In a season that began with realistic expectations of winning the College Cup (equivalent of the NCAA Tournament), the SMU men's soccer team took a big step towards that goal by defeating No. 17 University of Alabama-Birmingham for the Conference USA Title. With the conference championship in hand, the Mustangs earn an automatic bid to the Men's Soccer Championship.

SMU began the regular season with a preseason ranking of No. 5 in the nation. However, a slow start dropped the Mustangs out of the rankings and forced the team to climb out of a hole. However, the Mustangs finished strong by winning five of their last eight games and entered the tournament as the No. 5 seed.

In the first round, SMU dispatched Marshall with a strong offensive display, 4-3. In the next game, the SMU defense came through by shutting down the No. 1 seed South Carolina, 1-0. And with their 2-0 win over UAB, the offense and defense were both running on all cylinders.

SMU scored their first goal in the 34th minute when junior Ben Hill scored off a free kick from senior Arthur Ivo. Freshman Aaron Simmons scored the second point of the game and his second of the season in the 59th minute when he headed a cornerkick from Ivo into the net to give SMU an insurance score.

Four SMU players took home awards along with the championship trophy. Despite not scoring in the championship game, Ivo was named Offensive MVP of the tournament; he has a team-high 28 points for the season. Senior Diogo de Almeida was named Defensive MVP. Finally, goalkeeper Jaime Ibarra - who shut out the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds of the tournament back-to-back - and T.J. Nelson were named to the All-Tournament team.

SMU will enter the NCAA tournament as a No. 6 seed, gets a bye in the first round and will then host the winner of Akron/Northwestern on Sunday, November 20 at Westcott Field. Akron is the defending College Cup champions.