The landscape of college lacrosse in 2025 has gone a little back and forth throughout the season. There are plenty of teams who were highly rated coming into the season that have fallen off, and some that have surprised us by jumping up the rankings. Unfortunately really in the past month or so there hasnt been as much movement as I expected to see late in the season.
In my opinion the bubble for this spring’s NCAA Tournament is set at two or three teams right now, and after this weekend’s results it might be shrinking even more. The top twelve teams in the rankings have been mostly the same for the past month. Teams 13-20 has been a revolving door with every week a number of those teams losing in upset fashion.
I wanted to take this week’s article to do a deep dive into the bracket, the bubble, and the teams that look as of now like they’ll be left out and what they need to do to get in. I do not expect things will change very much in the next few weeks, but saying this now there will most likely be mayhem in the last week of the regular season and the conference tournaments.
The Big Ten is the first league to wrap up their regular season as the Big Ten Tournament begins this weekend. Ohio State and Maryland received the #1 and #2 seeds and will have a bye to the semifinals played on May 1st. Ohio State overcame a late deficit on Saturday afternoon with a five goal run to beat their rival Michigan and clinch the #1 seed. Michigan earned the #4 seed and the Big Ten was so tight that if they had won the game they would have been the top seed. Maryland held off a pesky Hopkins team and won their rivalry game to clinch the 2nd seed and deal Hopkins a 0-5 record in conference only a year after going 5-0 in conference. The Big Ten will get three teams into the NCAA tournament (Ohio State, Maryland, Penn State). Michigan right now is a “Bubble Out” team after their loss and will need to make at least a run to the Big Ten championship to give themselves a chance. Both Rutgers and Hopkins will need to win the tournament to steal their bid into the NCAA tournament.
Big Ten locks: Ohio State, Maryland, Penn St
Bubble “Out”: Michigan
Needs to win AQ: Rutgers, Hopkins
The tides turned this past weekend in the ACC. #8 Notre Dame came back from a 4-1 halftime deficit and ran away with the game against #4 North Carolina over the weekend. #13 Duke controlled the game from start to finish in their win over #6 Syracuse at home. Both bubble teams got their much needed wins to solidify their positions as “Bubble In”. The ACC has a strong chance to get all four of their top teams into the tournament as the RPI is shifting in their favor. Notre Dame (5), UNC (6), Duke (7) and Syracuse (8) are in great spots heading into the final weekend of regular season play and the ACC tournament.
ACC “Safe”: Notre Dame, UNC, Duke, Syracuse
Must win out (No ACC AQ): Virginia
Harvard’s loss to #1 Cornell didnt do them any favors. Dropping from #6 to #10 in RPI is a considerable dip in the last couple weeks of the season, especially considering how heavily the selection committee relies on the RPI data. I would consider them safe for now but they shouldn’t mess around with losing to anyone that isnt named Cornell or Princeton.
Ivy League locks: Cornell, Princeton
Safe but beat Brown: Harvard
Needs to win AQ: Yale
The Patriot League is where things get interesting. Army is the 11th ranked team in terms of RPI. Their one loss to Boston does not help that number and for them to make the tournament it is one they will most likely have to avenge. Outside of Boston U and Army, the Patriot League just didnt do enough out of conference to warrant more teams making the tournament. The Patriot League AQ will likely have a first round road game against a tough Ivy, ACC, or Big Ten team. Army wins the Patriot League, they are in, Boston is out. Boston wins the PL, they are in, Army joins Michigan on the bubble. Unless Army loses in the semis. Any Patriot League bid stealer is not good for Army, Michigan.
Patriot League Bubble “In”: Army
Must win AQ: Boston U
Frisky Bid Stealer: Lehigh, Lafayette, Loyola (?)
Richmond and St Joes will meet this upcoming weekend in what may be a preview of the A10 semifinal between what many thought were the two best teams. High Point erased a three goal deficit on Saturday in their upset win over St. Joes. They will likely end the conference season at 4-1 and secure the #2 seed. St. Joes now needs to beat Richmond to avoid dropping to the #4 seed and traveling to Richmond for the semifinal matchup. The loss really opens the door for High Point or Umass to make a run through the conference tournament. The A10 is wide open going into the last weekend of the regular season.
Must win AQ: Richmond, High Point, Umass, St. Joes
Fairfield and Towson met at Johnny Unitas Stadium on Saturday in what was a game to determine the host for the CAA tournament. The game was even throughout the first half before Towson shut out the #15 team in the country for 25 minutes in the second half and by the time Fairfield scored again the game was all but over. Mikey Weisshaar dazzled and showed why he deserved to be on the Tewaaraton List, scoring 4 and assisting on 2. With one regular season game remaining the tournament field is finalized: Towson, Fairfield, Hofstra, Drexel will be the four teams. Towson is the #1 seed, this weekend will determine seeding for the other three who sit at 4-2. With wins over Hofstra and Drexel already, Fairfield should wrap up the #2 seed with a win over Monmouth. Towson heads to Hofstra and with a win may play them again in less than a week. Drexel will head to Delaware.
Must win AQ: Towson, Fairfield, Hofstra, Drexel
The Big East is as down this year as I’ve ever seen. That being said, do not count Georgetown out to put someone on upset alert in the NCAA tournament. Their loss two weeks ago to Denver was mind boggling…3 goals? They followed that up by pounding St. John’s and scoring 21, the most so far this season. It makes me think they might bounce back. They play Villanova this weekend to determine the top seed in the Big East tournament. Denver and Providence sit at 2-2 in conference lurking at a potential upset bid into the Big East championship game.
Must win AQ: Georgetown, Villanova, Denver
Unless there is a major upset in one of the last four conferences above, the final four conference champions will end up in the play-in games for chances to meet the #1 and #2 seeds.
Utah, Jacksonville and Air Force will vie for the ASUN berth. After starting the season 1-7, Utah has rattled off four straight conference wins including a high scoring affair with Jacksonville. I expect those two to meet again in the conference championship.
ASUN AQ: Utah or Jacksonville
The America East is deeper than usual this season with no clear cut top dog. The Retrievers of UMBC do sit at 5-1 in conference but they didn’t show up against the 4-1 team Bryant. Albany has recently had some good teams that dominate the AE but they are middle of the pack this season. Same with Vermont, who has recently sent talented squads to the NCAA tournament. But this year, all these teams have losses to each other so right now it is hard to tell who is favored to come out of the America East.
Sacred Heart out of the MAAC is ranked in the top-20 this week. Their only conference loss is to Canisius, who finished conference play 6-2. Siena has also put together a solid season, and their only conference loss is to Sacred Heart.
Finally, the NEC will finish up their regular season on Saturday and the matchup to look for is Robert Morris/Le Moyne. Two years after a D2 semifinal appearance, the Dolphins could find themselves facing a D1 tournament berth. RMU and LIU are two tough matchups and they likely will have to play both in back to back weeks.
After all that we are left with this. Just one weekend left in the regular season for most teams. A few have completed their season and have the weekend off. The Big Ten tournament begins on Saturday. Next week I will have my conference tournament preview and in just two short weeks we will have a bracket in our hands. Welcome to postseason lacrosse.
April 22 – Bracketology
- Cornell (Ivy)
- Maryland (B10)
- Princeton
- Ohio State
- Penn State
- Notre Dame
- UNC
- Duke
Syracuse
Harvard
Army (Patriot)
Richmond (A10)
Towson (CAA)
Georgetown (Big East)
UMBC (America East)
Utah (ASUN)
Sacred Heart (MAAC)
Robert Morris (NEC)
Bubble: Michigan
Lacrosse Analyst
Sam Kuhn currently is the graduate assistant for the men’s lacrosse program at Heidelberg University in Tiffin, Ohio and is working to complete his Masters of Business Administration in 2020. Sam graduated from the College of Wooster in 2018, where he received his Bachelors Degree in English and played lacrosse as well. In his four years, Sam was a two time All-NCAC selection, a first team All-Region selection in 2018, and surpassed 100 goals for his career, one of seven members in program history to do so. Sam has interned with Inside Lacrosse, and wrote for the sports section of The Wooster Voice.