The 2018 Big Ten Conference men's soccer season was the 28th season of men's varsity soccer in the conference. The regular season began on August 24, 2018, and concluded on October 28, 2018. The season culminated with the 2018 Big Ten Conference Men's Soccer Tournament to determine the conference's automatic berth into the

2018 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament The 2018 NCAA Division I men's soccer tournament was the 60th edition of the NCAA Division I men's soccer tournament, a postseason tournament to determine the national champion of NCAA Division I men's college soccer. The first four rounds of ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

entered the season as the defending regular season champions, while

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

entered the season as the defending tournament champions.

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

went on to win both the regular season and the tournament, winning all eight of their Big Ten Conference games. They defeated

in the Big Ten Men's Soccer Championship Game. With the Big Ten title, Indiana earned the conference's automatic berth into the 2018 NCAA Tournament, where Maryland, Michigan, and Michigan State joined as at-large berths. The conference had the strongest showing in the NCAA Tournament, where three of their four berths reached the College Cup (Final Four) of the tournament. Big Ten side, Maryland, would defeat

Akron Akron () is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the fifth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 190,469 at the 2020 census. The Akron metropolitan area, covering Summit and Portage counties, had ...

in the National Championship Game to win their fourth NCAA title, and their first since

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

. Concluding the tournament, Indiana senior and captain,

Andrew Gutman Andrew David Gutman (born October 2, 1996) is an American professional Association football, soccer player who plays as a Defender (association football), left-back for Major League Soccer club Chicago Fire FC, Chicago Fire. Career Youth and ...

, won the

TopDrawerSoccer.com National Player of the Year Award TopDrawerSoccer.com (TDS) is an American association football, soccer website that is dedicated to youth soccer in the United States. Specifically, the website focuses on Academy soccer, high school soccer, and college soccer in the United State ...

as well as the

Missouri Athletic Club The Missouri Athletic Club (often referred to as the MAC), founded in 1903, is a private city and athletic club with two locations. The Downtown Clubhouse is in Downtown St. Louis, Missouri, USA and the West Clubhouse is located in the St. Lou ...

Hermann Trophy The Hermann Trophy is awarded annually by the Missouri Athletic Club to the United States's top men's and women's college soccer players. History In 1967, Bob Hermann, the president of the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) and th ...

. Gutman would forgo an opportunity to sign a homegrown contract with the Chicago Fire and signed with

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. Indiana sophomore forward, Griffin Dorsey was the highest Big Ten player selected in the 2019 MLS SuperDraft, being drafted by Toronto FC ninth overall. Eleven other Big Ten players were selected in the MLS SuperDraft, the most of any collegiate conference, and an additional four signed homegrown player contracts with their parent MLS clubs.

Background

Head coaches

Preseason

Preseason poll

The preseason poll was released on August 15.

Preseason national polls

Five of the programs were ranked in one of the five major preseason polls. CollegeSoccerNews.com and ''Hero Sports'' use a Top 30 ranking throughout the season, while United Soccer, ''

Soccer America ''Soccer America'', the oldest soccer-specific media publisher in the United States, was founded in 1971 by Clay Berling in Albany, California. The magazine is headquartered in Oakland, California. History The magazine was founded by Clay Ber ...

'', and TopDrawer Soccer use a Top 25 ranking throughout the season.

Regular season

Early season tournaments

Three Big Ten teams participated in four early season tournaments, three of which they themselves hosted.

Postseason

Big Ten Tournament

The

Big Ten Tournament Big Ten Tournament can refer to any Big Ten Conference sport that has a tournament or championship game: * Big Ten Football Championship Game * Big Ten men's basketball tournament * Big Ten women's basketball tournament * Big Ten baseball tournamen ...

was held from November 3–11. The semifinal and championship rounds were held at

Grand Park Gloria Molina Grand Park, commonly known as Grand Park, is a park located in the civic center of Los Angeles, California. First developed in 1966 as the 'Civic Center Mall' with plazas, fountains and a Court of Flags, it is now a part of the ...

in Westfield, Indiana. Indiana won the Big Ten Tournament, defeating Michigan in the final.

NCAA Tournament

Rankings

National rankings

Awards and honors

Player of the week honors

Postseason honors

National awards

2019 MLS draft

Five 2018 Big Ten Conference men's soccer season players were drafted in the first round of the 2018 draft (

Griffin Dorsey Griffin Lawrence Dorsey (born March 5, 1999) is an American professional soccer player who plays for Major League Soccer club Houston Dynamo as a winger or full-back. Career Youth, college and amateur Dorsey played three years with U.S. Socce ...

— 6th,

Dayne St. Clair Dayne Tristan St. Clair (born May 9, 1997) is a Canadian professional soccer player who plays as a goalkeeper for Major League Soccer club Minnesota United and the Canada national team. Prior to playing for Minnesota United, St. Clair was a t ...

— 7th,

DeJuan Jones DeJuan Lytelle Jones (born June 24, 1997) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a defender for Major League Soccer club San Jose Earthquakes and the United States national team. Early life Introduced to soccer at the age of ...

— 11th, Chase Gaspers — 15th, Ryan Sierakowski — 23rd) and 12 were drafted overall in the draft.

Homegrown players

The Homegrown Player Rule is a

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

program that allows MLS teams to sign local players from their own development academies directly to MLS first team rosters. Before the creation of the rule in 2008, every player entering Major League Soccer had to be assigned through one of the existing MLS player allocation processes, such as the

MLS SuperDraft The MLS SuperDraft is an annual Draft (sports), college draft for teams of Major League Soccer in the United States and Canada in which MLS clubs take turns selecting from a pool of eligible amateur players. These drafted players usually come f ...

. To place a player on its homegrown player list, making him eligible to sign as a homegrown player, players must have resided in that club's home territory and participated in the club's youth development system for at least one year. Players can play

college soccer College soccer, called college football in some countries, is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. While it is most widespread in the United States, it is also prominent in Japan, South Kore ...

and still be eligible to sign a homegrown contract. Four 2018 Big Ten Conference men's soccer season players signed homegrown contracts with their parent clubs ahead of the 2019 MLS season.

References

External links

Big Ten Men's Soccer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Big Ten Conference Mens Soccer Season 2018 2018 NCAA Division I men's soccer season

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...