The 1996 NIRSA national soccer championship was the 3rd NIRSA National Soccer Championships, the annual national championships for United States-based, collegiate club soccer teams organized by NIRSA. It took place at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas from Thursday, November 21 to Saturday, November 23, 1996.[1]
In the finals, BYU would take on Baylor. Prior to this, in the group stage, Baylor would face inaugural champions, Purdue, in their opener and would go down 2–0, but would score four consecutive goals to win 4–2. They'd then beat Northern Colorado 5–0 and finally tied Clemson 2–2 to top their group. Meanwhile, BYU would have a "perfect" group stage in that they'd win all three games by three or more goals without conceding a goal in any game, giving them 30 points. They did this by beating reigning champions and hosts, Texas, 7–0, then North Carolina 6–0, and finally Colorado State 3–0.
In the quarterfinals, Baylor would eliminate in-state rival, host, and reigning champion, Texas, 3–0 while BYU would beat Northern Colorado 10–1 which would be the only game where they conceded a goal this tournament. In the semifinals, Baylor would defeat Salt Lake CC 3–0 while BYU defeated Oregon 3–0. In the finals, BYU's Spencer Viernes would score the lone goal of the match as BYU claimed their first national NIRSA national title title. BYU's Roger Seaman would be named tournament MVP.[2][3][4]
In the finals, inaugural champion and reigning runners up, Miami (OH), would face Purdue. Prior to this, in the group stage, Purdue would tie their opener 0–0 to Southern Mississippi, then would defeat Penn State 1–0, and finally beat Tennessee 4–0 to win their group. Meanwhile, Miami (OH) would beat Kansas State 2–0, then would tie JMU 1–1, and finally beat Salt Lake CC 3–2 to top their group as well.
In the quarterfinals, Purdue would beat Clemson 4–1 while Miami (OH) beat Bowling Green 3–0. Following this, Purdue would defeat JMU 2–1 while Miami (OH) beat regional opponent Illinois 1–0 to reach their third finals in as many competitions. Illinois' Erica Loechl would be named the division's best goalkeeper and following this tournament would be a part of Illinois' first varsity team.[5] In the finals, eventual tournament MVP, Trisha Barkman of Miami (OH), would score the lone goal of the match to claim their second title in three seasons, the first team in any division to win two titles.[6][7]
In the finals, Toledo would face Angelo State. Prior to this, in the group stage, Angelo State would beat Wichita State 6–1 in their opener, then beat Houston 4–0, and finally lost to Tennessee 2–1 but would have enough to advance to the knockout round as the second placed team in the group. Meanwhile, Toledo would lose their opener 2–1 to inaugural open runners-up Texas Tech, then beat Lamar 5–2 to be level on points with them going into the group stage finale with Texas Tech ahead of both teams by 7 points. In the group stage finale, both teams would tie 1–1 with Toledo tying Texas A&M and Lamar tying Texas Tech 1–1, meaning both teams would still be level on points, but Toledo would claim the final knockout round spot due to them having the head-to-head tiebreaker.
In the semifinals, both teams would win 2–1 with Angelo State beating Texas Tech and Toledo being Tennessee. In the finals, Toledo would win 2–0 and claim their first open title. Toledo's Troy Bingham would be name tournament MVP and Toledo would eventual get a formal congratulations from their Mayor, Carty Finkbeiner.[8]
In the finals, in-state rivals Rice and Texas would face off in the team's fourth meeting. Prior to this, in the regular season, the teams tied in their first meeting and Texas defeated Rice in the second. In the opener for both teams, Texas would defeat Colorado State 5–0 while Rice would defeat Texas Tech 2–0 with goals from freshman Tiffany Elkins and sophomore Casey Robinson. In the teams' second game, Texas would defeat Texas Tech 3–0 while Rice would lose to Colorado State 1–0. In the group stage finale, Texas would defeat Rice 6–0 and with Colorado State beating Texas Tech 5–1, going into the knockout round Texas would have the 1 seed and face the 4 seed Texas Tech while Colorado State would have the 2 seed and face 3 seed Rice. In the semifinals, Texas would defeat in-state rival Texas Tech 9–0 while Rice would remain tied 0–0 with Colorado State after regulation and overtime, meaning penalties would be required to determine a winner which Rice would win. In the finals, Texas would defeat Rice 9–0 in what is, as of 2024, the largest score differential in a finals across all 4 divisions. Texas' Jill Cook would be named the tournament's MVP.[9]
The competition consisted of 44 teams partitioned into 24 men's teams and 20 women's teams. Each of these partitions were further divided into a 16-team, invite-only championship division, an 8-team men's open division, and a 4-team women's open division. The championship divisions were divided into four groups of four teams each, the men's open group divided teams into two groups of four teams each, and the women's division placed all the teams into a 4-team group.
All 4 divisions began with a round-robin tournament where each team played each of the other teams in their group once. Following this, the two best teams in each group in the championship division and men's open division advanced to a single-elimination, knockout round. All four teams in the women's open division advanced to their single-elimination, knockout round. The first metric for determining the best team was points, calculated first by giving a team 6 points for a win, 3 points for a tie, and 0 points for a loss. Then, a team could be awarded an addition point for a shutout and an additional point for every goal scored, up to a max of 3 goals per game. If teams were tied on points, the following criteria were used in order:
The knockout stage was an 8-team tournament for the championship divisions and a 4-team tournament for the open divisions. Knockout stage games needed to declare a winner, so if one was tied at the end of regulation, overtime would begin. Overtime in the quarterfinals consisted of two, 5-minute, golden-goal periods while in the semifinals and finals, overtime consisted of two, 10-minute, golden-goal periods. If still tied after overtime, kicks from the mark would determine the winner. Pool play and quarterfinal games were two 40-minute halves, separated by a seven-minute halftime with the semifinals and finals also being 40-minute halves, but having a ten minute halftime. If a player received three yellow cards during the course of the tournament they would be suspended the following the game.[10]
NIRSA extended invitations to the 16 men's and 16 women's teams to participate in the championship division beginning on October 23, 1996 with those invitations being extended to who NIRSA believed were the best in the nation. The teams that participated in the open division were chosen on a first-come first-serve basis via mail with registration beginning on September 15, 1996 with a maximum of 24 teams per gender division.[1][11]
