2008 NCAA Mens Soccer Tourney Announced

The brackets for the 2008 NCAA Mens Soccer Tournament were released today.  Here's a look at the tournament which kicks off this weekend and finishes with the Final Four at Pizza Hut Park in Dallas.

"The Wake Forest Bracket"
Top seeds: 1. Wake Forest 2. South Florida 3. Loyola Maryland 4. Dartmouth
Wake Forest is clearly the favorite to roll through this bracket.  Two very questionable seeded teams in a Loyola Maryland squad who has beaten nobody this year and plays in a weak conference and a Dartmouth squad that has an early season win over Indiana but not much else since.  I can't see hwo either of these two teams deserved a seed over a very good Tulsa side or a UConn or Illinois-Chicago.  South Florida has a very stingy defense, but probably not enough offense to get past Wake Forest.  The only other threat in this bracket to Wake is fellow ACC member Boston College.

"The Michigan State Bracket"
1. Michigan State 2. Akron 3. Notre Dame 4. North Carolina
An extremely difficult bracket.  Not only with the top four seeds, but you also have Illinois-Chicago, Northwestern, Dayton, Ohio State, Louisville and Oakland as well.  Killer tough!  Who knows who comes out of this bracket when it is all said and done.

"The St Johns Bracket"
1. St Johns 2. Indiana 3.Michigan 4. UC Irvine
St Johns definitely has the advantage as if they take care of the Boston/Farleigh Dickinson winner they will get a west coast team that has to come all the way across the country for the 3rd round in either Cal Poly, UCLA or UC Irvine.  The bottom part of the bracket is an upset special as giant killers Drake, Denver and UC Davis lie in wait along with a St Louis squad that has been tested all year.

"The Creighton Bracket"
1. Creighton 2. Maryland 3. UC Santa Barbara 4. Virginia
Another very difficult bracket with 2 ACC powers.You also have a very good Tulsa team and a very good UConn team in the top half. Check out these potential 2nd round matches: Virginia/UConn and Creighton/Tulsa.  Ouch.  Both Tulsa and UConn could easily have been seeded teams.  The bottom half of the bracket has a favorable draw for Marlyland until the 3rd round when they will have to face a UC Santa Barbara/Cal/San Francisco side.