INDIANAPOLIS — With two weeks remaining before selection Monday, the NCAA Division I Men’s Soccer Committee announced its top 16 ranking during a reveal at halftime of the game between Duke and Virginia Tech on ACC Network. The top 16 correspond to the number of teams that are seeded in the 48-team NCAA Division I Men’s Soccer Championship bracket.
Using results through games of October 27, Washington, last year’s national runner-up, is the top-ranked team in the reveal with the best record in the nation of 13-0-2.
Unbeatens Kentucky (9-0-5) and Duke (10-0-4) hold down the second and third spot, while Syracuse (12-2-2) rounds out the top four.
The top four seeds are important, as if the seeds hold those four teams would have the opportunity to host quarterfinal round matches with a bid to the Men’s College Cup on the line.
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“The committee felt through this point of the season that Washington, Kentucky and Duke were the clear top three as the only remaining unbeaten teams in the country,” said Simon Gray, chair of the committee and associate vice president for athletics at Niagara. “Trying to distinguish between them proved very difficult as they all have an excellent body of work to be in discussion for the top overall seed. The remaining games on their schedule will be critical toward their final seeding.”
The remainder of the top eight includes Louisville (9-3-3), Stanford (9-2-4), Tulsa (8-2-2) and Maryland (9-2-4).
“The competition across the country, both in non-conference and conference games, has been tremendous this season. There are many teams with high quality tournament résumés that have put themselves in a good position to be seeded,” Gray said. “The committee looks forward to seeing how the end of the regular season and conference tournaments play out because with so many teams in the mix the final seeding could be quite different than how this ranking looks today.”
Rounding out the rest of the ranking were SMU (9-3-1) in ninth followed by Lipscomb (11-1-2), Virginia (9-4-2), Akron (9-2-4), Cornell (11-3), Portland (10-1-3), UNC Greensboro (10-1-4) and Oregon State (6-3-4).
The ranking is based on the criteria used to select and seed the 48 teams for the Division I Men’s Soccer Championship and in no particular order includes strength of schedule, Rating Percentage Index, head-to-head competition, results versus common opponents, strength and…
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