An NCAA tournament game between Indiana University and the University of Tulsa in 2004

College soccer is a term used to describe soccer (association football) that is played by teams operated by colleges and universities as opposed to a professional league operated for exclusively financial purposes. College soccer is probably most widespread in the United States, but is also important in South Korea and Canada.

In the United States, college soccer is featured in many collegiate athletic associations including NCAA, NAIA, the NCCAA and USCAA.

Many top American college soccer players play for separate teams in the Premier Development League (PDL) during the summer. One college club, the BYU Cougars men's team, have foregone playing in the NCAA or NAIA and instead play all of their games in the PDL.

College soccer in the United States is played with a different set of rules than in many other leagues. In college soccer they use a 5 yellow card ban. Meaning if a player gets 5 yellow cards throughout the season he or she is banned one game because of it. There are unlimited substitutions although you cannot re-enter in the same half that you left in. As opposed to a classic two half overtime, a golden goal rule is applied if the game is tied after regulation. If neither team scores in the two ten minute halves, the match ends in a draw(unless it is a playoff match, then it would be penalty kicks).College soccer is played on a "running clock" that is constantly counting down unless the referee signals for the clock to be stopped by injuries, substitutions, and when he feels a team is wasting time.

Fans at college soccer games (here at Indiana University in 2004) often number in the thousands for matches between top teams

[edit] History

The first intercollegiate soccer game was played between Haverford College and Harvard University in 1905. Haverford won the game by a score of 1-0. It is also of interest to note that Harvard's team was founded by a Haverford alumnus during his graduate education there.

[edit] Divisions and conferences in the United States

[edit] NCAA Division I

There are 198 Division 1 Men's Soccer Programs^[1].

• America East Conference
• Atlantic Coast Conference
• Atlantic Ten Conference
• Atlantic Soccer Conference
• Atlantic Sun Conference
• Big East Conference
• Big South Conference
• Big Ten Conference
• Big West Conference
• Colonial Athletic Association
• Conference USA
• Horizon League
• Ivy League
• Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference
• Mid-American Conference
• Missouri Valley Conference
• Mountain Pacific Sports Federation
• Northeast Conference
• Pacific-10 Conference
• Patriot League
• Southern Conference
• Southwestern Athletic Conference
• The Summit League
• West Coast Conference
• NCAA Division I independent schools

[edit] NCAA Division II

• California Collegiate Athletic Association
• Carolinas-Virginia Athletic Conference
• Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference
• Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
• Great Lakes Valley Conference
• Great Northwest Athletic Conference
• Gulf South Conference
• Heartland Conference
• Lone Star Conference
• New York Collegiate Athletic Conference
• Northeast Ten Conference
• Peach Belt Conference
• Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference
• Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference
• South Atlantic Conference
• Sunshine State Conference
• West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
• NCAA Division II independent schools

[edit] NCAA Division III

• Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference
• American Southwest Conference
• Capital Athletic Conference
• Centennial Conference
• City University of New York Athletic Conference
• College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin
• Colonial States Athletic Conference
• Commonwealth Coast Conference
• Empire Eight
• Great Northeast Athletic Conference
• Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference
• Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
• Little East Conference
• Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference
• Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association
• Middle Atlantic States Collegiate Athletic Corporation
• Midwest Conference
• Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
• New England Small College Athletic Conference
• New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference
• New Jersey Athletic Conference
• North Atlantic Conference
• North Coast Athletic Conference
• Northern Athletics Conference
• Northwest Conference
• Ohio Athletic Conference
• Old Dominion Athletic Conference
• Presidents' Athletic Conference
• Skyline Conference
• St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
• Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
• Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference
• State University of New York Athletic Conference
• USA South Athletic Conference
• Upper Midwest Athletic Conference
• Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association
• University Athletic Association
• NCAA Division III independent schools

[edit] NAIA

• American Mideast Conference
• American Midwest Conference
• Appalachian Athletic Conference
• California Pacific Conference
• Cascade Collegiate Conference
• Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference
• Dakota Athletic Conference
• Frontier Conference
• Golden State Athletic Conference
• Great Plains Athletic Conference
• Gulf Coast Athletic Conference
• Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference
• Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
• Heart of America Athletic Conference
• Mid-Central College Conference
• Mid-South Conference
• Midlands Collegiate Athletic Conference
• Midwest Collegiate Conference
• Red River Athletic Conference
• Sooner Athletic Conference
• Southern States Athletic Conference
• Sunrise Athletic Conference
• The Sun Conference
• TranSouth Athletic Conference
• Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference
• NAIA independent schools

[edit] Divisions and conferences internationally

[edit] Canada

In Canada, there are two organizations that regulate university and collegiate athletics.

[edit] Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS)

• Atlantic University Sport (AUS)
• Canada West Universities Athletic Association (CWUAA)
• Ontario University Athletics (OUA)
• Quebec Student Sports Federation (QSSF)

[edit] Canadian Colleges Athletic Association

• Atlantic Colleges Athletic Association (ACAA)
• Quebec Student Sports Federation (QSSF)
• Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA)
• Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC)
• British Columbia Colleges Athletic Association (BCCAA)

[edit] South Korea

In South Korea, Korea University and Yonsei University compete in soccer, baseball, basketball, ice hockey, and rugby.

[edit] United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, association football in colleges and universities is governed by the BUSA Football League.

[edit] National college soccer awards

• Hermann Trophy
• Missouri Athletic Club Player of the Year
• Soccer America Player of the Year
• ISAA Player of the Year
• NSCAA Player of the Year
• ISAA Goalkeeper of the Year
• NSCAA Coach of the Year

[edit] Notable American men's college soccer graduates

[edit] Noted as players

• Marcelo Balboa, San Diego State
• Carlos Bocanegra, UCLA
• Conor Casey, Portland
• Brian Ching, Gonzaga
• Steve Cherundolo, Portland
• Charlie Davies, Boston College
• Jay DeMerit, Illinois-Chicago
• Clint Dempsey, Furman
• Maurice Edu, Maryland
• Benny Feilhaber, UCLA
• Brad Friedel, UCLA
• Cory Gibbs, Brown
• Frankie Hejduk, UCLA
• Cobi Jones, UCLA
• Kasey Keller, Portland
• Alexi Lalas, Rutgers
• Clint Mathis, South Carolina
• Tony Meola, Virginia
• Brian McBride, Saint Louis
• Oguchi Onyewu, Clemson
• Eddie Pope, North Carolina
• Tab Ramos, North Carolina State
• Claudio Reyna, Virginia
• Taylor Twellman, Maryland
• Josh Wolff, South Carolina
• Eric Wynalda, San Diego State

[edit] Noted in other fields

• Robert Gibbs (White House Press Secretary to President Barack Obama), North Carolina State
• David Petraeus (commander of United States Central Command and formerly Multinational Force Iraq), Army
• Andrew Shue (actor), Dartmouth
• Jim Sonefeld (drummer for Hootie & the Blowfish), South Carolina
• Jon Stewart (comedian), William & Mary
• Ethan Zohn (reality TV contestant), Vassar

[edit] Notable non-American men's college soccer graduates

[edit] Noted as players

• Joe Addo, George Mason (Ghana)
• Cha Du-Ri, Korea University (South Korea)
• Rob Friend, UC Santa Barbara (Canada)
• Shaka Hislop, Howard (Trinidad and Tobago)
• Vedad Ibišević, Saint Louis (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
• Stern John, Mercer Community College (Trinidad and Tobago)
• Shalrie Joseph, St. John's (NY) (Grenada)
• Kevin McKenna, Calgary (Canada)
• Tony Lochhead, UC Santa Barbara (New Zealand)
• Alejandro Moreno, UNC Greensboro (Venezuela)
• Ryan Nelsen, Stanford (New Zealand)
• Joseph Ngwenya, Coastal Carolina (Zimbabwe)
• Olivier Occean, Southern Connecticut State (Canada)
• Damani Ralph, UConn (Jamaica)
• Santiago Solari, Richard Stockton (Argentina)
• Paul Stalteri, Clemson (Canada)
• Neven Subotić, South Florida (Serbia) — also a naturalized US citizen who represented the country at U-17 and U-20 levels
• Thompson Usiyan, Appalachian State (Nigeria)
• David Weir, Evansville (Scotland)
• Andy Williams, Rhode Island (Jamaica)
• Max von Schlebrügge, Florida Atlantic University (Sweden)
• Tamir Linhart, George Mason University (Israel)

[edit] Noted in other fields

• Paul Diamond,^[2] Old Dominion — professional wrestler,  Canada (born in what is now  Croatia)
• Alejandro Toledo, San Francisco — President of  Peru, 2001–2006

[edit] Notable men's college soccer coaches

• Bruce Arena, Virginia
• Bob Bradley, Princeton
• Clive Charles, Portland
• Schellas Hyndman, Southern Methodist
• Sasho Cirovski, Maryland
• Lev Kirshner, San Diego State
• Stephen Negoesco, San Francisco
• Sigi Schmid, UCLA
• Tim Vom Steeg, UC Santa Barbara
• Jerry Yeagley, Indiana

[edit] Notable American women's college soccer graduates

• Michelle Akers, UCF
• Shannon Boxx, Notre Dame
• Brandi Chastain, Cal and Santa Clara
• Lorrie Fair, North Carolina
• Joy Fawcett, Cal
• Julie Foudy, Stanford
• Mia Hamm, North Carolina
• April Heinrichs, North Carolina
• Kristine Lilly, North Carolina
• Shannon MacMillan, Portland
• Kate Markgraf, Notre Dame
• Tiffeny Milbrett, Portland
• Heather Mitts, Florida
• Heather O'Reilly, North Carolina
• Carla Overbeck, North Carolina
• Cindy Parlow, North Carolina
• Christie Rampone, Monmouth
• Briana Scurry, UMass
• Hope Solo, Washington
• Aly Wagner, Santa Clara
• Abby Wambach, Florida
• Cat Whitehill, North Carolina

[edit] Notable non-American women's college soccer graduates

• Charmaine Hooper, NC State (Canada)
• Kara Lang, currently playing for UCLA (Canada)
• Christine Sinclair, Portland (Canada)
• Kelly Smith, Seton Hall (England)
• Melissa Tancredi, Notre Dame (Canada)
• Brittany Timko, Nebraska (Canada)

[edit] See also

• NCAA Men's Soccer Championship
• NCAA Women's Soccer Championship
• NAIA national men's soccer championship
• NAIA national women's soccer championship
• Hermann Trophy
• Division I First-Team All-Americans
• soccer in the United States
• College athletics
• College rivalries
• Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS)
• Canadian Colleges Athletic Association (CCAA)
• Canadian Colleges Athletic Association Soccer National Championships

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links

• Soccer Rules of the Game (NCAA)
• Division III Soccer Information
• College Soccer News