at-large teams are selected by a committee consisting of representatives from each of the eight regions the NCAA has divided the country into. The committee uses a number of criteria, the most influential supposedly being the
Ratings Percentage Index, a mathematical formula designed to objectively compare the results and strength of schedule of all Division I teams.
The top 16 teams are seeded into the bracket and receive first round byes. The other 32 are grouped by geographical proximity. The first four rounds are played on campus sites, with matches being hosted by the higher seed. The College Cup, comprising the semifinal and final matches, is played at a predetermined site.
Clemson is the current champion, defeating
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
2–0 in overtime in the 2021 final.
List of champions
Below is a complete list of winning teams and finals held:
;Notes
Most successful schools
Team titles
;Notes
Appearances
This list consists of the top 25 men's college soccer teams in terms of appearances in the NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship.
See also
*
List of NCAA Division I men's soccer programs
This is a list of men's college soccer programs in the United States, that play in NCAA Division I. As of the most recently completed 2021 NCAA Division I men's soccer season, 208 schools in the United States sponsored Division I varsity men's soc ...
*
NCAA Men's Division I Soccer Tournament appearances by school The following is a list of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college soccer teams that have qualified for the NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship
The NCAA Division I men's soccer tournament, sometimes known as the Co ...
*
NCAA Division II Men's Soccer Championship
The NCAA Division II Men's Soccer Championship is the annual tournament held by the NCAA to determine the top men's Division II college soccer program in the United States. It has been played annually since 1972; prior to then, all teams competed ...
*
NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Championship
The NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Championship is an annual single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III collegiate men's soccer in the United States.
Messiah i ...
*
NCAA Women's Soccer Championship
*
NAIA national men's soccer championship
The NAIA Men's Soccer Championship is the annual tournament to determine the national champions of NAIA men's collegiate soccer in the United States and Canada. It has been held annually since 1959.
The most successful program is Quincy (IL), ...
*
Intercollegiate Soccer Football Association
The NCAA held its first men's National Collegiate Soccer Championship in 1959, with eight teams selected for the tournament. Before 1959, national champions were selected by a committee of the Intercollegiate Soccer Football Association (ISFA) ba ...
(ISFA) – declared the annual national champion (1927–1958)
*
Intercollegiate Association Football League (IAFL) – declared the annual national champion (1911–1926)
*
Pre-NCAA Soccer Champions
Highest attendances
The highest recorded attendance for championship games are listed below:
*22,512 – Saint Louis (5) vs. SIU Edwardsville (1), Busch Stadium, St. Louis Oct. 30 1980
*21,319 – Wisconsin (1) vs. Portland (0) / Duke (3) vs. Virginia (2), Richmond, Virginia (NCAA semifinals) Dec. 8, 1995
*20,874 – St. John's (NY) (4) vs. FIU (1), Richmond, Virginia (NCAA final) Dec. 15, 1996
*20,703 – Wisconsin (2) vs. Duke (0), Richmond, Virginia (NCAA final) Dec. 10, 1995
*20,269 – St. John's (NY) (2) vs. Creighton (1) / FIU (4) vs. Charlotte (0), Richmond, Virginia (NCAA semifinals) Dec. 13, 1996
*20,143 – UCLA (2) vs. Virginia (0), Richmond, Virginia (NCAA final) Dec. 14, 1997
*20,112 – Saint Louis (1) vs. SIU Edwardsville (0), Busch Stadium, St. Louis Nov. 9, 1973
Numbers in parenthesis indicate goals scored by participating teams.
References
External links
*
{{USSoccer
1959 establishments in the United States
Recurring sporting events established in 1959