Conference USA men's soccer tournament | |
---|---|
Sport | College soccer |
Conference | Conference USA |
Number of teams | 6 |
Format | Single-elimination |
Current stadium | Transamerica Field |
Current location | Charlotte, North Carolina |
Played | 1995–2021 |
Last contest | 2021 |
Current champion | Kentucky |
Most championships | Saint Louis (6) |
TV partner(s) | ESPN+, C-USA Digital Network |
The Conference USA men's soccer tournament was the conference championship tournament in soccer for Conference USA (C-USA). The tournament was held every year from 1995 until 2021, except 2020. It was a single-elimination tournament and seeding was based on regular season records. The winner, declared conference champion, received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division I men's soccer championship.
C-USA stopped sponsoring men's soccer after the 2021 NCAA Division I men's soccer season when it lost all nine of its members due to conference realignment. In April 2022, it was announced that five of its members (Coastal Carolina, Kentucky, Marshall, Old Dominion, and South Carolina) would join the Sun Belt Conference for the fall 2022 season, as would West Virginia, which had previously announced a planned move of men's soccer from the Mid-American Conference to C-USA. [1] One month later, the remaining four members (Charlotte, FIU, Florida Atlantic, and UAB) announced they would join the American Athletic Conference effective fall 2022. [2]
The top eight (6) teams determined by points following the regular season will qualify for a single-elimination tournament. The top two seeds will receive a bye. Competition dates are set for Wednesday, Friday and Sunday to allow a day between quarterfinals, semifinals and the championship final. [3]
School | App. | Titles | Title years |
---|---|---|---|
Charlotte | 15 | 1 | 2013 |
Coastal Carolina | 1 | 0 | |
Cincinnati | 10 | 0 | |
DePaul | 4 | 0 | |
FIU | 8 | 1 | 2015 |
Florida Atlantic | 2 | 0 | |
Kentucky | 15 | 2 | 2018, 2021 |
Louisville | 8 | 0 | |
Marquette | 7 | 0 | |
Marshall | 10 | 1 | 2019 |
Memphis | 12 | 1 | 2004 |
New Mexico | 5 | 1 | 2016 |
Old Dominion | 5 | 2 | 2014, 2017 |
Saint Louis | 10 | 6 | 1995, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 |
SMU | 7 | 2 | 2006, 2011 |
South Carolina | 12 | 2 | 2005, 2010 |
Tulsa | 8 | 4 | 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012 |
UAB | 21 | 1 | 1999 |
UCF | 5 | 0 | |
South Florida | 9 | 2 | 1996, 1998 |
Conference USA (CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose member institutions are primarily located within the Southern United States and Western United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. CUSA's offices are located in Dallas, Texas.
The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) is a collegiate athletic conference that has been affiliated with the NCAA's Division I since 1976. Originally a non-football conference, the Sun Belt began sponsoring football in 2001. Its football teams participate in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The 14 member institutions of the Sun Belt are distributed across the Southern United States.
The Coastal Athletic Association (CAA), formerly the ECAC South Conference and the Colonial Athletic Association, is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I whose full members are located in East Coast states, from Massachusetts to South Carolina. Most of its members are public universities, and the conference is headquartered in Richmond. The CAA was historically a Southern conference until the addition of four schools in the Northeastern United States after the turn of the 21st century, which added geographic balance to the conference.
The Old Dominion Monarchs are composed of 18 intercollegiate athletic teams representing Old Dominion University, located in Norfolk, Virginia. Men's sports include baseball, basketball, football, golf, sailing, soccer, swimming, and tennis. Women's sports include basketball, field hockey, lacrosse, golf, sailing, soccer, swimming, tennis, rowing, and volleyball. The Monarchs compete in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and are members of the Sun Belt Conference (SBC); the university joined the conference on July 1, 2022.
The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers are the athletic teams that represent Coastal Carolina University. They participate in Division I of the NCAA as a member of the Sun Belt Conference (SBC) in most sports, having joined that conference as a full but non-football member on July 1, 2016. At that time, the football team began a transition from the second-level Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) to the top-level Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The team played the 2016 season as an FCS independent, joined SBC football for the 2017 season, and became full FBS members for 2018 and beyond. A Chanticleer is a proud and fierce rooster. Before joining the SBC, the Chanticleers had been members of the Big South Conference since that league's formation in 1983. Coastal fields varsity teams in 19 sports, 8 for men and 11 for women. The university regularly competed for the Sasser Cup, the Big South's trophy for the university with the best sports program among the member institutions, winning the trophy nine times, tied with rival Liberty University.
The Liberty Flames and Lady Flames are the athletics teams of Liberty University, in Lynchburg, Virginia, United States. They are a member of the NCAA Division I level in 20 sports. As of July 1, 2023, LU is a member of Conference USA (CUSA) for most sports, joining that league after five years as a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN).
The Charlotte 49ers men's basketball team represents the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in NCAA Division I basketball. Charlotte is a member of the American Athletic Conference, which they joined in 2023 after 10 seasons in Conference USA. Charlotte, which had been a charter C-USA member from 1995, returned to that conference in 2013 after leaving in 2005 to join the Atlantic 10 Conference. The 49ers have also played in the Sun Belt Conference and were a member of the Metro Conference, which merged with the Great Midwest Conference to form Conference USA.
The West Virginia Mountaineers men's soccer team is the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I soccer team of West Virginia University (WVU). Beginning with the 2012 season, the team was an affiliate member of the Mid-American Conference because WVU is the only school in its primary conference, the Big 12 Conference, that has a varsity men's soccer team. For the 2022 season, West Virginia joined in-state rival Marshall in the Sun Belt Conference, and the Mountain State Derby will become an annual conference game. WVU had been scheduled to leave the MAC for Conference USA but this plan was changed when Marshall changed conferences from CUSA to the SBC.
The Kentucky Wildcats men's soccer team is an intercollegiate varsity sports team of the University of Kentucky (UK).
The Charlotte 49ers men's soccer team is an intercollegiate varsity sports team of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. As of the upcoming 2022 season, the team is a member of the NCAA Division I American Athletic Conference. The team plays their home games at Transamerica Field in Charlotte, North Carolina. In 2011, the team reached the championship of the NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship, for the first time in program history.
The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers men's soccer team represents Coastal Carolina University in all NCAA Division I men's college soccer competitions. The team competes in the Sun Belt Conference, following previous tenures in Conference USA and Big South Conference, both of which had been prior conference homes for that ream. During their Big South tenure, the Chanticleers were one of that league's more successful teams, both within the conference and in the NCAA Tournament. In 2003, the Chanticleers became the first Big South team to reach the final sixteen in the tournament.
The Marshall Thundering Herd men's soccer team is a varsity intercollegiate athletic team of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. The Thundering Herd plays its home games at Veterans Memorial Soccer Complex in Huntington and competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Sun Belt Conference (SBC). Marshall fielded its first intercollegiate men's soccer team in 1979. The Herd are coached by Chris Grassie, who has a record of 67–32–18 and a national championship during his six previous seasons at Marshall.
The American Athletic Conference (AAC), also known as The American, is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States, featuring 13 full member universities and six affiliate member universities that compete in The National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). Member universities represent a range of private and public research universities of various enrollment sizes located primarily in urban metropolitan areas in the Northeastern, Midwestern, and Southern regions of the United States.
The Florida Atlantic Owls men's soccer team is a varsity intercollegiate athletic team of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida, United States. As of the upcoming 2022 season, the team is a member of the NCAA Division I American Athletic Conference. FAU's first men's soccer team was fielded in 1980. The team plays its home games at FAU Soccer Stadium in Boca Raton. The Owls are coached by Joey Worthen.
The FIU Panthers men's soccer team is an intercollegiate varsity sports team of Florida International University. As of the upcoming 2022 season, the team is a member of the NCAA Division I American Athletic Conference.
The Sun Belt Conference men's soccer tournament is the conference championship tournament in soccer for the Sun Belt Conference (SBC). The tournament was held from 1976 through 1995, when the sport was discontinued. The tournament resumed in 2014 when the conference reinstated men's soccer, and was discontinued again when the conference dropped men's soccer for the second time after the 2020–21 season. The SBC later announced that men's soccer would be reinstated again in 2022, and the tournament resumed at that time.
The SEC Derby is the set of matches between the University of Kentucky Wildcats and University of South Carolina Gamecocks men's soccer teams. A conference matchup since 2005, since the 2022 season, it has been a conference matchup in the Sun Belt Conference. Both programs had been single-sport members of Conference USA (C-USA) from 2005 through the 2021 season. Both teams are the only colleges in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) which sponsor men's soccer, which the conference does not sponsor as an indirect consequence of Title IX restrictions. South Carolina had started its program in 1978 while an independent, and UK started its program in 1991. From 1991 to 2004, UK had been a Mid-American Conference member for men's soccer only. Despite having joined the Metro Conference in 1983, South Carolina continued to play men's soccer as an independent, not joining for that sport until 1993, two years after the rest of its athletic program had joined the SEC. The Gamecocks also played in the Metro in that league's final men's soccer season of 1994. The following year, C-USA was created with the merger of the Metro with the Great Midwest Conference, a league that had been formed in 1991 by a group of schools that included three charter Metro members. South Carolina was not invited to remain as a men's soccer member after the merger.
The 2020 Sun Belt Conference men's soccer season was the 19th season of men's varsity soccer in the Sun Belt Conference (SBC). The regular season began on September 18 and concluded on November 6, 2020. The season culminated with the Sun Belt Tournament which began on November 13 and concluded on November 15, 2020.
The 2021 NCAA Division I men's soccer season was the 63rd season of NCAA championship men's college soccer. After the 2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer season was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 season partially returned to normal. However, despite the development of several vaccines, the pandemic was still ongoing, which might have led to various local or regional disruptions. Also, many conferences did not fully return to their pre-COVID state, with several having changed postseason tournament formats.
The 2022 Sun Belt Conference men's soccer season was the 20th season of men's varsity soccer in the Sun Belt Conference (SBC), marking the return of SBC men's soccer after a one-season hiatus. The season ended with the 2022 Sun Belt Conference Men's Soccer Tournament.