Tournament Bracket

Here it is:

http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/ncaa/sports/w-soccer/auto_pdf/WSoc-DI-2008Bracket.pdf

Breakdown of seeds:

1) UCLA, Notre Dame, North Carolina, Stanford
2) Portland, Florida State, Virginia, Florida
3) Wake Forest, Boston College, Texas A&M, Duke
4) Oklahoma State, Colorado, Missouri, USC

UPSF was very close in his forecast - Biggest upset is Penn State not seeded. They are in a bracket that would match them against Stanford in the third round. Maybe they can knock them out and then come to Merlo for an epic QF?

Yup... wouldn't be at all surprised to see Penn State knock off Oklahoma State. I think the Big 12 gets massively over-rated every year. Has a Big 12 team ever even made the Final Four? And yet they always seem to get 4-5 teams seeded every year. This year... Texas A&M, Colorado, Oklahoma State, and Missouri? Really?

Something tells me they would be a very tough third round match for Stanford.

Go Lions!

Stonehouse wrote:Yup... wouldn't be at all surprised to see Penn State knock off Oklahoma State. I think the Big 12 gets massively over-rated every year. Has a Big 12 team ever even made the Final Four? And yet they always seem to get 4-5 teams seeded every year. This year... Texas A&M, Colorado, Oklahoma State, and Missouri? Really?

Something tells me they would be a very tough third round match for Stanford.

No big 12 team has ever been in the College Cup.

Did you know Colorado college has been in the College Cup 5 times?

The same number as UCLA

Well, we are going to Auburn, and I have no idea why.

Any chance that Stanford can't host the QF because of pointy-ball?

Welcome to the shipped out club, we finally get to stay home!

the committe head is from there :)

harryb wrote:Any chance that Stanford can't host the QF because of pointy-ball?

They have their own soccer stadium, so----no

Who is the committee head? And why are some seeds moved, why play so hard all year for a top seed, when you dont even get home field advantage?

Preaching to the choir with this group...

So, which bracket does everyone feel is the strongest??

UP, Stanford, OSU, Penn State and Wake?? Pretty rough...

Oh and Tennessee makes it at 10-10?? Hmmmm

And FSU.... welcome to the UP fate of the last few years... The NCAA really makes tons of sense....

I know you guys have been up the creek in the past, so what are the reasons? I hope our girls take it personal.

Also, returning National Champions have to go to Provo, Utah the first 2 rounds???

And Oklahoma State goes to New Jersey??

THAT is a very loaded question.... That involves tons of cost calculations based on distance and whatnot, I'll let Geez and others try and explain that one...

FSUfan wrote:I know you guys have been up the creek in the past, so what are the reasons? I hope our girls take it personal.

Well, in our case, we're playing in a sport where 60% of the voting goes to the BCS schools, which comprise 30+ % of the schools, so the deck is stacked.
We live in a part of the country that is sparsely populated and all the selection rules favor densely populated areas,
and we live in a region that is stronger than the rest of the country and is discriminated against in the RPI because it doesn't allow for that.


Why do you think you got hosed?

FSUfan... the #1 criterea is proximity to other tournament schools. Did any other non-seeded, non-ACC schools within 400 miles make the tournament? If no, then you were destined to travel before the selection committee even began. That is what has killed UP in recent years.

Otherwise, if so, you likely just got screwed. No rhyme nor reason... they'll say it's because of travel costs.

Looking over the bracket... FSUfan, what killed you was Florida getting seeded as well.

With Duke, North Carolina, and Wake Forest all seeded and hosting (dang... amazing when you think about it... three schools from the same conference within just a few miles of each other are all hosting)... there weren't enough schools around in that region for two Florida teams to host.

Chances are the selection committee looked at your head-to-head match-up with Florida and decided to award them the home field site instead of you.

But look on the bright side... you'll get to host the third round no matter what as long as you keep winning!

UF has one of the worst fields in college soccer, what a terrible place to play, you need binoculars to see the field from the stands and the track is 2 feet from out of bounds. Besides that, oh well.

Thanks for the explanations.

Ugh... again, you've picked the right crowd to complain to.

In 2005, we were undefeated, ranked #1 in the country and in the RPI... got a #1 seed but were shipped to Lincoln, Nebraska. Terrible field, even worse weather. Not only that, but it was the same weekend as a Nebraska football game, so flights were impossible to find and hotels even tougher... out team ended up on multiple different flights and at different hotels.

I think something like 75 fans watched the first game. Maybe 300 the second.

Of course, in Portland the NCAA would have sold 4,972 tickets to both UP games and probably a healthy 1000+ to the other game.

But no... the NCAA isn't smart enough to figure that out. UP won both games and hosted the next two rounds... the third round game against Arizona sold out in 3 hours. The quarterfinal game against Notre Dame sold out in 6 minutes.

Yet did the NCAA learn anything? No. We got shipped out in 2006. And in 2007.

This is the first time in a long time we're hosting.

So... yeah. We're not really big fans of the selection committee. It's nice to know that other schools are finally starting to see how messed up this is.

Why cant every seed host? I remember the 2005 year, I could not believe it when you all went to Nebraska.

There was a rule pending that #1 seeds would stay at home. It never passed.