Duke-UNC LAX on ESPNU now

[MCFinARL]

Good question. I don't think a 5-team league could get an automatic qualifier under any circumstances, which probably means that the one-year 5-team league wouldn't be granted one either.

too late to edit so I will quote my own post to note that I meant to say one-year 6 team league.

The situation with respect to AQs is really uncertain right now.

The Atlantic Sun, which will start sponsoring men's lax next year with a lineup of Jacksonville, Mercer, Furman, High Point, Richmond, and VMI, has been widely reported to be getting an AQ immediately. The problem from the NCAA's perspective is that its guidelines on tournament field size would seem to require an increase from the current 16 once there are nine AQs, but a couple of leagues that currently have them are in line to drop below six members as a result of realignment. There's a lot of speculation about Colorado (a perennial MCLA championship contender) adding men's lax after its women's program launches next year. There's a lot of support among Louisville and BC supporters for the idea of men's lax. Nobody knows what the New Big East will do. Nobody knows what the Big Integer will do. The current ECAC lax league, stretching from Fairfield, CT to Colorado Springs, is a logistical and cost nightmare.

"Something is happening here, but you don't know what it is"

Interesting analysis. Do you think the NCAA's hesitation to expand the tournament field stems from 1) scheduling considerations (tournament is already going way beyond the end of the school year of many teams--of course the baseball playoffs go even longer); 2) financial considerations; 3) dilution concerns because there still aren't that many teams playing D1 lacrosse? Or some combination, or something else?

[burnspbesq]

too late to edit so I will quote my own post to note that I meant to say one-year 6 team league.



Interesting analysis. Do you think the NCAA's hesitation to expand the tournament field stems from 1) scheduling considerations (tournament is already going way beyond the end of the school year of many teams--of course the baseball playoffs go even longer); 2) financial considerations; 3) dilution concerns because there still aren't that many teams playing D1 lacrosse? Or some combination, or something else?

Hard to say. The NCAA didn't hesitate to add play-in games for women's lax, and it didn't hesitate to expand the D3 football playoffs from 16 to 28 teams (adding an extra week to the season) when the need became apparent. I don't think scheduling is likely to be a real issue; it's wouldn't be insurmountably difficult to add a first round (to manage a 24 or even 32 team bracket) by moving to predetermined campus sites and a Thursday-Sunday format for the first and second round (a la the women's basketball tournament). I don't think anyone expects the lax tournament to break even, so I don't think $ is a big issue.

The real problem is this: if you have a 16-team field in lacrosse with nine AQs and a five-team ACC, as a practical matter you have over 50 schools competing for one at-large bid (six of the seven at-large bids, in a typical year, would go to the five ACC schools and Hop). That's massively unfair to the big-conference runners-up (in most years the NEC, MAAC, and Atlantic Sun will be one-bid leagues).

I think the NCAA may be guilty of thinking that lacrosse and hockey are still more alike than different, when that is clearly no longer the case.