MAYHEM HAS ARRIVED: Conference Championship Weekend Preview

The final weekend of the regular season was a pretty slow one. There were a bunch of teams who didn’t play and a handful of the games that were played didn’t have any real implications on the postseason. The 2025 regular season is complete and the fields are set for each conference tournament which continues with the Patriot League quarterfinals on Tuesday. Let’s take a look at how we got here and some things to look forward to coming up beginning chronologically with the Patriot League. Welcome to “Mayhem”.

Patriot League

#5 Colgate @ #4 Lehigh, Tuesday 7pm
#6 Navy @ #3 Lafayette, Tuesday 7:30pm

Lowest remaining seed @ #1 Army, Friday 4pm
Highest remaining seed @ #2 Boston, Friday 7pm
Championship Game, Sunday 11:30am

Starting out with a potential bid stealing conference in the Patriot League. Army is the favorites here but they have to avenge a regular season loss to Boston in order to make the tournament. Only the winner is guaranteed in. We will discuss the potential bubble later on. This tournament is deep though and I could see the 5 and 6 seed in the semifinals. Navy took #1 seed Army to overtime just a couple of weeks ago. Colgate was a top-15 team in the country for two months before falling off in conference. Anything can happen in the Patriot League tournament. My Pick: Army over Boston 12-10

A10

#4 Umass vs #1 Richmond, Thursday 11am
#2 High Point @ #3 St Joes, Thursday 2pm
Championship Game, Saturday Noon

Despite losing two straight to end the season St. Joes was the designated host and will play the tournament at home. They also look to steal the bid that Richmond is favored to win. High Point has had one of the weirder last months with wins over two playoff teams and a loss to the last place team St. Bonaventure. They beat St. Joes two weeks ago and will try to do it on the road this time. I do think Richmond is the real deal. Lucas Littlejohn and Aidan O’Neil are two very complete attackmen and their supporting cast offensively plays very well off ball. My Pick: Richmond over St. Joes 11-7

NEC

#3 LIU vs #2 Robert Morris, Thursday Noon
#4 Detroit @ #1 Le Moyne, Thursday 4pm
Championship Game, Saturday Noon

Time to bring back one of the dumber rules out there. Le Moyne earned the #1 seed in the NEC tournament but is still in their “transition” phase from DII to DI therefore cannot make the NCAA Tournament. If they win the conference tournament, the runner up will take their place in the NCAA Tournament. RMU was undefeated until this past weekend when they lost to Le Moyne. This brings up a scenario where the winner of the semifinal between LIU/RMU could rest starters in the conference championship. I think I’d rather want to win the conference championship though. My Pick: RMU over Le Moyne 10-9 (OT)

MAAC

#6 Quinnipiac @ #1 Sacred Heart, Thursday 3pm
#4 Marist vs #2 Siena, Thursday 7pm
Championship Game, Saturday 12:30pm

Quinnipiac over Canisius and Marist over Manhattan in the quarterfinals got us to this point. Sacred Heart and Siena both have not lost since early March. They are on a fast track to meeting in the finals. Sacred Heart has all the hype sitting at the 16th spot in the rankings, and they have home field advantage. Siena is more experienced and has been tested more frequently this season. My Pick: Siena over Sacred Heart 16-13

America East

#4 Binghamton @ #1 Bryant, Thursday 4pm
#3 Albany vs #2 UMBC, Thursday 7pm
Championship Game, Saturday 1pm

I am eyeing an upset winner of the America East this season. The top four teams all played extremely close games throughout the year and there was a lot of parity in them all beating each other, so I think the AQ here is totally up for grabs. The upset is going to come in Albany taking down UMBC and then Bryant en route to the tournament. Silas Richmond is an All-American attackman that will take over for Albany and Scott Marr has a lot of experience coaching big games. The Great Danes will be back in the NCAA Tournament. My Pick: Albany over Bryant 11-10

CAA

#4 Hofstra @ #1 Towson, Thursday 4pm
#3 Drexel vs #2 Fairfield, Thursday 7pm
Championship Game, Saturday 3:30pm

It’s hard to ignore the run the Towson Tigers have been on. After starting the season 1-5 they have rattled off eight straight wins and are 7-0 in the CAA. They hold home field advantage and a recent win over the second ranked Fairfield team. They have a Tewaaraton candidate in Mikey Weisshaar and a goalie who has proven he can get hot in Luke Downs. Fairfield is their biggest test and after what we saw two weeks ago it is hard for me to trust them in certain situations. I don’t think they are a team built to come from behind and they don’t have much experience doing so. To upset Towson, they need to control the game into the fourth quarter instead of needing to claw out of a deficit. My Pick: Towson over Fairfield 13-10

Big Ten

#5 Rutgers vs #1 Ohio State, Thursday 5pm
#3 Penn St vs #2 Maryland, Thursday 7:30pm
Championship Game, Saturday 8pm

Another host institution that won’t be playing in the tournament they host is Michigan, who lost to Rutgers in the quarterfinals. The Scarlet Knights CAN beat Ohio State. They DID beat Maryland. But John Tillman will find a way to win two games by scoring 13 total goals and Maryland will make a deep run again in the NCAA Tournament. It’s just what Maryland does. The Big Ten is built this year on defense and two goal games. Defense wins championships which is why I think the Big Ten may send more than two teams to the Final Four. My Pick: Maryland over Rutgers 7-5.

Big East

#4 Marquette vs #1 Georgetown, Thursday 6pm
#3 Providence vs #2 Villanova, Thursday 9pm
Championship Game, Saturday 5pm

The last week of the regular season flipped the Big East completely upside down with what I think as Georgetown’s only true test in Denver losing to Marquette and dropping out of the Big East tournament that they will host. Three weeks after a 14-2 loss to Providence, the Golden Eagles are in. Three weeks after scoring three goals in a 7-3 loss to Denver, Georgetown looks like a real threat not only to win the Big East but to make a run in the NCAA tournament. They have scored 38 goals in their last two games combined. It’s not going to stop this weekend. My Pick: Georgetown over Providence 18-10

ASUN

#4 Bellarmine vs #1 Utah, Friday 1pm
#3 Air Force @ #2 Jacksonville, Friday 4pm
Championship Game, Sunday Noon

Flip a three sided coin to pick your winner out of the ASUN. Utah beat Jacksonville by 3. Jacksonville beat Air Force by 4. Air Force beat Utah by 1. Staying home is a big plus for the Dolphins which is why I have them taking the ASUN AQ. My Pick: Jacksonville over Utah 15-13

Ivy League

#4 Yale @ #1 Cornell, Friday 4pm
#3 Harvard vs #2 Princeton, Friday 6:30pm
Championship Game, Sunday 1pm

Yale was sitting on the back burner after beating Dartmouth as a team to watch coming into the Ivy League tournament and making some noise. Three weeks later and I no longer think so after losing two straight (OT loss to Albany and 11 goal loss to Princeton). Cornell and Princeton are 1 and 2 in my rankings for a reason and I want to see a rematch between those two. The story will be stopping CJ Kirst (7pts last meeting) and supporting cast (5g, 4a between Firth, Long, Goldstein last meeting). It’s going to be a tall task for the Princeton defense but if they hold the highest scoring team in the country to 12 goals or less they have a shot. Oh and I forgot to mention they have to go toe to toe with the #2 scoring team in the semifinals in Harvard. My Pick: Cornell over Princeton 16-14

ACC

#4 Syracuse vs #1 Notre Dame, Friday 5pm
#3 Duke vs #2 UNC, Friday 8pm
Championship Game, Sunday Noon

With only five teams there is no AQ for the ACC however with the strength of schedule each team plays not only within the conference but out of conference these four teams will all get in. Syracuse sits on the Bubble for now but they are considered “In” to me and a win over Notre Dame will solidify that. I think they are built to beat Notre Dame with their defensive physicality and offensive depth. Excited for the Duke/UNC rematch too, I think this will be another close game. Duke shut down Duffy/Petro last time around but also saw the UNC defense hold McAdorey to 0 points. Somethings gotta give. My Pick: Syracuse over UNC 15-14

The Bubble

This year’s bubble is dependent on bid stealers. There are four spots open and the RPI puts Richmond (9), Harvard (10), Syracuse (11) and Army (12) on the bubble. Army and Richmond essentially need to win to get in. A loss for Army to anyone in the Patriot League tournament would drop their RPI substantially along with locking up one of the spots for the PL champ. If Richmond loses to Umass/HPU/St Joes their RPI will also drop and another spot would be claimed by the A10 champ. If only one out of Army or Richmond win their conference the other would be out. Either Richmond or Army could be up for debate with Harvard/Cuse but I don’t see the committee taking a ACC or Ivy school out to a team who lost their mid-tier conference. So the task is simple: win your conference tournament and you get to play later into May.

The D1 Selection Show airs on Sunday at 9:30pm on ESPNU.