Women's NCAA soccer wraps up regular season play next week

The GIST: While a few Division I (DI) women’s soccer conferences will wrap up regular season play next week, a majority of the 333 squads are finalizing their standings this week, with conference tournaments kicking off the postseason — and the road to the natty — on Sunday.

How it works: Each of the 31 DI conference champs receive an automatic spot in the national tourney bracket, and while three (Pac-12, Ivy League, West Coast Conference) are determined by regular season records, the other 28 are decided by do-or-die conference championship tournaments.

• Since the Pac-12 doesn’t host a tourney, let’s visit the pitches of the other four Power Five conferences before first rounds begin.

ACC: The ACC tourney is six squads deep, unsurprisingly led by UNC, who clinched their 25th (!!!) regular-season title last night. Along with defending national champ No. 2 seed Florida State, they’ll receive a bye to next week's semifinals. Aiming to face them are Notre Dame, Virginia, Duke and Pitt, the third through sixth seeds, respectively.

Big Ten: Michigan State is atop the Big Ten for the first time in program history, setting the Spartans up to buck trends and go deep in the postseason. Their path to the championship starts with No. 8–seed Minnesota and, in all probability, ends in a final against either Northwestern or Wisconsin, the conference’s next best squads.

Big 12: Last night, the Texas Longhorns clinched the Big 12 regular season title and the No. 1 seed in the eight-team conference tournament. The TCU Horned Frogs leapt in as the No. 2 seed and, since there are just 10 squads in the Big 12, the only two to ghost on postseason play are Iowa State and Baylor.

SEC: In the SEC’s field of 10, the top six squads in the tourney don’t take the pitch until Tuesday’s quarter-finals, while the bottom four battle in Sunday’s first round. Leading the pack? No. 1 seed Alabama and No. 2 seed South Carolina.