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NCAA Men’s Soccer Tournament: At-Large Bid and Seeding Projections

Ahead of the NCAA Men’s Soccer Tournament brackets being released, there’s no secret after Sunday who the 23 teams who will pick up the automatic bids to men’s college soccer’s version of the Big Dance.

However, the NCAA Division I tournament selection committee has the difficult task of adding an additional 25 at-large teams from a very competitive field as this year’s Men’s Soccer appears to be as wide open as it has ever been.

NCAA Men’s Soccer Tournament: A pretty wide-open field expected again as Pitt awaits bracket release Monday

By taking into account overall records and the most recent Ratings Percent Index (RPI) rankings, we’re taking a crack at our projected NCAA tournament field entrants by conference and also our projections for the top 16 teams, which will recieve first-round byes.

The automatic bid winners are in Bold, while the teams projected to earn at-large bids are below each conference champion.

Projected NCAA Men’s National Soccer Tournament Field (2021)  

Conference | Automatic Qualifier (in Bold) | Teams Projected to earn at-large bid (Italics) along with last RPI ranking in parenthesis

  • ACC: Notre Dame (14); Pitt (4), Duke (6), Clemson (5), Virginia Tech (22), North Carolina (20), Wake Forest (34) 
  • America East:  Vermont, New Hampshire (7)
  • American Athletic:  Tulsa (8)
  • Atlantic 10: Saint Louis (11); Rhode Island (32); 
  • Atlantic Sun;  Lipscomb (52);
  • Big East: Georgetown (3); Providence (19), Villanova (26), Creighton (23); St. John’s (30)  
  • Big South:  Campbell (54)
  • Big Ten; Penn State (25); Indiana (16), Maryland (21), Michigan (33) 
  • Big West: UC Santa Barbara (88) 
  • Colonial: Hofstra (9);
  • Conference USA: Kentucky (12); Marshall (10), FIU (18); Charlotte (31) 
  • Horizon: Oakland (92)
  • Ivy: Princeton (70); Cornell (28) 
  • MAAC: Marist (66) 
  • Mid-American: Northern Illinois (39); West Virginia (13), Akron (24)
  • Missouri Valley:  Missouri State (15) 
  • Northeast:  LIU (93) 
  • Pac-12;  Oregon State (2); Washington (1); UCLA (27)
  • Patriot: Loyola, MD (86) 
  • Southern:  Mercer (116)
  • Summit: Denver (76) 
  • WCC:  Santa Clara; Portland (29); 
  • WAC:  Seattle (43); Grand Canyon (17) 

Last Three Out:  

Northeastern (CAA), Stanford (Pac-12); Butler (Big East)


TOP 16 SEEDING PROJECTIONS 

  1. Oregon State
  2. Georgetown
  3. Washington
  4. Notre Dame
  5. Tulsa
  6. Pitt
  7. St. Louis
  8. Marshall
  9. Duke
  10. Penn Sate
  11. Clemson
  12. Missouri St
  13. Kentucky
  14. Hofstra
  15. West Virginia
  16. Indiana

West Bracket:

  1. Oregon State
  2. Tulsa
  3. Duke
  4. Kentucky

East Bracket

  1. Georgetown
  2. Pitt
  3. Penn State
  4. Hofstra

South Bracket

  1. Notre Dame
  2. Marshall
  3. Missouri State
  4. Indiana

Midwest Bracket

  1. Washington
  2. Saint Louis
  3. Clemson
  4. West Virginia

TOP 52 RPI (prior to conference tournaments) 

1 Washington Pac-12 14-1-1 8-0-0 0-0-0 6-1-1 0-0-0
2 Oregon St. Pac-12 12-2-2 5-1-1 0-0-0 7-1-1 0-0-0
3 Georgetown Big East 14-2-0 4-2-0 0-0-0 10-0-0 0-0-0
4 Pittsburgh ACC 11-4-1 2-4-1 0-0-0 9-0-0 0-0-0
5 Clemson ACC 13-4-0 4-2-0 0-0-0 9-2-0 0-0-0
6 Duke ACC 12-3-1 4-1-1 0-0-0 8-2-0 0-0-0
7 New Hampshire America East 15-0-2 8-0-0 0-0-0 7-0-2 0-0-0
8 Tulsa AAC 13-1-1 5-1-1 0-0-0 8-0-0 0-0-0
9 Hofstra CAA 14-1-2 6-1-1 0-0-0 8-0-1 0-0-0
10 Marshall C-USA 11-2-3 6-1-0 0-1-0 5-0-3 0-0-0
11 Saint Louis Atlantic 10 13-0-3 5-0-1 0-0-0 8-0-2 0-0-0
12 Kentucky C-USA 11-1-4 3-1-2 0-0-0 8-0-2 0-0-0
13 West Virginia MAC 11-2-4 3-2-2 0-0-0 8-0-2 0-0-0
14 Notre Dame ACC 9-5-3 2-3-2 0-0-0 7-2-1 1-0-0
15 Missouri St. MVC 14-1-0 5-1-0 0-0-0 9-0-0 1-0-0
16 Indiana Big Ten 12-4-1 4-1-1 0-0-0 8-3-0 1-0-0
17 Grand Canyon WAC 14-3-0 6-3-0 0-0-0 8-0-0 0-0-0
18 FIU C-USA 12-2-2 5-2-2 0-0-0 7-0-0 0-0-0
19 Providence Big East 9-3-4 3-3-2 0-0-0 6-0-2 0-0-0
20 North Carolina ACC 11-6-1 3-4-0 0-0-0 8-2-1 0-0-0
21 Maryland Big Ten 12-3-2 3-3-0 1-0-0 8-0-2 0-0-0
22 Virginia Tech ACC 10-5-3 1-4-1 2-0-2 7-1-0 0-0-0
23 Creighton Big East 8-7-2 3-3-1 0-0-1 5-4-0 0-0-0
24 Akron MAC 9-5-3 1-4-1 0-0-0 8-1-2 0-0-0
25 Penn St. Big Ten 11-6-1 4-4-0 0-0-0 7-2-1 0-0-0
26 Villanova Big East 11-6-1 6-2-1 0-0-0 5-4-0 0-0-0
27 UCLA Pac-12 9-6-1 1-3-1 0-0-0 8-3-0 0-0-0
28 Cornell Ivy League 11-3-1 5-3-0 0-0-0 6-0-1 0-0-0
29 Portland WCC 9-6-1 2-3-0 0-0-0 7-3-1 0-0-0
30 St. John’s (NY) Big East 10-5-3 4-2-1 0-0-0 6-3-2 0-0-0
31 Charlotte C-USA 10-5-0 3-3-0 0-0-0 7-2-0 0-0-0
32 Rhode Island Atlantic 10 10-4-2 3-3-1 0-0-0 7-1-1 0-0-0
33 Michigan Big Ten 8-6-3 2-3-1 0-0-0 6-3-2 0-0-0
34 Wake Forest ACC 11-6-1 2-3-1 0-0-0 9-3-0 0-0-0
35 Northeastern CAA 11-5-2 6-3-1 0-0-0 5-2-1 0-0-0
36 Stanford Pac-12 6-6-5 2-4-2 0-0-0 4-2-3 0-0-0
37 Butler Big East 7-8-3 2-6-2 0-0-0 5-2-1 0-0-0
38 Louisville ACC 10-6-1 1-4-0 0-0-0 9-2-1 0-0-0
39 Northern Ill. MAC 12-2-2 6-2-1 0-0-0 6-0-1 0-0-0
40 Central Ark. ASUN 11-5-0 4-4-0 1-0-0 6-1-0 0-0-0
41 LMU (CA) WCC 12-4-1 8-3-0 0-0-0 4-1-1 0-0-0
42 VCU Atlantic 10 9-7-2 5-5-2 0-0-0 4-2-0 0-0-0
43 Seattle U WAC 12-7-0 3-5-0 0-0-0 9-2-0 0-0-0
44 Bowling Green MAC 10-4-3 5-3-1 0-0-0 5-1-2 0-0-0
45 UNC Greensboro SoCon 13-4-1 5-1-1 0-0-0 8-3-0 0-0-0
46 SMU AAC 8-4-3 3-2-0 0-0-0 5-2-3 0-0-0
47 UNCW CAA 9-6-2 3-4-2 0-0-0 6-2-0 0-0-0
48 Syracuse ACC 8-8-2 2-5-1 0-0-0 6-3-1 0-0-0
49 Michigan St. Big Ten 6-9-2 2-4-2 0-0-0 4-5-0 0-0-0
50 San Diego St. Pac-12 7-6-2 1-4-2 0-0-0 6-2-0 1-0-0
51 Georgia St. MAC 11-5-0 6-3-0 0-0-0 5-2-0 0-0-0
52 Lipscomb ASUN 11-3-2 5-2-1 0-0-0 6-1-1 0-0-0

 

 

John Krysinsky has covered soccer and other sports for many years for various publications and media outlets. He is also author of 'Miracle on the Mon' -- a book about the Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC, which chronicles the club, particularly the early years of Highmark Stadium with the narrative leading up to and centered around a remarkable match that helped provide a spark for the franchise. John has covered sports for Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, DK Pittsburgh Sports, Pittsburgh Sports Report, has served as color commentator on Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC broadcasts, and worked with OPTA Stats and broadcast teams for US Open Cup and International Champions Cup matches held in the US. Krysinsky also served as the Head Men’s Soccer Coach at his alma mater, Point Park University, where he led the Pioneers to the first-ever winning seasons and playoff berths (1996-98); head coach of North Catholic boys (2007-08), associate head coach of Shady Side Academy boys (2009-2014).

Glory on the Grass

Riverhounds MF Kenardo Forbes

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