Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tournament was postponed from November/December 2020 to April/May 2021.For the last four months, COVID-19 paused sports entirely. The winner of the 2020 SBC Tournament will earn an automatic berth into the 2020 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament. The tournament was played from November 13–15, with Coastal Carolina winning the championship in penalties over Georgia State. Main article: 2020 Sun Belt Conference men's soccer tournamentĪll four teams qualified for the modified Sun Belt Conference Men's Soccer Tournament. Weekly results Legend Index to colors and formatting Legend: Blue = home team win Yellow = draw Red = away team win.įor upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants. Regular season Conference results 2020 Sun Belt Conference men's fall soccer standings Offensive Player – Preseason All-Conference Preseason honors Defensive Player – Preseason All-Conference ĭue to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, only College Soccer News released a preseason poll. The preseason poll was released on August 27, 2020. Later developments in the realignment cycle led the SBC to reinstate men's soccer in 2022 instead of 2023. Accordingly, league commissioner Keith Gill announced on Novemthat SBC men's soccer would be reinstated no later than 2023. Further moves in this realignment cycle saw three men's soccer schools announce that they would join the SBC no later than 2023: Colonial Athletic Association member James Madison, and then-reigning national champion Marshall and Old Dominion from Conference USA. Return of Sun Belt men's soccer Ī major conference realignment initially triggered in July 2021 when Oklahoma and Texas announced their plans to leave the Big 12 Conference for the Southeastern Conference eventually led to the reinstatement of Sun Belt men's soccer. This left Georgia Southern and Georgia State as the only remaining Sun Belt men's soccer programs, and those two schools announced they would move that sport to the Mid-American Conference in late May 2021. The following month saw Coastal Carolina announce that it would become a single-sport member of Conference USA (C-USA), joining another in-state C-USA associate in South Carolina. The next move that affected SBC men's soccer came in January 2021, when the ASUN Conference announced three schools as incoming full members, including SBC associate Central Arkansas. This left the SBC with only four men's soccer members, two less than the six required to maintain an automatic NCAA tournament berth. In July 2020, Howard announced that it would become an associate member of the Northeast Conference in six sports, with men's soccer being one of four sports moving in July 2021. Most teams completed the fall season playing only 8–12 matches instead of the normal 15–18 matches.Īppalachian State's decision to drop men's soccer was the first move that led to the discontinuation of SBC men's soccer after the 2020–21 school year. The conference opted to play a six-match season with all programs doing a home-and-home series, or double round robin against every program in the conference. The SBC and Atlantic Coast Conference were the only two men's soccer conferences that played during fall 2020. Additionally, Sun Belt associate member Howard opted out of playing during the fall season due to concerns with the ongoing pandemic. Long-time program, Appalachian State suspended its men's varsity soccer program in the wake of the pandemic, due to anticipated budget cuts in the athletics program. The COVID-19 pandemic drastically affected the landscape of men's soccer in the Sun Belt Conference. Further information: Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on association football
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