Duke, No. 1 in the final Soccer America Men’s Top 25 of the season, was also selected as the No. 1 seed for the NCAA Division I Men’s Tournament, which begins play with first -ound action on Friday and Saturday.
Four ACC teams were named among the top five men’s seeds — Duke, No. 2 Wake Forest, No. 4 Virginia and No. 5 Maryland — and six ACC teams were among the 16 seeds that received byes into the second round on Nov. 15.
The ACC and Big East led all conferences with seven teams each picked to the 48-team field. The CAA had a conference-record four teams selected to take part in postseason play. The Pac-10 also is sending four teams to the NCAA Tournament.
Four teams will be making their first appearance in the tournament: Fairfield, Gardner-Webb, Loyola (Ill.) and Monmouth.
The 26 at-large selections included several surprise omissions. UC Irvine, the Big West runner-up, didn’t get in despite a school record 13 wins — including victories over tournament-bound San Diego State and Big West champion UCSB.
With wins over SMU and South Carolina in the last two weeks of the season, UAB leapfrogged over Conference USA rivals Kentucky and South Carolina and joined SMU, the C-USA champion and No. 2 overall seed, in the NCAA Tournament. Other teams passed over for other conference opponents included Big Ten runner-up Ohio and Ivy League runner-up Penn.
Last year, the ACC sent a record eight teams to the NCAA Tournament. Boston College didn’t get last season, its first in the ACC. This year, BC and N.C. State were the only ACC teams not to get invites.