ACC Men's Soccer Championship Underway...

Let's face it, every year the Atlantic Coast Conference provides some of the biggest names in the MLS Draft and more importantly many of the players who actually make a professional career in MLS. No, I haven't done an exact study but lets look at some of the recent big names to come through the MLS draft.

2008 #7 - Patrick Nyarko - Virginia Tech
2008 #10 - Pat Phelan - Wake Forest
2007 #1 - Maurice Edu - Maryland
2007 #2 - Bakary Soumare - Virginia
2007 #3 - Michael Harrington - North Carolina
2007 #4 - Chris Seitz - Maryland
2007 #5 - Wells Thompson - Wake Forest
2007 #6 - Nico Colaluca - Virginia
2007 #19 - Dane Richards - Clemson
2006 #3 - Jason Garey - Maryland
2006 #6 - Dax McCarty - North Carolina
2006 #7 - Justin Moose - Wake Forest
2006 #12 - Nathan Sturgis - Clemson
2005 #2 - Brad Guzan - South Carolina
2005 #7 - Hunter Freeman - Virginia
2005 #9 - Michael Parkhurst - Wake Forest
2005 #11 - Scott Sealy - Wake Forest
2005 #13 - Jamie Watson - North Carolina
2005 #20 - Marcus Storey - North Carolina
2005 #21 - James Riley - Wake Forest

You get the point. While the Pac 10, Big 10, Big East and other conferences do provide players to MLS, also who are drafted higher or have better careers, statistically speaking you're bound to find a solid pro in the ACC more often. There just seem to be more of them.

So now to the point of this post. The ACC Men's Soccer Championship kicked off yesterday with a first round game between #8 NC State and #9 Virginia Tech. It seems without Nyarko VT can't score anymore and they lost to NC State 3-1. NC State won the right to play #1 Wake Forest today...lucky them. Wake has been outstanding this season putting together a 17-0-1 record. Yes, only one draw all week...no losses.

The other matches:
#2 Maryland vs. #7 North Carolina
#3 Boston College vs. #6 Clemson
#4 Virginia vs. #5 Duke

Check out the All-ACC teams for this season to see many of the names you'll see in the draft come January.