NCAA soccer championships coming to Cary
CARY, N.C. (BVM) — After seeing the success the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments experienced in their Indianapolis and San Antonio bubbles, NCAA soccer is hoping it can be replicated on the East Coast.
The Division I Competition Oversight Committee approved a proposal that’ll see all 48 women’s teams and all 36 men’s teams competing in Cary and the surrounding areas. With last year’s soccer championships canceled due to COVID-19, the committee wants to ensure they’ll play this year, which means minimizing travel.
Additionally, because all of the teams will be so close to one another, games can be played in a more condensed fashion, minimizing the time spent in the bubble for every school. And because they are all in one geographic space, they’ll only have to worry about following the COVID-19 jurisdictions set by the local area and the state of North Carolina.
NCAA soccer teams will learn their fate on Selection Monday which is April 19 this year. Both the men’s and women’s tournaments will follow a similar timeframe, with both champions being crowned on May 17.
Both title games will be played directly in Cary at WakeMed Soccer Park, but surrounding area universities will host games as well. Those schools include Campbell, East Carolina, UNC-Wilmington, UNC-Greensboro and Wake Forest. There will be four off-campus game sites as well, those being Bryan Park in Greensboro, J. Burt Gillette Athletic Complex in Wilson, and Sportsplex in Matthews.
Fans will be allowed to attend at 25 percent capacity, and the tournament will officially begin at the end of April. The women will kick things off on April 27, while the men will commence on April 29.
