It’s playoff time for colleges and pros: The Texas Longhorns have a tough road in the NCAA tournament; they’re off to Chapel Hill, N.C., where they face James Madison (14-6-1) Friday night, then most likely the host, top seed, and defending champion North Carolina in the second round.
The Big 12 got three other bids: Tournament champion Oklahoma State earned a No. 3 seed and a host site, Texas A&M got No. 4 but must travel to Minnesota, and Oklahoma plays Washington on No. 1-seeded Portland’s home turf.

In Division II, the sixth-ranked St. Edward’s women (16-1-1) lost their last game of the regular season, 1-0, at St. Mary’s in San Antonio, but still earned the No. 1 seed in the NCAA South Central Region, the right to host the regional tourney this weekend, and a bye into the second round. Fourth- and fifth-seeded Abilene Christian and Angelo State play Friday at noon; the Hilltoppers take on the winner Sunday, 1pm at the SEU Soccer Field for a spot in the NCAA Sweet 16.

Major League Soccer semifinals are this weekend: San Jose at Colorado, Saturday, Nov. 13, 8:30pm on FSC, and FC Dallas at Los Angeles, Sunday, Nov. 14, 8pm on ESPN2. The final is Sunday, Nov. 21, in Toronto.

The U.S. Women lost to Mexico for the first time ever, 2-1, in the World Cup qualifying tournament last week. Mexico and Canada claimed the region’s guaranteed spots in WC2011, but the U.S. is still alive; a 3-0 win over Costa Rica in the third-place game put them into a playoff against Europe’s fifth-place team, Italy, to be played Nov. 20 & 27.

Rumors and half-baked plans continue to swirl around the vacuum that was the Austin Aztex. A couple of blogs reported that an unnamed Aztex minority owner attended the North American Soccer League annual meeting in Miami over the weekend with a view of reviving a team here in 2012. Meanwhile, some of the folks involved in previous teams in Austin are still around (as is Aztex CEO Djorn Buchholz), and at least one group is “exploring the option” of forming a community-owned team; see www.austinphoenixsoccer.com for more info on that effort.

This article appears in November 12 • 2010.

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