The 2019 Big Ten Conference men's soccer season was the 29th season of men's varsity soccer in the conference. The regular season began on August 30, 2019, and concluded on November 3, 2019. The season culminated with the 2019 Big Ten Conference Men's Soccer Tournament to determine the conference's automatic berth into the 2019 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament. The tournament began on November 10, 2019 and concluded on November 17, 2019.
Indiana finished the season as the Big Ten Champions. Maryland enters the season as the defending NCAA Tournament champions. Indiana went on to win the Big Ten regular season and tournament.
The previous season was the 28th season of men's varsity soccer in the conference. The 2018 Big Ten regular season began on August 24, 2018 concluded on October 28, 2018. The season culminated with the 2018 Big Ten Conference Men's Soccer Tournament to determine the conference's automatic berth into the 2018 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament. Indiana went on to win both the regular season and the tournament, winning all eight of their Big Ten Conference games. They defeated Michigan in the Big Ten Men's Soccer Championship Game.[1]
With the Big Ten title, Indiana earned the conference's automatic berth into the 2018 NCAA Tournament, where Maryland, Michigan, and Michigan State joined as at-large berths.[2] The conference had the strongest showing in the NCAA Tournament, where three of their four berths reached the College Cup (Final Four) of the tournament.[3] Big Ten side, Maryland,[4] would defeat Akron in the National Championship Game to win their fourth NCAA title, and their first since 2008.[5][6]
2019 Big Ten Men's Soccer All-Conference Teams[31]
First Team Honorees
Second Team Honorees
All-Freshman Team Honorees
Sportsmanship Award Honorees
Forward
Nebojsa Popovic, Michigan*
Liam Butts, Penn State Midfield Aidan Morris, Indiana
Eli Crognale, Maryland
Jack Hallahan, Michigan*
Aaron Molloy, Penn State* Defense
Jack Maher, Indiana*
Johannes Bergmann, Maryland*
Jackson Ragen, Michigan
Brandon Hackenberg, Penn State Goalkeeper
Andrew Verdi, Michigan
Forward
Eric Matzelevich, Maryland
Matt Moderwell, Northwestern Midfield
Joshua Penn, Indiana
Marc Ybarra, Michigan
Jack Holland, Ohio State
Pablo Ávila, Rutgers Defense
Spencer Glass, Indiana
Simon Waever, Indiana
Patrick Nielsen, Michigan State
Garrett Opperman, Northwestern Goalkeeper
Niklas Neumann, Maryland
Herbert Endeley, Indiana Aidan Morris, Indiana* Joshua Penn, Indiana* Malcolm Johnson, Maryland
Nick Richardson, Maryland
Derick Broche, Michigan
Liam Butts, Penn State*
Kris Shakes, Penn State Jalen Watson, Penn State*
Hugo Le Guennec, Rutgers
Jackson Temple, Rutgers*
Jack Maher, Indiana
Nick Richardson, Maryland
Kevin Buca, Michigan
Cody Sweatte, Michigan State
Mac Mazolla, Northwestern
Parker Siegfried, Ohio State
Will Campbell, Penn State
Jake Longo, Rutgers
Noah Leibold, Wisconsin
To earn "consensus" status, a player must win honors based on a point system computed from the four different all-America teams. The point system consists of three points for first team, two points for second team and one point for third team. No honorable mention or fourth team or lower are used in the computation. The top five totals plus ties are first team and the next five plus ties are second team.[32]
The Homegrown Player Rule is a Major League Soccer program that allows MLS teams to sign local players from their own development academies directly to MLS first team rosters. Before the creation of the rule in 2008,[37] every player entering Major League Soccer had to be assigned through one of the existing MLS player allocation processes, such as the MLS SuperDraft.
To place a player on its homegrown player list, making him eligible to sign as a homegrown player, players must have resided in that club's home territory and participated in the club's youth development system for at least one year.[38] Players can play college soccer and still be eligible to sign a homegrown contract.
