The 2024 NCAA DI Soccer Championship field is officially set, with 64 teams gearing up to battle for postseason glory in this weekend's first round.
All teams have their sights set on this year's College Cup — NCAA soccer's Final Four — which will take place in Cary, NC, with semifinals on December 6th before the December 9th championship match.
Along with the 30 conference tournament champions who automatically received postseason invites, the NCAA committee revealed its 34 selectees in Monday's bracket release. The top 32 teams are seeded one through eight in their respective bracket quadrants, and teams are guaranteed to only face non-conference opponents through the tournament's second round.
Tight race for top seeds reflect NCAA talent
In this 43rd edition of the NCAA championship, three of the four No. 1 seeds are already making history.
After finishing the the regular season atop the sport's rankings, Duke is the tournament's overall No. 1 team for the first time ever. The Blue Devils, who boast the nation's second-best scoring offense, are aiming for a program-first national title this year.
Joining Duke in the bracket's elite echelon are USC and Mississippi State, who claimed No. 1 seeds for the first time ever. The Trojans did so in their first season as a Big Ten team, while the SEC veteran Bulldogs put together their best year yet, finishing with a nationally unparalleled 16-1-0 regular-season record.
Rounding out the top quartet is defending champion Florida State, the lone consistent standby in the No. 1-seed club. The Seminoles have earned the honor 12 times, with this year marking their sixth straight NCAA tournament atop a quadrant.
Power Four squads lead NCAA Championship charge
Unsurprisingly, the Power Four conferences comprise over half the national bracket. The SEC and Big Ten lead the charge with 10 teams each, while the ACC has nine in the mix, and the Big 12 is sending seven.
Though the ACC didn't win the total team race, the tough conference is still arguably the one to beat in the bracket, as seven of their teams earned Top-4 seedings. Even more, a full half of the eight Nos. 1 and 2 teams hail from the ACC, with second-seeds North Carolina and Wake Forest joining top seeds Duke and Florida State.
UNC and Wake Forest represent two very different paths to the tournament: The Tar Heels — a dynasty who've won 21 of the 42 national trophies — extended their streak of appearing in every single NCAA tournament with Monday's bracket drop. Meanwhile, the Demon Deacons have shot to national acclaim after failing to garner an invite to last year's NCAA party.
Joining the ACC pair as No. 2 seeds are SEC standouts Arkansas and 2022 national champions and new Big Ten members UCLA. The Razorbacks claim their third No. 2 seed in four years, while the Bruins' defense is on a hunt to prove that defense wins championships.
Parity set to increase NCAA tournament chaos
Though the top contenders have certainly earned respect, this season's competition is particularly fierce, as the fallout of conference realignment and unrestricted transfers has meant increased parity on the NCAA pitch.
That parity isn't just reflected by new teams claiming top national seeds. This postseason has already proved that almost any team can emerge victorious from the college soccer pitch at any time.
In last week's Power Four conference tournaments, for example, only the Big 12 saw the top conference seed advance to the final, and none ultimately lifted hardware: UCLA claimed the Big Ten as the No. 2 seed, No. 3 seeds Florida State and Texas won the ACC and SEC tournaments, respectively, and Kansas absolutely stunned the Big 12 as the conference's No. 6 seed champions.
How to watch the NCAA Soccer Championship tournament
Those parity-fueled upsets will be increasingly likely in the tournament's later rounds, but several of the 32 first-round matchups have upset potential.
All will stream on ESPN+, starting with the NCAA's kickoff match between No. 8 Utah State and Washington on Friday at 4 PM ET.
Friday will see 25 matches, with six on Saturday. Wrapping up the tournament's first chapter will be No. 1 USC, who will host Sacramento State at 5 PM ET on Sunday.
In a Just Women's Sports exclusive release, women's health and wellness startup Sequel announced an agreement with Stanford Athletics to provide Stanford athletes with free Sequel Spiral Tampons through the 2024/25 academic year.
This is the first time a college athletic program has entered an official collaboration with a tampon brand in NCAA history.
A Division I school, Stanford's history as a women's sports powerhouse runs deep. With broad representation on both past and present USWNTs — including superstars Tierna Davidson, Sophia Smith, Naomi Girma, Catarina Macario, Kelley O'Hara, Christen Press, and Julie Foudy — the Cardinal won the NCAA women's soccer championship in 2011, 2017, and 2019.
Women's basketball has also been an area of strength for Stanford, picking up NCAA championships in 1990, 1992, and 2021. Through the years, the school has produced elite WNBA talent like Cam Brink, Nneka Ogwumike, Lexie Hull, Haley Jones, Karlie Samuelson, Candice Wiggins, and Jennifer Azzi under the guidance of now-retired NCAA coaching legend Tara Vanderveer.
"We are committed to supporting the health and well-being of all our athletes," Stanford assistant athletics director Sarah Lyons told JWS. "This collaboration offers an important resource to our female athletes, allowing them to concentrate on excelling in their sport."
Sequel is the brainchild of Stanford-educated engineers Greta Meyer and Amanda Calabrese. As former high-level athletes frustrated with the inadequacy of conventional tampons, the co-founders drew on their competitive experiences to inform their reinvention.
"Whether we were competing in our respective sports or making our way through the Stanford School of Engineering, Amanda and I had no patience for tampons that leaked," Meyer, a former DI lacrosse player at Stanford, said. "Because we were unable to find one that was suitable for peak performance, we committed to creating our own."
Sequel's relationship with Stanford goes beyond its co-founders degrees, however, as a shared class at the Palo Alto institution actually gave rise to the pair's original business idea.
"This collaboration marks a full-circle moment for us, as our tampon re-design began as a class project during our senior year at the university," Calabrese said. "Just five years later, the Sequel Spiral Tampon is FDA approved as a medical device, available nationwide and now, available to Stanford athletes.
The first significant tampon redesign in more than 80 years, the Sequel Spiral Tampon features a proprietary structure engineered to absorb fluids more evenly and efficiently.
According to Sequel's website, most tampons are fit with linear channels drawing fluid down in a way that can cause leakage, while the Sequel Spiral's channels are wrapped around the tampon, creating a longer flow path designed to increase absorption and prevent leakage.
"As the winningest college in existence, Stanford's collegiate athletes are the ultimate peak performers and we are thrilled to be providing them with the tampon we wish we'd had on game day," added Calabrese.
Star gymnast Selena Harris has been dismissed from the UCLA gymnastics team and has entered the transfer portal, the school confirmed Wednesday.
Harris, the 2024 Pac-12 Gymnast of the Year and a 12-time All-American, has two years of eligibility remaining. During her time at UCLA, she was one of the top all-around gymnasts on the team.
UCLA did not provide details about her dismissal.
B1G dreams won’t include Selena Harris for @uclagymnastics. The 2024 Pac-12 Gymnast of the Year entered the transfer portal Wednesday morning after being “dismissed” from the team. https://t.co/zQn10qIEyV
— Daily Bruin Sports (@DBSports) May 15, 2024
Harris has also not spoken about it, but did repost a Tweet on Wednesday confirming her entrance into the transfer portal. She has also removed any mention of UCLA gymnastics from all her social media bios.
When reached for comment by the Daily Bruin, she shared a message thanking UCLA fans for their support.
"Just wanna thank bruin nation fans for being the best supporters!" Harris wrote via Instagram.
A former No. 1 recruit, Harris was the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year in 2023 and earned four perfect scores during the 2024 season, while also winning the Pac-12 all-around title at the conference championships in March. She finished the regular season tied for first in the country on vault.
She competed as an individual at the NCAA championships, finishing tied for third place on balance beam after UCLA failed to advance.
The NCAA has signed a new 8-year, $920 million dollar media rights deal with ESPN for 40 of its NCAA championships, Front Office Sports reported on Thursday.
The deal includes the women’s March Madness tournament, which through the deal is valued at $65 million. The average payout of the deal per year sits at $115 million. That triples the price of the current package, which averages $34 million a year for 29 championships. It also rectifies the undervaluation of the women’s NCAA tournament, which was at the heart of a gender inequity report.
Working with the NCAA on the deal was Endeavor’s IMG and WME Sports.
While the number is under the estimated $81-$112 million valuation floated around about the women’s basketball tournament, it reportedly reflects the status of the market when it came time for negotiations. Karen Brodkin, EVP and Co-Head of WME Sports, noted that the market “is not like we’ve ever seen before.”
The valuation wound up being three times the previous deal, whereas other leagues have recently only gotten 1.2 or 1.3 times their valuation in recent deals. And opting to have the women’s basketball tournament remain bundled with other championships was in part to help out other, less popular championships.
“I wanted the best deal for everybody,” NCAA president Charlie Baker said.
While other networks were involved, the NCAA only spoke to ESPN during its exclusive negotiating window. Baker said that while Endeavor spoke with other networks, those conversations were “kind of all over the place.”
The deal will begin on Sept. 1 and end in 2032, corresponding with the end of the men’s tournament deal with CBS and Warner Bros. Discovery.
“We didn’t do a renewal,” EVP and Head of the Americas for Media at IMG, Hillary Mandel, told FOS. “This is a reset.”
In addition to adding 11 championships, ESPN has also committed to more investment in storytelling in the style of long-form, documentary-esque content.
Haley Cavinder’s NCAA career is not over.
Cavinder had previously announced that she and her twin sister Hanna would retire from college basketball after spending last season with Miami. But on Friday, Cavinder entered the transfer portal, with the intent to return to the court for the 2024-25 season, her agent Jeff Hoffman told ESPN.
“See you next season,” Cavinder wrote on Instagram.
Cavinder, a guard, averaged 12.2 points and 4.9 rebounds per game last season, earning second-team All-ACC honors and leading the Hurricanes to their first appearance in the Elite Eight.
The Cavinder twins have a massive social media following, and together, they became stars of the first NIL wave in college athletics. In 2021, they signed NIL deals with WWE, and in April they announced they would forgo their final seasons of college eligibility to pursue opportunities with the sports entertainment company.
“I started with her, so at the end of the day, I want to end basketball and start our new lives together, but it was definitely difficult for me,” Cavinder said at the time.
Cavinder will spend the next year training with her sister for WWE, according to ESPN, and then work toward one final season of college basketball.
The Cavinder twins transferred to Miami for last season after playing together at Fresno State for three seasons. On their joint TikTok account they have 4.5 million followers.
The best college softball teams in the country competed at the 2023 NCAA Women’s College World Series at the USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, and for the third straight year, the Oklahoma Sooners came out on top.
No. 1 Oklahoma won its third consecutive NCAA title — and ended the season on a historic winning streak. Competition began on June 1 and continued through June 8.
Just Women’s Sports kept tabs on the action as it unfolds. See below for the full game schedule, and an explainer on how the Women’s College World Series bracket works.
Which teams are competing at the 2023 Women’s College World Series?
Sixty-four teams competed in the NCAA softball championship this spring, with eight ultimately qualifying for this week’s Women’s College World Series (WCWS).
In order to qualify for the WCWS, each team had to first make it through a four-team regional competition (featuring a double-elimination bracket), followed by a two-team super regional championship (featuring a best-of-three format).
These are the eight teams that qualified for the 2023 WCWS:
- No. 1 Oklahoma
- No. 3 Florida State
- No. 4 Tennessee
- No. 5 Alabama
- No. 6 Oklahoma State
- No. 7 Washington
- No. 9 Stanford
- No. 15 Utah
How does the bracket work at the Women’s College World Series?
The Women’s College World Series uses a double elimination bracket for the first stage, followed by a best-of-3 championship series.
Competition begins with the eight teams competing in a bracket. When a team loses its first game, it will be sent to the elimination bracket with a chance to play its way back into the main bracket. But when a team loses its second game, it is eliminated from contention.
The winner from each side of the bracket meets in the best-of-three championship series.
2023 Women’s College World Series — Schedule and Results
The Women’s College World Series began June 1 and continued through June 8. See below for a full schedule. All games were available on ESPN, ESPN2 or ABC — in addition to streaming on ESPN+.
In the semifinals, Stanford faced off against Oklahoma and nearly pulled off a Game 1 upset. Stanford freshman sensation NiJaree Canady was lights out against the Sooner batters in their WCWS opener and pushed them to the brink again Monday, but Oklahoma won 4-2 in nine innings to advance to their fourth straight championship series.
Florida State also had entered the championship series undefeated, defeating Tennessee 5-1 in Monday’s other semifinal game. But FSU lost its only regular season meeting with Oklahoma, falling 5-4 on March 14.
In the opening game of the WCWS finals, Oklahoma claimed a dominant 5-0 win against FSU, led by pitcher Jordy Bahl’s complete game shutout. The Sooners closed out their third straight title with a 3-1 win, in which Bahl recorded a three-inning save.
June 1:
- Game 1: Tennessee 10, Alabama 5
- Game 2: Oklahoma 2, Stanford 0
- Game 3: Florida State 8, Oklahoma State 0
June 2:
- Game 4: Washington 4, Utah 1
- Note: Originally scheduled for June 1, but postponed due to weather
- Game 5: Stanford 2, Alabama 0
- Game 6: Oklahoma State 8, Utah 0
June 3:
- Game 7: Oklahoma 9, Tennessee 0
- Game 8: Florida State 3, Washington 1
June 4:
- Game 9: Stanford 1, Washington 0
- Game 10: Tennessee 3, Oklahoma State 1
June 5:
- Game 11: Oklahoma 4, Stanford 2 (9 innings)
- Game 12 not needed after Stanford elimination
- Game 13: Florida State 5, Tennessee 1
- Game 14 not needed after Tennessee elimination
Championship Finals (Best of 3)
No. 1 Oklahoma vs. No. 3 Florida State
- June 7: Oklahoma 5, Florida State 0
- June 8: Oklahoma 3, Florida State 1
Emory women’s golf coach Katie Futcher is still in shock at what unfolded last week at the NCAA Division III women’s golf championship at Mission Inn and Resort’s El Campeon Course in Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida.
“I’ve been around golf my entire life. I played amateur golf, played collegiate golf, played professional golf for nine years on the tour. And I have never heard of or seen a round being canceled because of a poor pin location,” Futcher, who just announced her retirement, told Just Women’s Sports.
A viral video of the third round of competition shows multiple competitors attempting to putt the ball into the sixth hole — only to have it roll back to their feet. After play was paused during the afternoon session due to lightning, the NCAA Division III women’s golf committee decided to scrap all scores from round three, citing the “unplayable” pin at hole six.
“Throughout Round 3 on Thursday, and despite efforts to improve conditions, it became apparent that the pin placement on hole No. 6 … was unplayable,” the committee said in statement provided to GolfChannel.com. “After play was suspended due to lightning late Thursday afternoon, the committee analyzed numerous different options on how to complete the tournament in the time allotted.”
George Fox University went on to win the NCAA team title, while Annie Mascot of Washington University-St. Louis won the individual championship.
Still, the NCAA committee’s decision to cancel the third round — coupled with the pin placement itself — has resulted in social media outrage, questions of sexism and scrutiny over how the championship was organized.
Round 3 of the NCAA D3 Women’s Golf Championship was canceled (with nearly 60% of the field finished) because of this hole location, which the NCAA deemed “unplayable.”
— Brentley Romine (@BrentleyGC) May 12, 2023
Story: https://t.co/lJdUMFYQDc pic.twitter.com/rrsZg2ySIS
In golf, weather delays are common. But when a round is paused and can’t be finished the same day, it is typically completed early the next morning. That very thing happened during the second round of the D3 women’s golf championship. When play was halted during the second round on Wednesday afternoon, players who hadn’t finished resumed play first thing Thursday morning — before beginning Round 3. Futcher says the NCAA committee’s decision to cancel Round 3 after more than 60 percent of competitors had finished in order to prioritize the start of Round 4 is “unheard of.”
While last week’s NCAA women’s golf championship was held at Mission Inn and Resort’s El Campeon Course, it was NCAA rules officials — not the club — who were responsible for setting the course.
“The pin location was absolutely terrible. It should have never happened,” Futcher said. Still, she was shocked when the round was cancelled midway through.
“The thing about golf is, everybody is playing the same pin locations the entire day. Everybody is playing the same golf course,” she explained. “There is an advantage to be playing in the morning, because the green is maybe a little bit more moist. … But the players that teed off in the morning earned the right to have those better conditions because they played better the first few days.”
Jodie Burton, the head coach of the Claremont Mudd Scripps team that finished third, agrees that the pin placement was bad and that teams should have played through it, but appreciated that the head rules official apologized for the mistake.
“He owned the mistake. But it was just a mistake,” Burton said.
Futcher hopes the controversy leads to more accountability and oversight. “I’m sure the rules officials are all terrific, wonderful people. But they are hosting a national championship under the banner of the NCAA, and we have pins, not just on (hole six), that were placed in asinine positions. And I just don’t understand how that could happen.”
The NCAA’s treatment of women’s championships has been under a microscope since 2021, when massive inequities were exposed at that year’s men’s and women’s Division I basketball championships.
Burton doesn’t think sexism played a role here, though. “I don’t what this men’s committee would have come up with, but I don’t think it has anything to do with (sexism) at all. This is the women’s golf championship, and it’s usually wonderful and it still was a wonderful experience,” she said.
Futcher, however, has a hard time imagining that the men’s D3 championship would have featured such terrible pin locations or that the third round would have been handled in the same way. “I find it hard to believe the men would cancel the round or not try to find other solutions,” she said.
For Christel Boeljon, Futcher’s wife and assistant coach, what happened at this year’s national championship is indicative of a larger attitude problem in D3 women’s golf.
“I think that the mentality of Division III women’s golf is almost dumbed down,” Boeljon said. “And I think that’s a shame because all of these girls can seriously play and they work very hard at it.”
Boeljon pointed to the fact that while it is common for athletes in D1 and D2 men’s and women’s golf — and D3 men’s golf — to walk 36 holes in one day, that is a much harder pitch to make for a D3 women’s competition.
While Emory, the defending champion, played a great third round and was arguably put at a disadvantage by the decision to cancel, Futcher believes she would feel just as strongly even if her team hadn’t performed as well in the cancelled round. Emory went on to finish fifth overall.
“I want to state that I could not be more pleased for Mary Jo at George Fox,” she said. “Her team played phenomenal for the three rounds that counted. And she and her team deserve everything that they won and earned this week. … But (the drama) takes away from the team that won.”
She added: “I think the rules officials should be held accountable for the mistake. I think the NCAA committee should be held accountable for their mistake in not overseeing the rules official in terms of the pin placement. I think when you cancel the round, no one gets held accountable.”
Oklahoma won the 2023 NCAA gymnastics team title on Saturday, the Sooners’ second straight national championship — and sixth title in nine years.
Oklahoma’s dynasty has become so strong that some fans at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, were sporting “anyone but Oklahoma” t-shirts — something the Sooners took in stride. They led after each rotation and topped the team standings with 198.3875 points, finishing 0.150 points ahead of second-place Florida. Utah (-0.450) and LSU (-0.862) finished third and fourth, respectively.
Oklahoma was steered by sophomore all-arounder Jordan Bowers and 2023 NCAA vault champ Olivia Trautman.
OUR SECRET WEAPON 💥
— Oklahoma Women's Gym (@OU_WGymnastics) April 15, 2023
Super senior @OTrautman earns a 9.950 on vault.
📺 ABC
💻 https://t.co/AtOBzXCu6Q
📊 https://t.co/00K4IFfRza#BoomerSooner pic.twitter.com/j3WztSdfwq
Also during Saturday’s NCAA team championship, Florida gymnast Trinity Thomas tied the NCAA record for career perfect 10s.
Florida gymnast Trinity Thomas recorded her 28th ‘perfect 10’ on Saturday to tie the NCAA record for most career perfect 10s. Thomas accomplished the feat during the NCAA team final at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, with this truly stellar vault (video below).
PERFECT 10.@Gym_Trin's last career vault, is perfect.
— Gators Gymnastics (@GatorsGym) April 15, 2023
📺https://t.co/4l8IJLxvOy #GoGators | #WeChomp pic.twitter.com/oKFwoaRfy1
During her five-year career at Florida, Thomas earned at least five perfect 10s on each apparatus: 12 on floor, six on beam, five on bars and five on vault. She joins UCLA’s Jamie Dantzscher (2001-04) and Kentucky’s Jenny Hansen (1993-96), who also received 28 perfect 10s during their careers. (It should be noted that Thomas achieved the feat during her fifth year of NCAA competition — the result of an extra “COVID” year — while Dantzscher and Hansen both reached the mark in four years.)
Thomas’s status was uncertain in the lead-up to this weekend’s NCAA gymnastics championships after the 2022 NCAA all-around champion suffered a lower leg injury at Florida’s regional competition last month.
“I was not focused on that at all,” Thomas told ESPN of her record-tying accomplishment. “I was just focused on being out one last time with my team.”
A few minutes after tying the perfect 10 record on vault, Thomas fell just short of breaking that tie. The 22-year-old scored a 9.9125 on uneven bars, bobbling slightly on her landing.
Oklahoma won the 2023 NCAA team title, the Sooners’ sixth national title in nine seasons.
Multiple streaks came to an end on Saturday when No. 2 UConn lost to No. 3 Ohio State in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament. For the first time since 2007, the Huskies won’t compete in the Final Four. It also marks the first time since 2005 that UConn failed to advance to the Elite Eight.
“The problem with streaks is, the longer they go, you’re closer to it ending than you are to the beginning of it,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said after his team’s 73-61 loss at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle.
Auriemma, who has been at the helm of the Huskies program since 1985, said the streak also provided a false impression of what it means win NCAA tournament games in March.
“We made it look so routine and so easy, we gave the impression that it’s very easy to do. It’s a reminder that, no, it’s not. It’s very difficult to do. So you appreciate what we had, what we did, and, you know, you have to start another one next year.”
By snapping UConn’s streak, Ohio State also ended its own drought. When the Buckeyes step onto the court for Monday’s Elite Eight matchup against Virginia Tech, it will be the program’s first appearance in a regional final since 1993.