2004 NIRSA National Soccer Championship

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) 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.

Women's open
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Men's open
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Tournament Continuation
The 24 teams that did not finish play (semifinalists in men's championship, women's championship, men's open, and men's consolation as well as quarterfinalists for women's open) in November 2004 were offered the opportunity to complete their bracket in Mesa, Arizona on Saturday, January 8, 2005. In order for the tournament to be held, at least 75% of the teams remaining in each division would need to agree to play. The only division that accomplished this was the men's championship that fielded 3 of the 4 remaining teams: Colorado State, UC-Berkeley, and Texas A&M. North Carolina elected not to participate in the continuation and finished fourth by default. The women's championship division decided to declare all four semifinalists national champions while the remaining divisions elected instead for a decision of no contest with no champion being declared, the first time in any division where this occurred.

Format
All teams were only allowed to use players that were certified on their original rosters. Since not all of the four teams were able to attend, a 3-team round robin was used to determine a champion. All games consisted of 40 minute halves, separated by a ten-minute half-time. Games that ended in a tie after regulation would go into a two ten-minute sudden victory overtime periods, changing ends after the conclusion of the first overtime period. If still tied, penalty kicks would determine a winner. Following the round robin, the champion would be the team with the best record using the 3 points for a win system.

Competition
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Men's championship
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