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NCAA Conference Comparison: Week 10

Welcome back to the Week 10 edition of the NCAA Men’s Division I Lacrosse Conference Comparison! Things are really heating up within each conference, which underscores why it’s so important to remember how everyone fared against the rest of the country. If you’re entire conference goes undefeated against everyone else, and then .500 against each other, those are all high quality losses. That’s obviously an extreme example, but it’s important to keep the context in mind as these games shake out. So where do we stand as the conference tournaments are now just mere weeks away?

NCAA Conference Comparison: Week 10

Conference Record % +/-
ACC 29-9 0.763 0.006
Big Ten 36-17 0.679 -0.007
Big East 29-21 0.580 -0.012
CAA 30-22 0.577 0.000
Patriot 27-22 0.551 0.009
Ivy League 23-20 0.535 0.011
NEC 24-31 0.436 0.002
MAAC 20-28 0.417 -0.025
SoCon 20-32 0.385 0.000
DI Independent 15-27 0.357 0.024
America East 13-34 0.277 0.010

Editor’s Note: The records listed for each conference are based on the Monday through Sunday schedule of the previous week.

With the Big Ten keeping things in-house from now on, it looks like the ACC is going to claim the title of best conference record for the second straight season. Good thing, too. Because UNC is remembering how to play good lacrosse at exactly the right time and it looked for a moment like everyone was going to finish 2-2 in the conference. Since they don’t have an automatic qualifier for the NCAA, their RPI/SOS boosting end of year tournament will be huge. The fourth or fifth place team would have to ear three quality wins to take the title, which almost locks in an at-large bid for any of these teams.

ncaa conference comparison

What makes things particularly stressful for relying on at-large bids this year is the shallow depth of different conferences. The Big East and CAA are razor thin with just a single game separating them. Towson is the CAA favorite, but UMass is more than capable to earn the AQ. In the Big East, Denver is the favorite while Georgetown and Villanova are also contenders.

The Ivy League is the most fascinating. The Ivy tournament will likely by Penn for sure, along with probably Yale and Cornell. The fourth team is a bit of a toss up. Harvard could do it, but would need to beat Penn and Yale in the process. Brown needs wins over Yale and Cornell.  Princeton has the toughest climb at 0-3, so they would need to beat Harvard, Cornell, and Dartmouth. Penn has no major out of conference wins, only good losses. They likely need the Ivy AQ, and Cornell’s win over Towson probably isn’t enough. Barring a bid thief, the Ivy looks good in the polls, but is probably a one-bid conference at this point. And that bid has Yale penciled in.

But there are still way too many lacrosse games left to get wrapped up in the Bracketology web right now.

As always, here are the past two years for reference.

2018

Conference Record % Bids
ACC 36-13 .735 4
Big Ten 38-14 .731 2
Big East 33-20 .623 3
Ivy League 31-22 .585 2
Patriot 28-24 .538 1
America East 29-27 .518 1
NEC 27-28 .491 1
CAA 22-29 .431 1
MAAC 19-36 .345 1
SoCon 13-39 .250 1
Independent 7-31 .184 0

2017

Conference Record % Bids
Big Ten 45-8 0.849 4
ACC 36-14 0.720 4
Colonial 28-22 0.560 1
America East 29-26 0.527 1
Ivy 25-25 0.500 1
Northeast 28-31 0.475 1
Patriot 27-30 0.474 1
Big East 25-28 0.472 2
MAAC 19-36 0.345 1
Southern 18-36 0.333 1