BALTIMORE, Maryland November 17, 2014 - There are no words to describe the seeding decisions made by the NCAA Selection Committee for this year's National Soccer Championship. Rest assured, Maryland is in. They guaranteed themselves that on Sunday when they won the Big Ten Tournament in their first year in the conference, after winning the regular season title on the last day of play. The Terps are seeded fourth overall - nothing to sneeze at after they started their season 3-5-2 and 1-2-2 in the Big Ten. But after an early October overtime loss at Northwestern - a game marred by some baffling officiating - Maryland has run off what most would call an 11 game win streak. The only match that in the most technical sense wasn't a win during that streak was the Big Ten Semifinal against Michigan State, a match Maryland won in a shootout. The Terps dominated the game and had three opportunities to score that they somehow didn't convert. Michigan State had no real chances to score and their only shot on goal came in overtime. The game finally went to a shootout which Maryland won with ease. The All-American Keeper, Zack Steffen, only allowed 2 of 5 Spartan Penalty Kicks to get by him, and two of those were out-and-out superior saves, while the final Michigan State kick missed the goal. The Terps converted their first three kicks before missing their fourth.
The Selection Committee seeded Notre Dame No. 1 with their 11-4-4 mark. UCLA was seeded second with an exactly similar record of 11-4-4. Michigan State is third at 11-4-5 (if you count the match against Maryland as a loss, they are 11-5-3. Maryland, officially at 13-5-3 (count the Spartan match as a win and they are 14-5-2). Indiana is seeded 5th at 12-4-5.
Stanford, with only two defeats (13-2-3) is seeded sixth. They are ranked number one by Top Drawer after winning the Pac 12 Tournament. UCLA is No. 2 with a record of 11-4-4. Someone, I'm sure, will explain why Stanford isn't the top seed in the Tournament, or at least the second seed instead of UCLA. I suppose they will get around to that after they explain how Michigan State is seeded ahead of Maryland and Indiana. The Spartans faded down the stretch and lost to Michigan in the final weeks. And, as stated, they were only the No. 5 team in the Big Ten. But the all-knowing selection committee seeds them ahead of the first and second place teams in the Big Ten regular season, the same two teams that waded through the conference tournament to the championship game, which Maryland won, 2-1. Do you think, maybe, that the folk on the committee are tired of Maryland and Indiana. What was it, three seasons ago that Indiana won the National Championship after being unseeded?
All tongue-in-cheek commentaries aside, the point of this is that the committee's standards for their picks should be announced so that coaches and athletic directors know how to go about being seeded in a way that accurately reflects their season accomplishments. When two schools finish first and second in the regular season and advance to the conference tournament championship game, how does the fifth place team get seeded ahead of both of them? Maybe an alternate committee or at least a reality check person should be selected to review the selection committee's job before it is announced to the public. At least in this way an obvious mistake could be corrected before it is announced to the public. I don't suggest that the committee be subordinate to this reality check person. I merely suggest that the committee be called upon to explain why they did something that is wrong before it goes public. Not that anything so logical would happen.
Anyway, The 16 first round games take place on Thursday, November 20. The 16 second round games take place on Sunday, November 23. Here is the way that these games will be played:
*First round game: Akron at Ohio State, winner plays Notre Dame, seeded No. 1.
*First round game: University of San Diego at California State University-Fullerton, winner plays UCLA, seeded No. 2.
*First round game: Oakland at Kentucky, winner plays Michigan State, seeded No. 3.
*First round game: Wake Forest at UMBC, winner plays Maryland, seeded No. 4.
*First round game: Monmouth at Xavier, winner plays Indiana, seeded No. 5.
*First round game: University of California-Irvine at UNLV, winner plays Stanford, seeded No. 6.
*First round game: Old Dominion at St. Francis (New York), winner plays Georgetown.
*First round game: Florida Gulf Coast University at Coastal Carolina, winner plays Clemson.
*First round game: University of North Carolina-Wilmington at Bucknell, winner plays Virginia, with winner of second round playing team emerging from Akron, Ohio State and Notre Dame.
*First round game: Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville at Northwestern, winner plays California, with winner of second round game playing team emerging from University of San Diego, California State University-Fullerton and UCLA.
*First round game: University of Alabama-Birmingham at Furman, winner plays Washington, with winner of second round game playing team emerging from Oakland, Kentucky and Michigan State.
*First round game: Tulsa at Saint Louis, winner plays Louisville, with winner of second round game playing team that emerges from UMBC, Wake Forest and Maryland.
*First round game: Oregon State at Denver, winner plays Creighton, with winner of second round game playing team emerging from Monmouth, Xavier and Indiana.
*First round game: Fordham at Dartmouth, winner plays Providence, with winner of second round game playing team that emerges from University of California-Irvine, UNLV and Stanford.
*First round game: Hartwick at Penn State, winner plays Syracuse, with winner of second round game playing team that emerges from Old Dominion, St. Franchis (New York) and Georgetown.
*First round game: North Carolina at James Madison, winner plays Charlotte, with winner of second round game playing team that emerges from Florida Gulf Coast University, Coastal Carolina and Clemson.
Third round games will be played on November 30 at the school with the highest remaining seed. The fourth round will be played on December 5 or 6, again at the school with the highest remaining seed. The National Semi-Finals are December 12 at 5 pm and 7 pm at Cary, North Carolina. The Finals are December 14 at a time to be announced, although it will certainly be in the afternoon. Last season the semi-finals and finals were in suburban Philadelphia, and it was cold on both Friday and Sunday, with temperatures below freezing for all of the games.
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