Opinion: College soccer teams probably shouldn't play conference tournaments
Opinion: College soccer teams probably shouldn't play conference tournaments
The conference tournament, while dripping in postseason production and do-or-die mentality, defeats the purpose of the regular season: to reward the league's best team.
Less than two days after the Utah Valley men’s soccer team saved itself with a 2-2 draw against Grand Canyon that clinched a berth in the Western Athletic Conference tournament, the Wolverines were faced with the stark reality of conference tournament play: it might not actually be good for the game.
UVU women’s soccer was eliminated early from the WAC Tournament in Riverside, California, the victims of a 2-1 loss to the Lopes when Lindsey Prokop’s goal hit the back of the net with just over two minutes to play to snap the Wolverines’ 12-match unbeaten streak.
Ruby Hladek’s 61st-minute equalizer after going down 1-0 didn’t save the team. Just like that, it was over. And UVU’s remarkable season? Possibly.
Never mind that the Wolverines had won 10 or more games for a fifth-straight season, a benchmark that head coach Chris Lemay has met in six of his seven years as head coach in Orem.
Never mind that that Utah Valley blazed a trail to its second-straight WAC title, including an unbeaten 7-0-2 mark in league play this year.
Never mind the Wolverines’ 10-4-5 record that earned votes in this week’s United Soccer Coaches top 25 national poll for just the fourth time in program history, and were unofficially the No. 27 in the country after playing three times ranked ahead of them, including a 3-2 win over No. 22 Southern California.
Wednesday’s win was a big moment for the Lopes, who should be commended after a 13-4-4 season that now puts them a win over third-seeded Seattle U. from an NCAA Tournament berth.
But by staging a six-team conference tournament, the WAC may have upended its chances of sending the league’s top team from the 2023 season to the Big Dance.
UVU must now rely on the possibility — slim or not — of the NCAA selection committee picking the Wolverines for an at-large bid to the 64-team tournament after all 31 automatic berths are handed out this weekend.
It’s not impossible — indeed, it may still happen, with an RPI that currently ranks 69th nationally. But as a mid-major program, the Wolverines know they don’t have any room for error.
Everybody remembers the team that catches fire in postseason play, like the BYU women’s soccer team that routed UCF 4-1 to advance to the Big 12 Tournament finals in its first year in the conference, or a Utah State program that punched its ticket to a first-ever Mountain West tournament title game against Boise State in an overtime thriller in Laramie.
“This is the stuff that we dream of, ever since I got here three years ago,” said Utah State coach Manny Martins, the Mountain West coach of the year. “We’re not a team that sets outcome goals, we set performance goals and process goals, but the dream is to get to this place. So we couldn’t be more excited.”
But the Aggies, who will face Colorado State after a penalty kick-infused upset of top-seeeded San Diego State in Saturday’s tournament finale at noon MT, had already set up a resume that included a 1-0 home win over then-No. 1 BYU — the second any Aggie athletic team has beaten a top-ranked team in any sport, a 12-7-1 record that included a program-record nine wins against conference foes and a program-best 27 points in league play for second place overall.
An NCAA Tournament berth would be a thrilling result for Utah State. But if it comes at the expense of the regular-season champion Aztecs, then what value was the regular season in the Mountain West?
The Cougars, too, are still playing for something in their league tournament — their first since leaving the Mountain West over a decade ago (the West Coat Conference, like the Pac-12, does not hold a postseason league tournament, instead rewarding its regular-season conference champion with an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament).
No. 6-ranked BYU (16-1-3) has long-secured a spot in the tournament. But with two wins in three days at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, the Cougars pushed their RPI to No. 1 in the country and can likely secure a No. 1 seed with a win over the host Longhorns on Saturday.
Then, of course, there’s the historicity of BYU’s first season in the Big 12, which has already produced a conference title in women’s cross country but can double it with women’s soccer hardware after falling two points short to Texas Tech of a regular-season title.
“It means a lot to make it to the championship match our first year in the tournament,” said BYU coach Jennifer Rockwood, the winner of 451 career games with the Provo side. “It says a lot about these girls and our seniors leading this group. We played a phenomenal first half, and got to get a lot of our younger girls into the game in the second half, so it was an overall great performance tonight.”
Like most power conference teams (and certainly a top-10 ranked team), the Cougars would receive the benefit of the doubt from an early exit in the league tournament — if they had needed it.
But the two-time defending WAC champions won’t get that same benefit, and we will be left guessing until Monday’s selection.