The NU men’s soccer team will hit the road to play defending national champion Akron on Thursday in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The winner will advance to play at No. 6 seed SMU. The complete bracket is here.

While NU (11-4-5) won the Big Ten title on Sunday and was ranked No. 25 in the last week's coaches poll, it had a not-as-impressive RPI of 41, which likely contributed to its unseeded status. Still, though, the Wildcats are back in the 48-team tourney after missing out last year. As I said below, we’ll have a full preview up later this week.

Indiana, the No. 16 seed, is the other Big Ten team in the tournament. North Carolina is the No. 1 seed. The College Cup final four will be held Dec. 9 and 11 in Hoover, Ala.