1971 NCAA Soccer Tournament

The 1971 NCAA Men's Soccer Tournament was the thirteenth organized men's college soccer tournament by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, to determine the top college soccer team in the United States. The Howard Bison won their first national title by defeating the two-time defending champion Saint Louis Billikens in the championship game, 3–2. The final match was played on December 30, 1971, in Miami, Florida, at the Miami Orange Bowl.[1][2] Howard's championship would later be vacated by the NCAA on disputed grounds of player eligibility.

1971 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament
Men's College Cup (semifinals & final)
CountryUSA
Teams24
ChampionsHoward (title later vacated)
Runners-upSaint Louis (10th title game)
Matches played23
Goals scored98 (4.26 per match)
← 1970
1972 →

This was the final championship before the establishment of separate championships for the NCAA's University Division (now Division I) and College Division (now Divisions II and III) in 1973.

Tournament
  First Round Second Round Quarterfinals Semifinals Final
                                               
  Harvard 6  
  S. Connecticut State 0  
    Harvard 3  
      Brown 1  
  Brown 4
  Bridgeport 1  
    Harvard 4  
    Hartwick College 1  
  Hartwick College 3  
  Army 0  
    Hartwick College 4
      Cornell 1  
  Cornell 2
  Long Island 1  
    Harvard 0  
    Howard 1  
  Howard 1  
  West Virginia 0  
    Howard 3
      Navy 0  
  Navy 3
  South Florida 1  
    Howard 8
    Penn State 0  
  Pennsylvania 2  
  East Stroudsburg 0  
    Pennsylvania 1
      Penn State 2  
  Penn State 4
  St. Joseph's 1  
  Howard 3†
  Saint Louis 2
       
    Saint Louis 4  
      Ohio 0  
     
       
    Saint Louis 3  
    SIU Edwardsville 1  
       
       
    SIU Edwardsville 2
      Akron 0  
     
       
    Saint Louis 3
    San Francisco 2  
       
       
    San Francisco 3
      San Jose State 2  
     
       
    San Francisco 6
    UCLA 2  
       
       
    UCLA 5
      Cal State-Chico 2  
     

Final – Miami Orange Bowl, Miami, Florida
Howard*3–2Saint Louis
Attendance: 5,800

The Championship was later vacated by the NCAA[3] on the grounds that two Howard players had played amateur soccer in Trinidad, exhausting their eligibility, and that two others had not taken entrance exams, required by the NCAA, to predict a grade point average of at least 1.6. Howard University argued that the eligibility rules were vague and discriminated against foreigners, and that the players had all maintained grade-point averages of 3.0 or higher in college, but the NCAA did not reverse the ruling.[4]

References
  1. "1971 Division I Men's Championship Bracket" (PDF). NCAA. p. 11. Retrieved November 22, 2012.
  2. "Men's Soccer Division I History" (PDF). NCAA. Retrieved 2013-05-28.
  3. "Division I Men's Soccer Championship History". NCAA.com. 2011-02-25. Retrieved 2013-05-28.
  4. Wahl, Grant (1997-02-24). "Men on a mission: The 1974 Howard University soccer team wanted to win more than an NCAA title". SI.com. Retrieved 2016-04-26.
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