*** Deadline to play is 1:00 (ET) Thursday, November 17th. ***

Welcome back to Everybody Soccer's third annual NCAA Soccer Bracket Challenge. Last year Sean defied the odds with his self-proclaimed "Team of Destiny" and picked up another win for the west coast. This year we return with a clean sheet for everyone. With no prize for the winner, you can't afford not to play!

What Is the NCAA Tournament?

Every year NCAA soccer concludes their season with a 48 team tournament. 24 conference representatives are selected by either winning their respective conference or tournament. The remaining 24 spots are filled by teams earning at-large bids. The first round features 32 teams facing off while the second round introduces 16 seeded teams given a bye past the first round.

Click here to see the 2016 bracket

What Is the Bracket Challenge?

Simply make your predictions on who will win every game in the national tournament then submit it before the first game kicks off, on Thursday afternoon. The winner will be determined by who scores the most points. You can score a maximum of 176 points total (32 each round, except the first which is only 16). The rounds are weighted as such:

Round 1 - 1 point (16 games)

Round 2 - 2 point (16 games)

Round 3 - 4 points (8 games)

Quarterfinals - 8 points (4 games)

Semifinals - 16 points

Final - 32 points

There is no award or prize for the winner. Collegiate athletes are welcome to play as there is no buy-in or pay out for participants. The winner only gets bragging rights.

How to Play

There are a couple of different ways to submit a bracket.

1. You can print off a bracket, fill it out, and send it to me at everybodysoccer@yahoo.com or tweet a picture @letsallsoccer.

Click here to view the printable bracket.

2. If you're having trouble printing out the bracket, you can save the bracket to your computer and fill in the rounds with any photo editing program. Even Microsoft Paint would work for this. Or you can write it all out on a napkin and send me the list. It doesn't have to be pretty and as long as its legible, I can submit your bracket myself.

3. If you can get to a computer, a fancier and more interactive tool can be found on the google templates. Google templates stores shells of documents that you can download and edit on your own.

Click here to go to google templates.

Search for "NCAA Soccer" in the public gallery.

Click the "NCAA Soccer Bracket Challenge Template By Bill Reno"

At the top header, click the button "Use This Template"

Only fill out column D, the blue row. The bracket will automatically update itself. If you spell a college incorrectly then it will tell you to try again. You must spell it correctly or else it will not understand what you are inputting.

At the top, enter your name, state you represent, bracket name (can be anything serious or silly), and your twitter handle to appear on the scoreboard.

Send to it me by selecting



File > Share > Email: everybodysoccer@yahoo.com



(Make sure you are clicking the in-template "File" and not the "File" at very top of your computer screen.)

File > Share > Email: everybodysoccer@yahoo.com (Make sure you are clicking the in-template "File" and not the "File" at very top of your computer screen.) If something goes terribly wrong or you mess up the document, just go back to the google templates to re-download the document and start over.



*** All brackets must be in by 1:00 (ET) Thursday, November 17th. ***

Resources

RPIs and Schedules - Dan Gaucho has a great site for all your RPI and scheduling needs.

Media Coverage - Top Drawer Soccer has multiple articles on the tournament, rankings, and players to watch for.

History - Take a look at each school's history with the tournament. Teams were given points for how many rounds they went (Round Pts) and if they held a seed (Seed Pts). "+/-" is gauging if they over (+) or underperform (-) in the tournament given their seed.

Performance by Seed

avg number of rounds completed, 1 to 7

1 - 4.4

2 - 5.7

3 - 4.3

4 - 3.3

5 - 3.5

6 - 3.2

7 - 3.3

8 - 4.2

9 - 3.1

10 - 3.1

11 - 3.2

12 - 3.2

13 - 3

14 - 2.5

15 - 2.7

16 - 3.3

unseeded - 1.7



Performance by Conference

avg number of rounds completed, 1 to

Big Ten - 3

ACC - 3

Pac-12 - 2.9

Mid-American - 2.7

Big East - 2.6

Big West - 2.4

AAC - 2.3

C-USA - 2

West Coast - 1.9

A10 - 1.9

American East - 1.8

Ivy - 1.7

Southern - 1.7

Horizon - 1.7

CAA - 1.7

Missouri Valley - 1.7

Big South - 1.5

Patroit - 1.5

Northeast - 1.4

WAC - 1.3

MAAC - 1.2

Summit - 1.2

Atlantic Sun - 1.1

Sun Belt - 1