1. Who are the favorites?
There are four No. 1 seeds because the bracket gets messy if there aren't, but Notre Dame and North Carolina enter the NCAA Tournament as the teams to beat, and as teams with something to prove after both lost in the quarterfinals of last season's tournament.
Replacing a host of starters from last year's team, Anson Dorrance's Tar Heels dropped their season opener in double-overtime against Texas A&M, an almost unheard-of occurrence for the most dominant program in the history of the sport, and arguably the most dominant in the history of any college team sport. All they did to bounce back was reel off 21 wins in a row, including wins against Portland, Florida, Wake Forest and Florida State (twice). And while there are too many gifted players in this year's bracket to say with certainty that North Carolina has the two best in Heather O'Reilly and Yael Averbuch, you're going to have a devil of a time figuring out an argument that proves they don't.
It's also worth mentioning that with the College Cup in Cary, N.C., the Tar Heels face less travel time this postseason than many of their fans have in commuting to work.
North Carolina allowed a total of seven goals in its 21 wins, which coincidentally, is the exact number of goals allowed by Notre Dame in posting a 20-0-1 record. Both teams have high-profile players up front in UNC's O'Reilly and Notre Dame sophomore Kerri Hanks, but they also have defenses which make most of the goals scored by their teammates an exercise in excess. And while the strength of the Big East is a frequent source of debate, it's tough to cast too many aspersions on the validity of Notre Dame's spotless record with a 3-1 win against Santa Clara on the books.
Where North Carolina is loaded with freshmen and sophomores surrounding O'Reilly, Notre Dame has deep senior leadership in four-year starters Jen Buczkowski, Jill Krivacek, Kim Lorenzen and Christie Shaner, all of whom well remember both the sting of last season's premature end and the joy of the national title they were a part of in 2004.
But this isn't the BCS, and neither the Tar Heels nor Fighting Irish are guaranteed a place in the championship game. This year's field offers more evidence of the increasing parity in women's college sports, as talent continues to multiply and disperse across the country 25 years after Title IX. Among the next tier of contenders, Santa Clara is the most familiar face. The Broncos lost four games during the regular season, but they also played what was likely the nation's top schedule, beating tourney teams in Wake Forest, Utah, Connecticut, Texas A&M, Tennessee, UCLA, Stanford and Portland. Injuries have knocked several key contributors out of action during the season, but Jerry Smith's team is battle-tested and still hasn't seen the best out of Team USA Under-20 stars Jordan Angeli and Amanda Poach.
The fourth No. 1 seed, Texas won't get the attention North Carolina, Notre Dame and Santa Clara get, but the Longhorns have nonconference wins against Illinois and Penn State to go along with a Big 12 title, and a goal scorer in Kelsey Carpenter who can help the Longhorns reach the College Cup for the first time.
1b. So who makes it to Cary?
I'll take Notre Dame, UCLA, North Carolina and Santa Clara
2. What opening weekend site will have the best games?
Placing a heavy emphasis on minimizing travel costs when putting together the bracket is an understandable necessity in a sport like soccer, and while it leaves some teams with unfairly difficult paths to the third round, it also creates some terrific games for fans during the opening two rounds.
With that in mind, the state of North Carolina is clearly the place to be this weekend. UNC is the heavy favorite to advance from the four teams competing in Chapel Hill, but even the Tar Heels could have to put in a full day of work in a second-round meeting with either Navy or William and Mary. Those two teams, with a combined record of 37-2-3, will meet in a game that guarantees one great story will get a shot at a second game and one will head home too early.
But the real fireworks could come up the road in Winston Salem, N.C., where familiarity will almost certainly breed contempt when Wake Forest hosts an ultracompetitive quartet that also includes West Virginia, Virginia and Old Dominion.
Ranked in the top 10 most of the season, the Mountaineers will still be smarting after blowing a 2-0 lead against Rutgers in the semifinals of the Big East tournament. Sophomore Deana Everett, who ranks among the nation's leaders with 18 goals, could easily turn the opening weekend into a personal showcase of her star potential. And the Cavaliers, who tied 1-1 with the Mountaineers during the regular season and now face them again in one of the most compelling first-round games, are no strangers to playing the Demon Deacons, having dropped a 2-1 decision in the ACC quarterfinals after beating them by the same score on Sept. 21. In other words, all of these coaches won't have to go far to find tape of their opponents.
But for the best game of the opening round, you'll need to find your way to Santa Clara, where the top-seeded Broncos somehow find themselves squaring off against USC. Granted, USC fell on hard times after starting the season 7-1-1, with a 2-0 loss to Notre Dame the only blemish on its record. A loss against Loyola Marymount on Sept. 24 was no embarrassment given how well the Lions played this season, but it launched a 1-2-4 stretch in which USC scored just three goals. Wins against Washington and Oregon State at the end of the Pac-10 season offered some reason for optimism, but a 3-1 loss at Oregon to close the regular season wasn't the best way to build momentum.
Still, for all the reasons to doubt USC, facing any team with Amy Rodriguez on the field is far more dangerous than squaring off against Oakland, Long Island or UNC-Asheville, the opponents for the other three No. 1 seeds.
3. What is the best potential third-round game?
The opening weekend of 48 games offers plenty to mull over all on its own, but part of the fun of staring at a blank bracket is looking ahead. Sure, accurately predicting the first two rounds is a nearly impossible feat, but why let that get in the way of some serious prognostication?
The West Coast Conference has been arguably the best league in the country in recent years, capturing three of the last five championships (two for Portland, one for Santa Clara), but the road to a fourth title heads uphill from the outset.
According to the folks filling out the bracket, Portland isn't even supposed to reach the third round. The defending champs have dealt with their fair share of adversity this season, losing Megan Rapinoe to a torn ACL just as she was coming into her own as Christine Sinclair's replacement. But they averaged two goals a game without Rapinoe at the end of the season, and they still have the core of a defense, led by U.S. international Stephanie Lopez and keeper Cori Alexander, that pitched a shutout in the College Cup last season. If they survive a tough excursion to Utah, where they open with BYU and then would likely play Utah in the second round, it sets up an opportunity to prove doubters wrong against a very good Texas team in the third round. It would be a classic battle between a wounded champion and a challenger looking to make a statement by dethroning the title holders.
And should Santa Clara avoid the upset bug against USC and get by the winner of Nevada and Stanford in the second round, we could get to watch another showdown between the WCC and the Big 12, if Oklahoma State holds form. Of course, while the Cowboys are the fourth seed in their part of the bracket, they have to go on the road to Clemson for the opening weekend in a pod that includes the host school, Vanderbilt and UNC Greensboro.
4. Which team has the biggest gripe about being left out?
When it comes to the lack of a postseason tournament in college football, fans and critics alike tend to focus on the fact that one game, no matter when it occurs, can make or break a team's entire season. And it's true that a 64-team field ensures a team like Santa Clara or Texas won't miss out on a chance to win a championship because of a bad day or a tough schedule, but it doesn't entirely eliminate the prospect of a team's season boiling down to one result in early September. Just ask Dartmouth.
Left out of the bracket despite being ranked No. 21 in the last NSCAA poll to come out before the selection process (they were 26th in the most recent Soccer Buzz poll, which also made them the highest-rated team left out of the bracket), Dartmouth can obviously look back with regret to a 2-0 loss to Columbia on Oct. 21, a result which ultimately decided the Ivy League's regular-season title and automatic bid. But perhaps the Big Green's fate was really sealed with a whistle three minutes into overtime in the first game of the year. Opening the season in the Auburn Classic against the host school, Dartmouth outshot the Tigers 8-6 in a scoreless draw through 90 minutes of regulation, only to lose in overtime on a penalty kick. Roughly 14 hours later, Dartmouth played Vanderbilt and dropped a 3-2 decision after leading 2-1 in the second half.
Two good efforts against quality SEC teams, both of whom ultimately found their way into the NCAA Tournament, but two losses all the same. And apparently, quality losses didn't hold much sway in the selection process when it came to Dartmouth.
This was undeniably a down year for the Ivy League, but it's a conference that has proven itself worthy of at-large consideration in recent years. Princeton advanced to the College Cup in 2004, Yale advanced to the Sweet 16 last season after beating Duke in the second round and Dartmouth pushed Boston College to the limit before dropping a memorable first-round game last season. And Dartmouth took care of business in the conference, losing only on the road against the eventual champion.
Every bracket is going to exclude someone with a legitimate gripe, and this year's task was made that much more difficult by teams like Oakland (8-10-1) and UAB (8-11-1) earning automatic bids by winning conference
tournaments. But leaving out Dartmouth was a mistake.
Among other omissions, Oregon may have the biggest complaint, and fans of the Ducks wasted little time in firing off e-mails expressing disgust at the committee leaving their team home. The primary source of contention is that it's baffling that the second-place team in the Pac-10 would be overlooked, especially when Cal and USC, teams which finished behind the Ducks in the conference, made the cut. Even more galling is the fact that Oregon beat USC 3-1 the day before the bracket was announced.
An 0-3 start to the season and weak nonconference schedule likely did in the Ducks. Their best opponents were Loyola Marymount and Portland, but the Ducks lost both games and it's clear the committee, for whatever reason, didn't think much of the West Coast Conference this season anyway. That said, passing over a team that went 6-1-2 in a major conference, and a conference that doesn't have a postseason tournament, justifiably leads to more questions about the selection process.
5. Who or what are you most looking forward to seeing?
Players: Lauren Cheney and Danesha Adams
Neither played the full season for UCLA due to various national team commitments, but Cheney and Adams are worth the price of admission. The nation's top recruit last season, Cheney has scored 15 goals in 16 games this season. And while Adams hasn't replicated last season's production (21 goals in 26 games) she remains one of the most gifted players in the country. The Bruins perhaps haven't quite lived up to their offensive potential yet this season, which is a scary thought considering they posted a 17-3-0 record.
Teams: Loyola Marymount and Portland
No team will take more from the experience of making the NCAA Tournament than Loyola Marymount, whose players found their love of the sport tested last season following the death of a teammate. That's not to say the Lions will be happy just to be here. This is a good team, one which beat USC, Oklahoma State and Portland and tied Santa Clara during the regular season, and one which could challenge UCLA if it advances to the second round.
Portland's progress will also be interesting to watch. It's rare that a defending champ is put in the position of likable underdog, but that's more or less where the Pilots find themselves after Christine Sinclair's graduation and Megan Rapinoe's season-ending injury. Freshman Michelle Enyeart, who scored 16 goals despite starting just 13 games this season, looks like Portland's next goal-scoring phenomenon, and contributing to a deep run in this year's tourney would only enhance her budding profile. Along those lines, the postseason offers an opportunity for Angie Woznuk and even Stephanie Lopez to earn the well-earned attention they sometimes ceded while playing alongside Sinclair.
Theme: Flyover states
Notre Dame has long represented the states in the middle of the country with aplomb, and Penn State has certainly had its share of success, but it's time for the Big 12 to come up big in the postseason. Texas, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M and Colorado all have the talent to make deep runs, and it will be a little disappointing if none of them make an appearance in Cary.
Graham Hays is a regular contributor to ESPN.com's soccer coverage. E-mail him at Graham.Hays@espn3.com.