NCAA Division I Men’s Soccer Championship brackets announced
INDIANAPOLIS (Via NCAA) — The field and bracket for the 2017 NCAA Division I Men’s Soccer Championship was announced today by the NCAA Division I Men’s Soccer Committee, which awarded the tournament’s No. 1 seed to Wake Forest.
The Demon Deacons, last year’s national runner-up, won the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season and tournament championships. Wake Forest is making its seventh straight tournament appearance and 21st overall as it looks to add a second national championship trophy to the one earned in 2007.
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The 48-team field is made up of the champions of 24 conferences, who qualified automatically, in addition to 24 teams that were selected at-large. The top 16 teams were seeded and receive first round byes. All first-round games will be played Thursday, Nov. 16, on campus sites, while all second-round action will take place Sunday, Nov. 19. The third round will be played Nov. 25 and 26, while the quarterfinals will be played Dec. 1 and 2. The Men’s College Cup will be held Dec. 8 and 10 at Talen Energy Stadium in Philadelphia with live coverage on ESPNU for the semifinals and ESPN2 for the national championship game.
The ACC tied its NCAA record with nine teams in the field as North Carolina, Louisville, Duke, Clemson, Virginia, Notre Dame, Virginia Tech and NC State earned bids alongside Wake Forest.
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Second-seeded Indiana leads the field making its 42nd appearance and with eight national championships is two shy of Saint Louis’ NCAA record. The Hoosiers are joined in the field by Michigan State, Michigan, Wisconsin and Maryland from the Big Ten.
Central Arkansas, Lipscomb, Omaha and Presbyterian will all be making their first appearance in the championship, while New Hampshire and Columbia are returning to the tournament for the first time in 23 and 24 years, respectively.
Last season, Stanford won its second consecutive national championship, prevailing in a penalty kick shootout versus Wake Forest in Houston.
