The 2023 NCAA Division I men's soccer season was the 65th season of

NCAA 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. ...

championship men's

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 ...

. The season began on August 24, 2023 and concluded on December 10, 2023.

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is the defending national champion. The

Clemson Tigers The Clemson Tigers are the sport, athletic teams that represent Clemson University, located in Clemson, South Carolina. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I level (NCAA Divis ...

won their fourth national title, and their first since 2021, defeating Notre Dame in the final.

Changes from 2022

Coaching changes

The following coaching changes occurred during the 2022–23 offseason.

Conference realignment

The ongoing conference realignment had two especially significant impacts on men's soccer in the 2023 season. First, the

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Its members co ...

announced on November 11, 2022 that it would no longer sponsor men's soccer after the 2022 season. The MAC had dropped to five men's soccer members during the realignment cycle, and was unable to find the sixth member needed to maintain its automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The four full MAC members that sponsored the sport found new conference homes within a week, with Akron joining the

Big East Conference The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...

and Bowling Green, Northern Illinois, and Western Michigan joining the

Missouri Valley Conference The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the fourth-oldest collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the Midwestern Unite ...

. The one associate member of the group, full independent Chicago State, was temporarily left without a home for its own program. Then, on March 28, 2023, the

Ohio Valley Conference The Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. It participates in Division I of the NCAA; the conference's football programs compete in partnership with ...

(OVC) announced that it would launch a men's soccer league in the 2023 season with eight members, equally divided between full members and associates. Three full OVC members (Eastern Illinois, Lindenwood, Southern Indiana) moved men's soccer from the

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 Minnesota in the east, to the Dakotas, Nebraska and Colorado to the West, and Mis ...

, with the other full member (SIU Edwardsville) leaving the

. The new associates are the aforementioned Chicago State; Houston Christian, which formerly housed men's soccer in the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the Western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, Texas, Utah and Washington (state), Washington. Due to ...

; Incarnate Word, which had played the 2022 season as an independent; and Liberty, which left the

Atlantic Sun Conference The Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) is a collegiate athletic conference operating mostly in the Southeastern United States. The league participates at the NCAA Division I level, and began sponsoring football at the Division I FCS level in 2022. ...

(which sponsors soccer for both sexes) for

Conference USA Conference USA (CUSA) is a collegiate athletic conference of member institutions in the Southern and Western United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. CUSA's offices are located in Dallas, Texas. Mem ...

(which sponsors it only for women). Western Illinois later joined the Ohio Valley for all sports this season as well. Western had originally planned to join the OVC's new league as its ninth men's soccer program. However, the conference had already built its schedule, which includes air travel. Therefore, Western instead opted to stay with the

as an affiliate in order for the conference to stay at 6 members and retain its automatic bid to the NCAA tournament while they look to add more members, and will move the sport over to the OVC in 2024. The 2023 season was the last for at least 11 men's college soccer teams in their then-current conferences:

New programs

On May 10,

Le Moyne College Le Moyne College is a private Jesuit college mostly in DeWitt, New York. It was founded by the Society of Jesus in 1946, and named after Jesuit missionary Simon Le Moyne. Le Moyne was the first co-educational Jesuit college in the United Sta ...

announced that it had accepted an invitation to join the

Northeast Conference The Northeast Conference (NEC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Teams in the NEC compete in Division I for all sports; football competes in the Division I Foo ...

and would begin the transition to Division I.

Discontinued programs

In March 2023, St. Francis College, athletically known as St. Francis Brooklyn, announced that it would shut down its entire athletic program at the end of the 2022–23 school year.

Other news

* May 24, 2023 – George Washington University announced that it would change its nickname from Colonials to

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. * July 20 – The Colonial Athletic Association announced a name change to

Coastal Athletic Association The Coastal Athletic Association (CAA), formerly the ECAC South Conference and the Colonial Athletic Association, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA' ...

. * October 4 – The Division I Council approved changes to the transfer window for all sports. In fall sports other than football, including men's and women's soccer, the transfer portal now opens for a total of 45 days. A 30-day fall window opens 7 days after championship selections are made, followed by a spring window from May 1–15.

Season outlook

Preseason polls

Regular season

Major upsets

In this list, a "major upset" is defined as a game won by an unranked team that defeats a ranked team, or a team ranked 10 spots lower than the other team. All rankings are from the

United Soccer Coaches The United Soccer Coaches (formerly known as the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA)) is an organization of American soccer coaches founded in 1941. It is the largest soccer coaches organization in the world, with more than ...

Poll.

Conference standings

Early season tournaments

Several universities will host early season soccer tournaments.

Postseason

Conference winners and tournaments

Awards and honors

TopDrawerSoccer.com Player/Team of the Week

*Bold denotes TDS Player of the Week.

All-America teams

Major player of the year awards

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 ...

: Ousmane Sylla – Clemson *

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 ...

: Bryan Dowd – Notre Dame

Other major awards

* United Soccer Coaches College Coach of the Year: Chad Riley * Bill Jeffrey Award: Becky Burleigh * Jerry Yeagley Award: Rob Stone * Mike Berticelli Award: Rob Herringer * NCAA Tournament MVP: Ousmane Sylla (Offensive) Pape Mar Boye (Defensive)

Conference players and coaches of the year

References

{{2023 in American men's soccer