2016 NCAA Division I men's soccer tournament

The 2016 NCAA Division I men's soccer tournament (also known as the 2016 College Cup) was the 58th annual single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of NCAA Division I men's collegiate soccer. The first, second, third, and quarterfinal rounds were held at college campus sites across the United States during November and December 2016, with host sites determined by seeding and record. The four-team College Cup finals was played at BBVA Compass Stadium in Houston, Texas on December 9 and 11, 2016.

The Stanford Cardinal successfully defended their 2015 title. Stanford played the North Carolina Tar Heels to a scoreless draw in the semifinals before winning a penalty shootout, 10–9, to advance to the Championship game. The Cardinal then also tied the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, 0–0, in the final before claiming the back-to-back title with another penalty shootout victory, 5–4.

Stanford tied the NCAA record for the Lowest Goals-Against Average in the Tournament (Minimum 3 Games) of 0.00 by becoming the fourth team to not allow their opponents to score a goal in the tournament. The other three co-record-holders are the 1976 San Francisco Dons, the 1995 Wisconsin Badgers, and the 2009 Akron Zips.

Qualification
All Division I men's soccer programs except for Grand Canyon, Incarnate Word, and UMass Lowell will be eligible to qualify for the tournament. Those three programs are ineligible because they are in transition from Division II to Division I. The tournament field remains fixed at 48 teams.

Of the 24 schools that had previously won the championship, 13 qualified for this year's tournament.

Format
As in previous editions of the NCAA Division I Tournament, the tournament features 48 participants out of a possible field of 203 teams. Of the 48 berths, 24 are allocated to the 21 conference tournament champions and to the regular season winners of the Ivy League, Pac-12 Conference, and West Coast Conference, which do not have tournaments. The remaining 24 berths are supposed to be determined through an at-large process based upon the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) of teams that did not automatically qualify.

The NCAA Selection Committee also names the top sixteen seeds for the tournament, with those teams receiving an automatic bye into the second round of the tournament. The remaining 32 teams play in a single-elimination match in the first round of the tournament for the right to play a seeded team in the second round.

Goalscorers

 * 4 goals


 * 🇩🇪 Julian Gressel — Providence


 * 3 goals


 * 🇫🇷 Alex Happi — Clemson
 * 🇺🇸 Foster Langsdorf — Stanford
 * 🇨🇦 Brian Wright — Vermont
 * 🇬🇭 Nico Quashie — Virginia Tech
 * 🇪🇸 Jon Bakero — Wake Forest


 * 2 goals


 * 🇺🇸 Nick Hinds — Akron
 * 🇺🇸 Austen Burnikel — Clemson
 * 🇺🇸 Kortne Ford — Denver
 * 🇧🇷 Andre Shinyashiki — Denver
 * 🇪🇸 Albert Ruiz — Florida Gulf Coast
 * 🇺🇸 Tate Schmitt — Louisville
 * 🇧🇦 Amar Sejdič — Maryland
 * 🇺🇸 Tucker Hume — North Carolina
 * Jon Gallagher — Notre Dame
 * 🇨🇴 Sergio Camargo — Syracuse
 * 🇬🇭 Abu Danladi — UCLA
 * Marcelo Acuña — Virginia Tech
 * 🇬🇭 Ema Twumasi — Wake Forest


 * 1 goal


 * Carlos Clark — Albany
 * 🇧🇷 Bernardo Mattos — Albany
 * 🇧🇷 Afonso Pinheiro — Albany
 * Nicolás Solabarrieta — Albany
 * Zeiko Lewis — Boston College
 * 🇺🇸 Brandt Bronico — Charlotte
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Daniel Bruce — Charlotte
 * 🇮🇸 Einar Einarsson — Coastal Carolina
 * Frantzdy Pierrot — Coastal Carolina
 * 🇺🇸 Zach Pagani — Colgate
 * 🇺🇸 Bruno Scodari — Colgate
 * 🇺🇸 Myles Englis — Creighton
 * 🇺🇸 Mitch LaGro — Creighton
 * 🇺🇸 Ricky Lopez-Espin — Creighton
 * 🇲🇽 Ricardo Perez — Creighton
 * 🇸🇪 Joel Rydstrand — Creighton
 * 🇺🇸 Karim Sawaf — Creighton
 * 🇺🇸 Matt Danilack — Dartmouth
 * 🇺🇸 Chandler Crosswait — Denver
 * 🇺🇸 Scott DeVoss — Denver
 * 🇺🇸 Alex Underwood — Denver
 * 🇪🇸 Robert Ferrer — Florida Gulf Coast
 * 🇺🇸 Justin Gavin — Florida Gulf Coast
 * 🇺🇸 Grant Lillard — Indiana
 * 🇺🇸 Billy McConnell — Indiana
 * 🇺🇸 Kevin Barajas — Kentucky
 * 🇺🇸 J. J. Williams — Kentucky
 * 🇸🇳 Cherif Dieye — Louisville
 * 🇺🇸 Jack Gayton — Louisville
 * 🇸🇳 Mohamed Thiaw — Louisville
 * 🇺🇸 Kevin Engesser — Loyola-Chicago
 * 🇺🇸 Alec Lasinski — Loyola-Chicago
 * 🇩🇪 Gordon Wild — Maryland
 * 🇺🇸 Eryk Williamson — Maryland
 * 🇨🇦 Michael Marcantognini — Michigan State
 * 🇺🇸 Patrick Khouri — New Mexico
 * 🇩🇪 Nils Bruening — North Carolina
 * 🇺🇸 Jeremy Kelly — North Carolina
 * 🇺🇸 Drew Murphy — North Carolina
 * 🇺🇸 Tariq Branche — Pacific
 * 🇺🇸 Danny Griffin — Providence
 * 🇺🇸 Steven Kilday — Providence
 * 🇺🇸 Brendan Reardon — Providence
 * 🇺🇸 Nick Sailor — Providence
 * João Serrano — Providence
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Fraser Colmer — Radford
 * 🇫🇷 Arthur Herpreck — Rider
 * 🇺🇸 A. J. Vergara — San Diego State
 * 🇺🇸 Tomas Hilliard-Arce — Stanford
 * 🇺🇸 Sam Werner — Stanford
 * 🇺🇸 Austin Ledbetter — SIU Edwardsville
 * 🇺🇸 Keegan McHugh — SIU Edwardsville
 * 🇺🇸 Kevin Walker — South Carolina
 * 🇺🇸 Marcus Epps — South Florida
 * Lindo Mfeka — South Florida
 * 🇨🇦 Chris Nanco — Syracuse
 * 🇲🇽 José Hernández — UCLA
 * 🇺🇸 Kike Poleo — UCLA
 * 🇺🇸 Willie Raygoza — UCLA
 * 🇺🇸 Adam Musovski — UNLV
 * 🇮🇸 Jon Arnar Barðdal — Vermont
 * 🇨🇦 Stefan Lamanna — Vermont
 * Pablo Aguilar — Virginia
 * 🇺🇸 Paddy Foss — Virginia
 * 🇺🇸 Brendan Moyers — Virginia Tech
 * 🇺🇸 Forrest White — Virginia Tech
 * 🇪🇸 Luis Argudo — Wake Forest
 * 🇺🇸 Ian Harkes — Wake Forest
 * 🇺🇸 Jacori Hayes — Wake Forest
 * 🇺🇸 Beau Blanchard — Washington
 * 🇨🇦 Scott Menzies — Washington
 * 🇺🇸 Elijah Rice — Washington
 * 🇺🇸 Justin Schmidt — Washington
 * 🇺🇸 Steven Wright — Washington


 * Own goals


 * 🇺🇸 Tanner Dieterich — Clemson (playing against South Carolina)
 * 🇺🇸 Kaelon Fox — Kentucky (playing against Creighton)