The 1972 NCAA Division II Men's Soccer Championship (then named the NCAA College Division Men's Soccer Championship) was the inaugural Division II men's

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tournament held by the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

. Since 1959, all schools had competed in a single division. The

SIU Edwardsville Cougars The SIU Edwardsville Cougars are the intercollegiate athletic teams of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE), located in Edwardsville, Illinois, United States. The Cougars' athletic program is a member of the Ohio Valley Conference ( ...

won their first NCAA title in any sport by defeating the Oneonta Red Dragons in the championship game, 1–0. The final match was played on December 9, 1972, in

Edwardsville, Illinois Edwardsville is a city in Madison County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. The population was 26,808 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The city was named in honor of Ninian Edwards, former governor of the Illinois Te ...

, at SIUE's Cougar Field, which also hosted the Division I College Cup in 1970 and 1975.

Qualifying

Early rounds

Final

Division change

1972 was the only year that this tournament was known as the "College Division Men's Soccer Championship." In 1973, the NCAA renamed the University Division as Division I and the College Division as Division II. Several of the teams in the new Division II that placed a high emphasis on their soccer programs, including both SIUE and Oneonta, moved to Division I after only one season, taking advantage of a then-current NCAA rule that allowed a Division II school to play one sport in Division I and a Division I school to play one sport in Division II. As a result, seven of the twenty-four teams in the 1972 College Division tournament were among the twenty-four teams in the 1973 Division I tournament. Although four of the seven teams have since stepped down to a lower division, five other schools in the 1972 tournament have since moved up to Division I. These are:

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Cal State Fullerton California State University, Fullerton (CSUF or Cal State Fullerton) is a public research university in Fullerton, California, United States. With a total enrollment of more than 41,000, it has the largest student body of the California State ...

, Eastern Illinois,

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, and Loyola Maryland.

References

NCAA Division II Men's Soccer Championship The NCAA Division II men's soccer tournament (formerly the NCAA College Division soccer tournament) is an annual event organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to determine the national champions of men's collegiate socc ...

NCAA Division II men's soccer tournament

Qualifying

Early rounds

Final

Division change

See also

References