The Everybody Soccer Shirt
Everybody Soccer has now become an established site: we've made t-shirts. Scroll down to take a look at the two different ones or head over to the shop to purchase one! They're 19.99 with shipping and handling but if you can meet me in Arkansas or Dallas, depending on the time of the year, we can cut out the middle man for a cool $15.
2014 NCAA Soccer Bracket Challenge
It's over! Congrats to Liviu to winning the competition! Apparently Big Soccer has running a pool since 2003 so credit to those guys. I pulled in the top two entries from BS but Liviu still topped them.
Everybody Soccer is running the NCAA Soccer Bracket Challenge, which I believe ES is the only place hosting one this year. (Crimson Cast offered one in 2010 but doesn't look like they've done one since. Update, Big Soccer has been doing one since 2003. Oops.)
About the NCAA Tournament
Every year NCAA soccer concludes their season with a 48 team tournament. 24 conference representatives are selected by either winning their conference or tournament. The remaining 24 spots are filled by teams earning at-large bids. The first round features 32 teams and the second round introduces 16 seeded teams given a bye past the first round. (Check out the 2013 bracket for more info.)
How to Play
Go to google templates and search for "NCAA Soccer" in the public gallery. There you will find a bracket you can enter in your selections. You can also make your own bracket to send in but I just figured this would be the easiest way to get everyone on board.
Once you have completely filled in the bracket, send to it me by selecting File > Share > Email: everybodysoccer@yahoo.com. Also make sure to enter in your name, team name, state, and twitter handle to appear on the scoreboard.
How to Win
The winner will be determined by who scores the most points. There will be one point for correct first round guesses, two points for the next round, and so on until the final, which is worth six points. There is a maximum 104 points available.
Prize
To give some incentive to sign up to play, if 42 people send in a bracket I will give the winner one (1) free Everybody Soccer t-shirt. There are two designs to choose from:
(Mock ups and design provided by Ground Glass)
If you are a loser or if we don't get enough participates you can still purchase a shirt in the near future, once they are finished printing around the end of the year.
When the bracket is released (potentially November 17th but nothing official yet) send in your bracket before the start of the first tournament game to enter the competition.
"But Bill, I don't know anything about college soccer! What resources are available for me so that I can submit a bracket with the confidence of winning a sweet shirt?"
Great question. Here are four resources available to those with the poorest of foot-to-eye coordination so that even they will have a shot to grab some great garb.
1. Top Drawer Soccer - Besides their composite top 25 rankings, TDS is the major hub of college soccer news. They have rankings, interviews, scores... basically everything you'd need to know in 15 minutes.
2. Conference Tournaments - Did a high seed drop an easy game? Did a school redeem a crummy season by winning their tournament? Check out the conference tournament results to see if a team is coming in hot or not.
3. History - Here's a history of how each school has performed in the post season tournament since 2003, when they switched to the 48 team format. Teams were given points for how many rounds they went and if they held a seed. The first few columns are weighted points for the round reached and seed given. "DIFF" is gauging if they over (+) or underperform (-) in the tournament given their seed.