Collegiate Rocket League ready for its own Sweet 16

The Collegiate Rocket League Conference Playoffs are winding down to their own version of the Sweet 16, starting Monday.

On Monday, the Southern Conference will feature LSU Purple as they take on UNC Charlotte in one of the Conference semi-finals. The other semi-final will put together Texas A & M and University of North Texas. UNCC defeated wildcard Clemson 4-2, Texas' A-Team 4-1 and Auburn 4-0. LSU Purple won the Southern Conference regular season while Texas A & M defeated Florida 4-1, who beat Georgia Tech via forfeit and Louisiana Lafayette 4-2. North Texas finished 2nd in the conference.

Also on Monday, the Western Conference will witness CS Long Beach square off against Cal Poly Pamona. Moreover, Cal Poly SLO's A Team, since they are allowed by the rules to field more than one team, will face the only school left in this conference not from California, the Arizona Wildcats. Cal Poly SLO's A Team and CS Long Beach finished in the top 2 in their conference. Cal Poly Pamona ended Washington State's run with a close 4-3 series win. Arizona were more convincing when they defeated UC Santa Barbara 4-1.

Tuesday will fill out the remainder of the quarter-finals when University of Illinois-Urbana face the Ohio State University in the Northern Conference and Indiana University take on the only Canadian team left standing, Toronto's University of Guleph-Humber. Ohio State, meanwhile won an open qualifier to make the playoffs. They defeated Wisconsin-Stevens Point 4-0, Iow State 4-1 and Ravens Red (Carleton University) 4-0. Illinois qualified after winning the regular Rocket League season. Indiana defeated Ryerson 4-0, who defeated Grand Valley 4-1, who beat Colorado 4-2. UGH finished second in the regular season.

Tuesday will also showcase the Eastern Conference when Wentworth Tech face Northeastern's Team Red. The other semi-final in the East would feature two long-time traditional sports rivals Maryland and Penn State. Northeastern and Maryland finished 1st and 2nd in their regular season, respectively. Wentworth defeated Rochester Tech's A Team 4-1 to advance while Penn State defeated Drexel 4-1 to advance to their match against Maryland.

After the Conference finals are done and dusted, the winners will advance to the "winner's side" of a double elimination bracket, where the advantage would be that they would only have to win two best of seven matches to win the championship. If they lose one match, they would have another shot at obtaining the championship. The losers from the Conference Finals would go to the "loser's side" of the bracket, for survival. That would mean they would have to keep winning and one loss would eliminate them from the tournament.

The first placed team in the tournament will receive $5,000 per player in scholarship money. Second place will receive $3,000 per player. Third place will receive $2,200 per player. Fourth place gets $1,700 per player and 5th through 8th will receive $1,200 per player.

The final tournament will be announced at a later date, so that the students that are still in the tournament can concentrate on their mid-terms.