Georgia State’s men’s soccer team has lost its independence, and it’s for the better.
The Sun Belt Conference has added men’s soccer to its list of sponsored sports starting fall 2014, and Georgia State will be one of its inaugural members.
Men’s soccer will be the 15th sport eligible to compete for a Sun Belt tournament, and the winner will receive an automatic bid into the NCAA men’s soccer tournament.
“Very excited and grateful for all the work the administration put in to make it a reality,” men’s soccer Head Coach Brett Surrency said via email. “The Sun Belt will be a test for our program and winning it will be no small feat, but just being able to compete for a title has got our whole program pumped.”
Surrency said his team will strive each season to win the Sun Belt regular season and tournament to ensure an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament.
The Panthers have only made one NCAA tournament appearance back in 2011, losing in the first round to Duke.
“It feels good to be in the Sun Belt and to now have a championship to play,” goalkeeper CJ Cochran said.
The men’s soccer team competed independently, meaning not competing within a conference, in 2013 after the school left the Colonial Athletic Association to move into the Sun Belt in July 2013.
“Being an independent was very tough for a few seasons because, without a conference championship, you cannot earn an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, only an at-large bid, which [was] our goal,” Cochran said.
Cochran said the team’s goal now is to worry about winning the conference tournament, which guarantees a spot in the NCAA tournament.
Last fall, the men’s soccer team finished 9-9-1 and played an array of teams across the country, including two games in Seattle, Wash.
“We will not be making a cross country trip this year, but will always maintain a challenging schedule,” Surrency said. “We have a great non-conference schedule lined up for 2014, and that, coupled with our Sun Belt schedule, will make for a fun, yet competitive season.”
Midfielder Stephen McGill said having no conference to call home last season and instead playing game by game was more challenging than one might think.
“It was different not to have that added pressure of a conference game,” McGill said. “It proved challenging to try and treat each individual game with the same importance.”
McGill said he is excited to establish new rivalries within the conference, hoping that they will all “have that added intensity” that was lacking last season.
Full-time members Appalachian State, Georgia Southern and Georgia State will compete with affiliate members Hartwick, Howard and the New Jersey Institute of Technology in a round-robin schedule, playing each other twice.
Georgia Southern has always been a rival of Georgia State throughout the years, but the series is heating up with the Eagles becoming a conference foe in just about every sport, including soccer.
“Georgia Southern is always a tough game for us because they are an in-state rival,” Cochran said. “We have had success against them the past few years, and we hope to continue that success in the Sun Belt.”
Georgia State is 13-8-4 all-time with the Eagles and have won the last two encounters.
The Sun Belt tournament will feature all six schools competing at one of the school’s campuses. The top two seeds will get a first-round bye going directly to the semi-finals. The date and location for the tournament will be announced this May.
The conference has not put in place a policy for how the location of the tournament will be decided, according to Georgia State Athletics.
One option would be for the regular season champion to host the tournament. Athletics said it does not know of any attempts by Georgia State to host the first conference tournament.
Soccer was sponsored by the Sun Belt from 1976 to 1995, and was the first Sun Belt Championship in any of its sponsored sports.
