(Portions of this story courtesy of the NCAA)
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - The 2012 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference men's soccer champion Trinity University, and SCAC semifinalist Colorado College, earned bids to the NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Championship on Monday afternoon. Complete Bracket
The Trinity Tigers (18-0-3) earned the SCAC automatic bid to the NCAA playoffs by virtue of their 2-0 win over the Southwestern University yesterday afternoon. The SCAC championship was the 10th league crown for Trinity in the last 11 years and assured the Tigers of their 16th appearance in NCAA postseason play since 1992.
Colorado College (13-4-3) earned an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament and will be making its first NCAA appearance since 2004. The Colorado College Tigers fell to Southwestern in the SCAC semfinals, via penalty kicks, and earned one of 20 "Pool C" bids.
Trinity will host first and second round contests at Paul McGinaly Field on November 10-11. The Tigers drew Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (13-6-2) in first round action. The Trinity/Claremont-Mudd-Scripps winner will play the winner of the Mississippi College (13-5-1) vs. Whitworth (13-2-3) winner in the second round.
Colorado College will travel to Babson Park, Mass. and square off against host Babson College (13-3-3) in the first round. The Colorado College/Babson winner will play the winner of the Scranton (Pa.) University (14-2-2) vs. Elms College (11-7-2) winner.
Forty-one conferences were awarded automatic qualification for the championship. One team was selected from Pool B, which consists of independent institutions, as well as members of conferences that do not meet the requirements for automatic qualification. The final 20 berths were reserved for Pool C, which includes institutions from automatic-qualifying conferences that did not win their conference championship, and any remaining Pool B teams.
All tournament games leading up to the national semifinals will be played on the campuses of competing institutions. Two first-round games will be conducted Nov. 8 with the winners advancing to play Sunday, Nov. 11, against two teams that earned first-round byes. Fourteen sites will host four teams for first- and second-round competition on Saturday-Sunday, Nov. 10-11.
Second-round winners will advance to one of four sectional sites Nov. 17-18. Winners of the four sectionals will advance to the national semifinals, which take place Nov. 30 at Blossom Soccer Stadium in San Antonio, with Trinity (Texas) and the San Antonio Sports Foundation serving as co-hosts. The national championship game will be played Dec. 1. The Division III women’s soccer national semifinals and championship games will also be held at Blossom Sports Stadium Nov. 30 and Dec. 1.
