The 2004 NIRSA national soccer championship, also referred to as the NIRSA Collegiate Soccer Sport Club championship, was the 11th NIRSA National Soccer Championships, the annual national championships for United States-based, collegiate club soccer teams organized by NIRSA. It took place at the Whitaker Fields at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas from Thursday, November 18 to Saturday, November 20, 2004. The tournament would get rained out before a champion could be crowned in any division. The only division to have a continuation to the tournament was the men's championship division which took place at the Red Mountain Soccer Complex in Mesa, Arizona on January 8, 2005.

Overview Heavy rains in Austin, Texas on the preceding Monday and Tuesday resulted in the tournament staff postponing the tournament from the initial start date of Thursday to Friday to allow the fields more time to dry. However, the tournament would not be extended, meaning the games would be shortened from 40 minute halves to 25 minute halves. Despite best efforts, at approximately noon on Saturday, a thunderstorm passed through which not only further flooded the already wet fields but also created a safety hazard with the lightning. Ultimately, the initial tournament would get cancelled, marking the first time this has ever occurred in the NIRSA national championships.

Prior to the cancellation In the men's championship division, by the quarterfinals, no teams remaining had previously made the finals while the men's open division had no previous champions. Meanwhile, the women's championship division only had one team remaining who had not previously won at least 2 titles, UC-Santa Barbara, who had only ever made the finals once, in 2001, where they lost to Penn State who in this tournament, was eliminated in the group stage following a 3-way tie on points and a 2-way tie on goal difference. Despite this, UC-Santa Barbara would eventually go on to become the winningest team in the women's championship division. The women's open championship was the only division to not finish at least the quarterfinals, the remaining teams were LSU, Illinois, Texas, UC-Davis, Colorado "Black", Northern Colorado, Virginia Tech, and UCLA.

Continuation Following the cancellation, each division was able to decide how to move forward. Both open divisions and the men's championship consolation bracket elected to not declare a winner while the women's championship decided to elect all four remaining teams as co-champions. The only division who was able to organize a continuation tournament was the men's championship division who had three of the four remaining teams agree to a tournament in Mesa, Arizona on January 8, 2005. Despite choosing Arizona as the host site to mitigate the risk of rain, Mesa would receive, what was described as, "their total annual rainfall for 2005" in the week preceding the tournament, flooding the fields. Luckily, the fields would dry in time for the tournament to go on as scheduled.

Since North Carolina elected not to participate, the teams decided that a round-robin would be the best solution to finishing the tournament. Each team would play each other once with each game requiring a winner and the team with the best record would be crowned champion. The remaining teams were Texas A&M, Colorado State, and UC-Berkeley, none of which had ever made the finals.

In the opening match, Colorado State would defeat UC-Berkeley 2–0. The following match, Texas A&M would beat Colorado State 1–0, meaning if Texas A&M won their final match they'd be champions but if they lost a three-way penalty shootout would ensue to determine the champion. Texas A&M would go on to win their final match 2–0 and be crowned national champions for the first time. This result also meant Colorado State would finish 2nd and UC-Berkeley finishing 3rd. Following the tournament, Bill Besançon would be named men's championship MVP.

Format The competition consisted of 80 teams: 40 championship teams and 40 open teams. The divisions were further divided into a men's and women's division: 24 men's and 16 women's teams in the championship division as well as 20 men's and 20 women's teams in the open division. The divisions were then further divided into groups: eight groups of three teams in the men's championship, four groups of four teams each in the women's championship division, and five groups of four teams each in the men's and women's open divisions.

All four divisions engaged in a round-robin tournament that determined teams able to advance to a knockout stage. Each team played every other team in their group once in pool play which consisted of two 40-minute halves separated by a seven-minute halftime and utilized the three points for a win system. After pool play, the two highest ranked teams from each group in the men's and women's championship divisions advanced to their respective knockout stage, with the third placed team in the men's championship advancing to a consolation bracket. The top ranked team in the men's and women's open divisions advanced to their respective knockout stage in addition to the next three highest ranked wild card teams (a max of two teams per group could advance) Tie-breaking criteria for group playThe ranking of teams in each group was based on the following criteria in order:

Highest number of points Winner of head-to-head competition Greatest goal difference Most goals scored

In a tie breaking scenario involving more than 2 teams, the tiebreaker procedure would begin. If one team is identified as different and both remaining teams are still tied, the tie breaker procedure is restarted.

If a tie still remained after the first 4 criteria, the following was used to break a tie:

NCAA kicks from the mark If there was a three-way tie, a coin-flip would be conducted. The two teams that chose the same outcome would compete in kicks from the mark between each other. The winner would compete with the last remaining team in kicks from the mark If there's a four-way tie, a drawing of lots would be conducted (only could occur in open division) Knockout stage games also consisted of two 40-minute halves with the round of 16 and quarterfinals separated by a seven-minute halftime and the semifinals and finals had a ten-minute halftime. Knockout stage games needed to declare a winner, therefore if a game was tied at the end of regulation in the round of sixteen or quarterfinals, no more than two five-minute sudden victory overtime periods would be played, while in the semifinals and finals, no more than two ten-minute sudden victory overtime periods would be played. Teams would change ends after the conclusion of the first overtime period. If still tied after overtime, kicks from the mark would determine the winner.

Qualification and selections Each of the six regions were able to hand out three automatic bids for the men's championship division and two automatic bids for the women's championship division. The final 6 bids for the men's championship division and final 4 bids for the women's championship were given out by NIRSA to teams, typically based on their regional tournament results and RPI.

The remaining teams participated in the open division, chosen on a first-come first-serve basis via online registration beginning on September 1, 2004. Initially, it was stated that there would be a max of 16 teams per gender division but 20 teams per division would be allowed to participate.

Men's championship +Participating teamsRegionTeamAppearanceLast BidICornell5th2003INavy5th2003IDelaware3rd2003IPenn1stNeverIINorth Carolina4th2001IIFlorida2nd1998IIGeorgia Tech2nd2000IIVanderbilt2nd2002IIIMiami (OH)5th2001IIIMichigan State2nd2003IIIDayton1stNeverIIIWestern Michigan1stNeverIVTexas10th2003IVKansas5th2003IVTexas A&M5th2003IVOklahoma2nd1994VColorado State10th2003VColorado6th2003VMinnesota4th2003VIWeber State6th2003VIArizona5th2003VIUtah Valley State3rd2003VIUC Berkeley2nd2003VIUC Santa Barabara2nd2001 Source:

Women's championship +Participating teamsRegionTeamAppearanceLast BidIPenn State11th2003IDelaware4th2001IPrinceton2nd2002IIJMU8th2003IIFlorida5th2003IIVirginia2nd2003IIIMiami (OH)11th2003IIIMichigan6th2003IIIMichigan State3rd2002IIIIndiana2nd2000IVTexas A&M7th2003IVBaylor5th2003VColorado11th2003VColorado State8th2003VIUC-Santa Barbara5th2003VIUC-Berkeley1stNever Source:

Men's open RegionNumTeamI1Penn StateII5UCF, Duke, Florida State, JMU, VirginiaIII1Southern IllinoisIV3Texas A&M "B", Texas Southern, Texas StateV4Colorado "Black", Iowa State, Nebraska, North Dakota StateVI6Arizona State, Central Washington, Long Beach State, Loyola Marymount, Snow College, UTEP Source:

Women's open RegionNumTeamI3Cornell, Vermont, YaleII4NC State, Richmond, Vanderbilt, Virginia TechIII3Illinois, Ohio State, Western MichiganIV2LSU, TexasV6Colorado "Black", Colorado School of the Mines, Colorado State "Green", Iowa State, Kansas, Northern ColoradoVI2UC-Davis, UCLA Source:

Group stage

Men's championship +Group APosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification1UC-Santa Barbara211021 +14Advanced to knockout stage2Navy202044023Western Michigan201134 −11Consolation

+Group BPosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification1Texas A&M220061 +56Advanced to knockout stage2Colorado210121 +133Florida200217 −60Consolation

+Group CPosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification1Weber State211010 +14Advanced to knockout stage2Georgia Tech202022023Dayton201123 −11Consolation

+Group DPosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification1Minnesota211042 +24Advanced to knockout stage2Vanderbilt211032 +143Oklahoma200225 −30Consolation

+Group EPosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification1Texas211010 +14Advanced to knockout stage2Cornell211010 +143Arizona200202 −20Consolation

+Group FPosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification1North Carolina220081 +76Advanced to knockout stage2Michigan State201124 −213Delaware201116 −51Consolation

+Group GPosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification1Penn211031 +24Advanced to knockout stage2Kansas202011023Utah Valley State201102 −21Consolation

+Group HPosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification1Colorado State211021 +14Advanced to knockout stage2UC-Berkeley202000023Miami (OH)201112 −11Consolation

Women's championship +Group APosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification1Michigan312031 +25Advanced to knockout stage2Florida312043 +153Penn State312021 +154Texas A&M300337 −40

+Group BPosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification1Colorado312052 +35Advanced to knockout stage2UC-Berkeley312032 +153Indiana311144044Virginia301215 −41

+Group CPosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification1UC-Santa Barbara330080 +89Advanced to knockout stage2JMU320142 +263Michigan State310236 −334Princeton300318 −70

+Group DPosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification1Colorado State321062 +47Advanced to knockout stage2Delaware320154 +163Miami (OH)311122044Baylor300327 −50

Men's open +Group JPosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification1Texas State211042 +37Advanced to knockout stage2Loyola Marymount (LMU)210143 +263Colorado "Black"201114 −244Florida StateDid not attend (All teams given 3 points and +1 goal difference)

+Group KPosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification1Virginia321051 +47Advanced to knockout stage2Southern Illinois (SIU)320154 +163Arizona State311122044Texas Southern300316 −50

+Group LPosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification1Iowa State321050 +57Advanced to knockout stage2Central Washington312021 +153UCF302112 −124North Dakota State301205 −51

+Group MPosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification1Penn State321051 +47Advanced to knockout stage2Texas A&M "B"321052 +373JMU310254 +134Snow College300319 −80

+Group NPosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification1Long Beach State312043 +15Advanced to knockout stage2Nebraska312021 +153UTEP302178 −124Duke302134 −12

Women's open +Group EPosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification1LSU330071 +69Advanced to knockout stage2Colorado State "Green"311155043Yale302123 −124NC State301205 −51