SEC Soccer

Congrats to the Lady Gamecocks from South Carolina; winner of the 2009 SEC Soccer Championship Tournament!! South Carolina beat LSU 8-7 on penalty kicks so very, very exciting game. That's the first SEC Soccer Championship for South Carolina -- ever. It's also the first SEC Championship for the Gamecocks in any sport since 2004. Off to the NCAA's. More to come.

Is SEC Soccer the best? If not, which conference is the best college soccer conference?

The answer?

Unquestionably – the ACC. I am talking about the kind of soccer the Southeastern Conference (SEC) plays – namely Women’s Soccer. The SEC does not compete in Men’s Soccer. This is not unusual. 301 colleges participate in NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer; only 199 have Men’s teams. For a possible explanation of why this is, read Baseball and Title IX.

UK player dribbles soccer ball

UK player dribbles soccer ball. Thanks to ukathletics for the photo.

Here's our current ranking of the NCAA College Soccer Conferences:

1. ACC The University of North Carolina Lady Tarheels dominate college women’s soccer. True, in 2007, the Lady Tar Heels were knocked out of the NCAA tournament in the third round by Notre Dame. However, through 2008, in the 27 years that the NCAA has conducted a Women’s Soccer National Championship, UNC has won it 19 times—including 2006 and now 2008. Now, that's dominating a sport! The ACC also almost always has the most teams in the Top-25 and selected for the NCAA Tournament.

Historically, there has been a significant drop-off after the ACC, with the other 5 major soccer conferences all pretty close. But, that changed in 2007, as the Pac-10 took a big step up. Here’s the rest of the rankings:

Florida Gators Soccer

Thanks to utsports.com for photos 2 and 3. Thanks to ukathletics.com for photos 1, 4 and 5 above. All rights are reserved for these photos.

Love SEC soccer? Then check out Best All-Time SEC Soccer Player

2. Pac-10 The Pac-10 has moved way up. In fact, in 2007 USC won the NCAA Soccer Championship! And, in 2008, the Pac-10 had 2 teams in the NCAA Soccer "Final Four" -- UCLA and Stanford.

3. Big 12 The Big 12 had 4 teams in the last Top-25 poll. They had one team make it to the "Great 8" in the 2008 NCAA Tourny.

4. SEC The SEC had 6 teams picked for the NCAA Tournament last season (second only to the ACC). Florida ended the season ranked 9th nationally. Also, as an historical factor to distinguish the SEC from the conferences ranked lower, Florida won the NCAA tournament in 1998. In fact, the Lady Gators are the only Women’s soccer team to ever win the NCAA championship from any of the major conferences – other than North Carolina and USC. Finally, the SEC consistently has 3 or 4 teams in the top 20 for fan attendance at soccer games.

5. Big Ten No one ranked higher than 20th nationally.

6. Big East One team in the top 25.

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Congrats to the Florida Gators for winning the 2008 SEC Soccer Regular Season Championship. LSU was Champion of the SEC West. Tennessee won the 2008 SEC Soccer Tournament.

SEC Soccer looks stronger than ever in 2009. Here's our current SEC Soccer team rankings. Click on team name to go to its page:

1. Florida Gators -- Easy choice. The Lady Gators won the NCAA Soccer Tournament Championship in 1998 (only SEC team ever to do that). This past year (2008), the Lady Gators won the SEC Soccer regular season title, going undefeated in conference play. Also, Florida ended the regular season as the highest ranked SEC team nationally (9th). The Lady Soccer Gators have been in the SEC Championship game 11 of the 14 years it has been played and they won 8 SEC Soccer Tournament Championships. Florida is always a top 10 team nationally in attendance. The Lady Gators of the University of Florida have been the dominant team for the recent history of SEC women’s soccer, and there is no reason to believe that this trend is unlikely to continue, as the team looks once again loaded up and ready to go. In a fashion similar to that of 2008, the 2009 schedule looks like it will be very competitive, and it would not be surprising to see the team, once again, take a few games to really hit its stride. However, the team looks completely loaded from top to bottom, and no team in the SEC looks even close. An SEC Championship has to be considered more likely than not with this group, and a good run in the NCAAs is likely.

2. LSU Tigers -- The LSU Tigers are a program whose rise is expected to continue in 2009. After a number of years in which the program struggled somewhat, the team had a good 2008 season in which it won the SEC West. Similar good things are expected in 2009. They’re not Florida, but they’re pretty darn good.

3. Tennessee Volunteers -- Another team that had a turnaround type season in 2008, in many ways, the Lady Vols represent somewhat of a changing of the guard in the SEC. That’s not to say that they are the front-runners to win the conference championship. In fact, despite winning the 2008 SEC Soccer Tournament Title, they are only our 3rd choice to win in 2009. However, this is a program on the rise, and one which we would not be surprised to see poised next to or even above Florida in the next couple of years.

4. Georgia Bulldogs -- The Lady Bulldogs enter 2009 with a lot of confidence following a surprising and successful 2008 season which ended with a 2nd place finish in the 2008 SEC Tournament. The question is, is this team ready to evolve into a legit title contender in 2009? Our instinct says no, that the team is a year away from being a real title threat, and will be a semifinal caliber team in 2009.

5. Auburn Tigers -- Last won the SEC West regular season crown in 2006; which it had won at that point for 5 of the preceeding 6 years. The Auburn Lady Tigers are coming off a 2nd place finish in the SEC West, a solid finish for the program considering the program had a down year in 2007 and whose 2008 performance was not expected to be particularly high. Auburn probably leads the 2nd tier of teams in 2009, positioning itself as a team truly on the rise but, not quite there as of yet.

6. Ole Miss Rebels -- The Lady Rebels look like a team who is just on the cusp of becoming a legitimate player in the SEC. They are coming off a year in which they finished 3rd in the SEC West and amassed a .500 record overall in conference play. Many feel that this team can be 2009’s version of Georgia. We think they are still not quite there, but it would not shock us to see them make such a run.

7. South Carolina Gamecocks -- The South Carolina Lady Gamecocks are coming off a 2008 that needs to be viewed by the program and those looking in from the outside as a step in the right direction, as the year really laid some impressive building blocks for potential future success. The team will likely be overmatched in 2009, but should be competitive and a .500 record in the SEC is a realistic goal to continue building upon.

8. Alabama Crimson Tide -- One of the biggest problems with the 2008 Alabama soccer program was that it was too balanced. Now yes, Balance is often a good thing. But not when it comes at the cost of leadership. The team didn’t have a single dominant scorer that it could rely upon for star power. And unfortunately, there is no dominant breakout performance expected in 2009. If someone steps up, the team may be capable of finishing a spot or 2 higher in the SEC. But short of that, a .500 overall record is likely the best it can hope for.

9. Vanderbilt Commodores -- Vandy may, and I emphasize may, be ready to take a big step forward. The team bordered on dominant in its non-conference matchups against some lesser opponents, but then struggled in conference play a record of only 3-7-1.

Kentucky womens soccer kick

Kentucky womens soccer kick. Thanks to ukathletics for the photo.

10. Arkansas Razorbacks -- Arkansas is the classic example of a lesser conference team loading up on gimmes early in non-conference play and then being rudely awakened once the conference season starts. Expect the same thing to happen again in 2009, as this team is just not good enough. They are the best of the bottom tier, but that isn’t saying a lot.

11. Kentucky Wildcats -- This team is really grateful that Mississippi State is a member of SEC. 2008 was tremendously disappointing, and 2009 does not forecast to be much better. It’s going to be a long road back for this once-successful program.

12. Mississippi State Bulldogs -- They are clearly the worst team in the SEC entering 2009. After finishing 0-11 in conference play in 2008, a realistic goal for this team should be trying to scrape out a single SEC win. Its certainly doable, at least vs. some of the lower teams, but it won’t be easy.

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kentucky soccer celebration. Thanks to ukathletics for the photo

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UK vs. Auburn Not rated yet
This was tough game against Auburn. UK was tied 0-0 after regulation. The game went into double overtime only to have the game end in a 0-0 tie.

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First game for Alabama under their new coach, Todd Bramble, against UK.

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