The 2012 NCAA Division I men's soccer season was the 54th season of NCAA men's college soccer in the United States. The defending champions were the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Tar Heels, who defeated sister school, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte 49ers in the previous College Cup championship.
Indiana defeated Georgetown, 1–0, in championship to win the title.
Changes from 2011 Coaching changes
CollegeOutgoing coachManner of departureIncoming coachFormer positionRef.Michigan Steve BurnsResigned Chaka DaleyProvidence head coachProvidence Chaka DaleyTook Michigan job Craig StewartFranklin Pierce head coachStanford Bret SimonResigned Jeremy GunnCharlotte head coach
Season overview Pre-season polls
Several American soccer outlets posted their own preseason top 25 rankings of what were believed to be the strongest men's collegiate soccer teams entering 2012. NSCAARankingTeam1 North Carolina2 UCLA3 Creighton4 Connecticut5 South Florida6 New Mexico7 Louisville8 Charlotte9 Maryland10 Akron11 UC Santa Barbara12 Indiana13 UC Irvine14 Boston College15 St. John's16 SMU17 Coastal Carolina18 Saint Mary's19 James Madison20 Northwestern21 UAB22 Brown23 Old Dominion24 Furman25 Bradley Soccer AmericaRankingTeam1 Connecticut2 Akron3 Maryland4 UC Santa Barbara5 Charlotte6 North Carolina7 New Mexico8 UCLA9 Indiana10 South Florida11 Boston College12 Old Dominion13 St. John's14 Coastal Carolina15 Creighton16 Louisville17 Northwestern18 Notre Dame19 Wake Forest20 Furman21 Duke22 Xavier23 West Virginia24 SMU25 UC Irvine Fox Soccer/SBIRankingTeam1 Akron2 Connecticut3 North Carolina4 Maryland5 UC Santa Barbara6 Indiana7 UCLA8 Duke9 West Virginia10 Boston College11 South Florida12 St. John's13 Louisville14 Virginia15 Xavier16 New Mexico17 Coastal Carolina18 Creighton19 SMU20 Charlotte21 CSU Bakersfield22 Wake Forest23 UC Irvine24 Notre Dame25 Georgetown College Soccer NewsRankingTeam1 North Carolina2 New Mexico3 Charlotte4 Connecticut5 Maryland6 Akron7 UCLA8 South Florida9 UC Santa Barbara10 Coastal Carolina11 Indiana12 Boston College13 Old Dominion14 Creighton15 UC Irvine16 Northwestern17 St. John's18 Louisville19 Wake Forest20 UAB21 SMU22 Brown23 Furman24 Saint Mary's25 Xavier
Regular season Standings
Conference regular season and tournament winners
ConferenceRegular Season WinnerConference TournamentTournament Venue (City)Tournament WinnerAmerica East Vermont 2012 America East Men's Soccer Tournament Nickerson Field(Boston, Massachusetts) UMBCAtlantic Coast Maryland 2012 ACC Men's Soccer Tournament Maryland SoccerPlex(Boyds, MD) MarylandAtlantic 10 Charlotte 2012 Atlantic 10 Men's Soccer Tournament Transamerica Field(Charlotte, NC) Saint LouisAtlantic Sun FGCU 2012 Atlantic Sun Men's Soccer Tournament Summers-Taylor Stadium(Johnson City, Tennessee) FGCUBig East Red: LouisvilleBlue: Connecticut 2012 Big East Men's Soccer Tournament Red Bull Arena(Harrison, NJ) Notre DameBig South Coastal Carolina 2012 Big South Conference Men's Soccer Tournament Bryan Park(Greensboro, NC) WinthropBig Ten Penn State 2012 Big Ten Conference Men's Soccer Tournament Lakeside Field(Evanston, IL) Michigan StateBig West North: UC DavisSouth: Cal State Northridge 2012 Big West Conference Men's Soccer Tournament Aggies Soccer FieldDavis, CA Cal State NorthridgeColonial Drexel 2012 CAA Men's Soccer Tournament Vidas Athletic Center(Philadelphia, PA) NortheasternConference USA SMU 2012 Conference USA Men's Soccer Tournament West Campus Field(Birmingham, AL) TulsaHorizon Detroit 2012 Horizon League Men's Soccer Tournament Titan Field(Detroit, MI Cleveland StateIvy Cornell No tournamentMetro Atlantic Loyola Maryland 2012 MAAC Men's Soccer Tournament Tenney Stadium(Poughkeepsie, NY) NiagaraMid-American Akron 2012 MAC Men's Soccer Tournament FirstEnergy Stadium(Akron, Ohio) AkronMissouri Valley Creighton Missouri Valley Conference men's soccer tournament Shea Stadium(Peoria, Illinois) CreightonMountain Pacific New Mexico 2012 MPSF Men's Soccer Tournament CIBER Field(Denver, Colorado) Air ForceNortheast Quinnipiac 2012 Northeast Conference Men's Soccer Tournament The Great Lawn(West Long Branch, New Jersey) Fairleigh DickinsonPac-12 UCLA No tournamentPatriot American 2012 Patriot League Men's Soccer Tournament Riggs Field(Washington, D.C.) LafayetteSouthern Elon 2012 Southern Conference Men's Soccer Tournament WakeMed Soccer Park(Cary, NC) ElonSummit Oakland 2012 The Summit League Men's Soccer Tournament John MacKenzie Alumni Field(Macomb, IL) Western IllinoisWest Coast San Diego No tournament
Statistics Regular season statistics only. See 2012 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship#Statistical leaders for the tournament statistics.
Overall
Top scorers
RankScorerCollegeGoals 1 Chris ThomasElon23 2 Ryan FinleyNotre Dame20 3 Daniel HaberCornell18 4 Eriq ZavaletaIndiana16 5 Ashton BennettCoastal Carolina15 Erik HurtadoUC Santa Barbara15 Gyasi ZardesCSU Bakersfield158 Don AndingNortheastern14 Pete CaringiUMBC14 Billy SchulerNorth Carolina14 Steven EvansPortland14 Sagi Lev-AriCSU Northridge14 Devon SandovalNew Mexico14 Last updated on November 13, 2012. Source: NCAA.com – Total Goals
Most assists
RankScorerCollegeAssists 1 Mitchell CardenasCampbell14 2 Kyle BethelOakland13 Milo KaporUMBC13 Blake SmithNew Mexico13 5 Chris GriebschHofstra11 Steve NeumannGeorgetown11 7 Carlos BenavidesCSU Northridge10 Zach BoldenDenver10 Scott CaldwellAkron10 Jared MartinelliTemple10 Alex MartinezN.C. State10 Pedro RibeiroCoastal Carolina10 Shawn SloanHigh Point10 Vaughn SpurrierTemple10 Last updated on November 13, 2012. Source: NCAA.com – Total Assists
NCAA tournament
College Cup – Regions Park, Hoover, Alabama
See also College soccer 2012 in American soccer 2012 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship
References