The beauty of the college postseason is that everyone, or most everyone, gets a chance. You’re the undefeated No. 1 seed in your conference? Cool, win a few elimination games to prove you deserve it. You went .500 and finished middle of the pack? Great, here’s one more chance to save your season against your conference’s best teams.
That beauty does not exist in ACC women’s soccer. Virginia has been the 12th best team in the country this season according to the NCAA Women’s Soccer Rating Percentage Index, but according to the ACC, the Cavaliers aren’t even good enough to play in their conference tournament.
That’s right — when the ACC Tournament kicked off Sunday night, Virginia was not among the contestants. In a stacked ACC that only allowed six of its 17 teams into postseason play, the Cavaliers’ 5-5 record and ninth-place finish fell short of qualification.
The setup of the tournament simply does not make sense. It is difficult to understand why, in a conference with seven nationally ranked teams, only six get to play for the title. The ACC has established itself as the best conference in women’s college soccer for decades, but runs a postseason that excludes a fair amount of its talent.
Since the conference reduced its tournament field from eight teams to six in 2021, at least one formidable team has been left out each year. In 2021, North Carolina went 5-2-3 in the ACC but finished seventh and did not qualify for the postseason. The Tar Heels later earned a No. 2 seed in the 64-team NCAA Tournament, designating them as a top eight squad in the country.
In the same year, both Virginia Tech and NC State were left out of the ACC Tournament but earned places in the national bracket. They both won their first round games to advance to the round of 32.
The following season, Clemson was the unlucky seventh-place team, finishing with a 4-3-3 conference record but receiving a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The teams finishing eighth, ninth and 10th that season all qualified as well.
In 2023, Virginia was the odd team out. The Cavaliers went 3-3-4 on the way to seventh place and subsequently missed the ACC Tournament, which would have provided them an opportunity to win a couple games and earn a spot in the big dance. Unfortunately, they were squeezed out by a flawed system.
The problem has only gotten more extreme this year. The conference added three new teams — Stanford, Southern Methodist and California — but did not make any room to get more squads involved in the postseason. As a result, Stanford was left out despite posting a 5-4-1 record, a No. 14 national ranking and a No. 9 ranking in the RPI.
As for Virginia, its five ACC losses came against teams that currently sit No. 1, No. 3, No. 6, No. 8 and No. 13 nationally. The Cavaliers are being punished for playing in an absurdly talented conference that requires a team to be a national contender to make the postseason.
This is a one-of-a-kind problem in Division I soccer. On the men’s side of the ACC, barring the 2020 season, the tournament has invited all 12 programs to participate each year since 2016. Even with the uptick to 15 teams this year, it is still allowing every program to play for the conference title.
A similar dynamic holds in the major conferences in women’s soccer. The 16-team SEC plays a 12-team tournament, allowing 75 percent of the conference to proceed. The Big Ten grants more than half of its 18 teams a spot in the postseason. Neither conference is close to the level of the ACC, but both give far more of a chance to their respective competitors.
Larger tournaments have also proven their worth plentifully in the past. In 2018, while the ACC women’s soccer tournament was still composed of eight teams, No. 7 seed Florida State ran the table with three consecutive upsets. The Seminoles then went on to win a national championship. With the current setup, they would not have even qualified for the ACC Tournament.
If that is not proof enough about the need to expand, look again at the wide-open ACC men’s soccer tournament. Just two years ago, No. 8 seed Clemson advanced to the title game and No. 12 seed Virginia Tech won its first round game after going 0-8 in the regular season. From 2015 to 2019, three teams seeded No. 7 or lower advanced to the semifinals and three double-digit seeds pulled upsets in their first-round games.
So, why can the same structure not be applied to the women’s tournament?
An ACC team has appeared in each of the last seven national title games. The conference has just three squads currently outside the top 70 in the RPI and nine resting inside the top 40. For a field with that much talent, determining that 11 out of 17 conference seasons should be over after 10 games is unfair, and downright foolish.
Not every team has to get a shot. But to allow the deserving ones a chance, the ACC should expand the tournament to 12 teams, and at the very least, 10. The ACC should let the kids play.
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