1971 NCAA soccer tournament

1971 NCAA soccer tournament

1971 College Cup
Tournament details
Country	United States
Venue(s)	Miami Orange Bowl Miami, Florida
Teams	24
Final positions
Champions	Howard (vacated)
Runners-up	Saint Louis
Semifinalists	Harvard San Francisco
Tournament statistics
Matches played	23
Goals scored	98 (4.26 per match)
Awards
Best player	Mike Seerey, Saint Louis (offensive)
←  1970 1972  →

The 1971 NCAA soccer tournament was the 13th annual tournament organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association to determine the national champion of men's college soccer among its members in the United States. This was the final championship before the establishment of separate championships for the NCAA's University Division (now Division I) and College Division (now Divisions II and III) in 1972.

The final match was played at the Miami Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida on December 30.

Howard initially won their first national title—defeating two-time defending champion Saint Louis, 3–2, in the championship game—but the Bison's title would later be vacated by the NCAA on disputed player eligibility grounds. ^[1] The championship was not re-awarded.

Qualifying

Two teams made their debut appearances in the NCAA soccer tournament: Chico State and Cornell.

Bracket

	First round				Second round				Quarterfinals				Semifinals				Championship
	Harvard	6
	Southern Connecticut State	0			Harvard	3
	Brown	4			Brown	1
	Bridgeport	1							Harvard	4
	Hartwick College	3							Hartwick College	1
	Army	0			Hartwick College	4
	Cornell	2			Cornell	1
	Long Island	1											Harvard	0
	Howard	1											Howard	1
	West Virginia	0			Howard	3
	Navy	3			Navy	0
	South Florida	1							Howard	8
	Penn	2							Penn State	0
	East Stroudsburg State	0			Penn	1
	Penn State	4			Penn State	2
	Saint Joseph's	1															Howard	3†
																	Saint Louis	2
					Saint Louis	4
					Ohio	0
									Saint Louis	3
									SIU Edwardsville	1
					SIU Edwardsville	2
					Akron	0
													Saint Louis	3
													San Francisco	2
					San Francisco	3
					San Jose State	2
									San Francisco	6
									UCLA	2
					UCLA	5
					Chico State	2

Final

December 5, 1970

Howard*	3–2 (a.e.t.)	Saint Louis

Miami Orange Bowl, Miami, Florida

Attendance: 5,800

The Championship was later vacated by the NCAA ^[2] on the grounds that two Howard players had played amateur soccer in Trinidad, exhausting their eligibility, and that two others had not taken entrance exams, required by the NCAA, to predict a grade point average of at least 1.6. Howard University argued that the eligibility rules were vague and discriminated against foreigners, and that the players had all maintained grade-point averages of 3.0 or higher in college, but the NCAA did not reverse the ruling. ^[3]

See also

• 1971 NAIA Soccer Championship

References

1. "DIVISION I MEN'S SOCCER CHAMPIONSHIPS RECORDS BOOK" (PDF). ncaa.org. NCAA. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
2. "Division I Men's Soccer Championship History". NCAA.com. February 25, 2011. Retrieved May 28, 2013.
3. Wahl, Grant (February 24, 1997). "Men on a mission: The 1974 Howard University soccer team wanted to win more than an NCAA title". SI.com. Retrieved April 26, 2016.