Included only the Men's schedule excerpts:
https://www.uslaxmagazine.com/college/m ... sse-season
Twelve days out from the first known scheduled game of the 2021 season, most NCAA Division I men’s and women’s lacrosse teams are still finalizing their schedules for the spring — working out conference schedules first before moving to slot in as many non-conferences as permitted by their institution or conference.
Privately, most coaches have an idea of their schedules, but final schedules won’t be released until approved by administrators. COVID-19 protocols and travel restrictions are a sticking point for many. Some teams have set schedules with games beginning as early as Feb. 13. The earliest game appears to be Jan. 30, when Bellarmine visits Mercer — according to the schedule the Knights released on Twitter last week — and Utah opens at Denver.
The America East, Big Ten and Ivy League remain the least clear about exactly how their seasons will unfold. Here’s a snapshot of each conference’s scheduling format as of Monday morning.
AMERICA EAST (M)
Conference: Expected that teams will play two teams twice apiece and five other teams once each.
Non-conference: Full schedule possible at the discretion of each program. No weekday games between March and April so make-up games can be scheduled then.
Conference tournament: Top four teams May 6-8 hosted by top seed.
ACC (M)
Conference: Six games – playing two teams twice and two teams once. Each team will have three home and three away games.
Non-conference: Up to the discretion of each institution.
Conference tournament: None this year. “Regardless of what it looks like, it’s going to be an arduous journey for the players,” said Notre Dame coach Kevin Corrigan, whose team won’t start practicing until Jan. 27. “To focus through all the protocols and everything else, it’s exhausting. The social restrictions, logistical restrictions of every single day, it gives you a headache. Just how to just get guys through the locker room. Things you never gave seconds of thought to before. That’s exhausting for everybody.”
BIG EAST (M)
Conference: Double round robin with each team playing home and away.
Non-conference: Full schedule possible at the discretion of each program.
Conference tournament: Top four teams the weekend of May 6 at Providence.
BIG TEN (M/W)
Conference: Still in the process of formalizing a double round-robin schedule. Games potentially starting Feb. 13 for women and Feb. 20 for men.
Non-conference: Due to stringent testing requirements, expected to be severely limited if at all for possible opponents. The Big Ten tests athletes six times per week.
Conference tournament: Expected to happen, but no further details. “We hope to know more details in late January or early February,” Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse coach Peter Milliman said in an email sent to team supporters Sunday. “It is possible that we may engage in some non-conference games, but the majority of our schedule will be dedicated to competition within the Big [Ten].” Milliman also said he does not anticipate there would be spectators allowed at games.
CAA (M)
Conference: Eight games with four home and four away. Teams face four teams once apiece and two teams twice each.
Non-conference: Up to each institution’s discretion. “My administration has been wonderful to work with,” Hofstra coach Seth Tierney said. “We’re trying to base it on 75 percent of what we’d allow. We’re hopeful to get into the lower teens — 12, 13, 14 games. They’ve asked all the teams to be as financially sensitive and feasible as possible. If it’s an overnight situation, bring it forward and decide if it’s worth it.”
Conference tournament: Top four teams will play at Hofstra, which was selected to minimize travel for all teams, on May 6-8.
INDEPENDENTS
Utah has three home games on its schedule. It had six, but three teams backed out of trips.
“For me, it’s not that far out of the norm,” Utah coach Brian Holman said. “I’m fighting and scrapping and clawing to get games.”
The Utes open Jan. 30 at Denver and still have open dates to fill. Among their home games is new independent Robert Morris coming to them.
“We might be a hot commodity for some teams needing to pick up a game versus us having to really struggle to get teams to play us,” Holman said. “We’re going to be willing to fly just about anywhere to play just about anybody.”
IVY LEAGUE (M/W)
Still not a lot of clarity on how the Ivies will proceed even after a coaches meeting last Thursday. Ivy teams are supposed to be able to start practicing Feb. 1. The Princeton and Harvard women don’t have all their players this season, and Dartmouth will be missing one-third of its players during its winter semester.
“I would be up for practice just so we’re not behind and they could have an outlet,” Penn women’s coach Karin Corbett said. “That’s so hard. I would love to practice. The games are icing on the cake. Practice, we could make it competitive and fun.”
Questions remain about how they will play games. Several Ivy League institutions have such restrictive COVID-19 policies at the moment that they could not travel. Ivy teams also have to go through a three-phase approach to even get to games. None of the Ivy teams got out of Phase 1 in the fall, which limited them to practicing in pods of fewer than 10 players while socially distanced, doing skill work, lifting and conditioning.
A rumored plan to bubble the league for weeks for conference play seems unlikely. “I doubt that’s going to happen because the Ivy League doesn’t do different things for the athletes,” Corbett said. “They’re not going to do that from my understanding, anything special for the athletes versus other kids on campus.”
MAAC (M)
Conference: Teams will play on Saturdays from Feb. 20 until the built-in make-up date of May 1. The first three pod games will not count for conference standings before playing a single round-robin schedule.
Pods: Manhattan, Marist, Monmouth and Quinnipiac are one pod. Canisius, Detroit Mercy, St. Bonaventure and Siena are the other pod. “We felt the best thing to do is keep it as normal as possible,” Marist coach Keegan Wilkinson said. “We’ve got a seven-game schedule, which kept our conference schedule as is.”
Non-conference: No non-conference games.
Conference tournament: Top four teams meet the second weekend in May at the home of highest seed.
NEC (M)
Conference: Seven-game schedule with April 27 and May 1 open to reschedule any postponements.
Non-conference: Some institutions have limited the number. To help with scheduling more games, the conference opened March 2 and 6 to schedule with NEC teams that will not count toward conference standings.
Conference tournament: Top four teams meet the second weekend of May.
PATRIOT LEAGUE (M)
Conference: Seven games with teams split into two pods. Four games count in standings. Navy, for instance, will play Loyola twice but only one meeting counts toward the standings. They’ll also cross over to play Army and Holy Cross.
North pod: Army, Boston University, Colgate and Holy Cross.
South pod: Bucknell, Lafayette, Lehigh, Loyola and Navy. Conference play starts Mar. 6 and there’s a built-in weekend for make-up games.
Non-conference: Up to each institution’s discretion to schedule. Games begin Feb. 20.
Conference tournament: Top two teams from each pod qualify for the tournament May 7-9.
SOUTHERN CONFERENCE (M)
Conference: Single round robin like previous years. “We’ll be ready to adapt if needed,” Richmond coach Dan Chemotti said. “Hopefully this plan stays.”
Non-conference: Up to individual institution’s discretion.
Conference tournament: Top four teams expected to play at Richmond on May 6-8.