In 1996, the Charlotte 49ers men's soccer team became the first
Conference USA team in any sport to reach the National semi-finals. The Niners won a school record 19 games. They went 7–1 in Conference USA to capture the regular season title. The Niners defeated
College of Charleston,
Notre Dame and
Hartford to reach the national semi-finals before falling to
Florida International in front of 20,269 fans in
Richmond, Virginia. Goalkeeper
Jon Busch becomes the Niners' second first team All-American after recording 12 shutouts and a 0.89 goals against average. Busch also earned Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year honors. John Tart was named Conference USA Coach of the Year. The most notable season in Charlotte soccer history came in 2011 when the 49ers became the first team of any sport in school history to reach an NCAA national championship. The team was ranked in the top 25 throughout the entire season thanks to a challenging yet successful non-conference campaign. The Niners finished the regular season with an
Atlantic 10 record of 6–1–2 and 13–3–2 record overall. After an early disappointing loss to
Xavier in the
Atlantic 10 tournament, Charlotte then went on a deep run in the
NCAA Tournament. The unseeded Niners defeated
Furman, No. 11
UAB, No. 10
Akron, and No. 5
Connecticut to advance to the program's second ever College Cup in
Hoover, Alabama. The Niners went on to defeat No. 3
Creighton before falling to No. 1
North Carolina in the national championship game with a score of 1–0. Charlotte's most recent conference change was announced during the 2021–22 offseason, when it left
Conference USA (CUSA) for the American (then known in full as the American Athletic Conference). The decision of the
Sun Belt Conference to reinstate its men's soccer league effective with the 2022 season dropped the CUSA men's soccer membership to four. Of these four schools, three, including Charlotte, were scheduled to move fully to the American in the near future, with a 2023 entry date later confirmed. Accordingly, The American brought all four remaining C-USA men's soccer teams into its own soccer league. == Players ==