Farfromgeneva wrote: ↑Tue Jun 20, 2023 10:38 am
Wheels wrote: ↑Tue Jun 20, 2023 10:30 am
The Patriot League has such wide variance in terms of support for lacrosse. You have Navy, which has the resource support (if not more) than ACC and B1G programs. Then you have programs like Bucknell and Lafayette that aren't fully funded to the 12.6 scholarship level. Loyola's won a national title, and Holy Cross has sunk to a bottom 10 program in the nation as Reppert tries to rebuild it. They'll all phenomenal academic institutions, but I'm not sure there's a conference out there that has the same span of support for lacrosse at the D1 level.
That’s why it’s a one bid league-bottom drags the top down
The top also doesn't help itself with some of the scheduling decisions they make. Army's OOC SOS was horrible. You get why they scheduled they way they did because they had so many new parts to break in, but their OOC schedule made them AQ or bust. Loyola played an at-large bid schedule. BU's schedule wasn't bad. If they'd have beaten Yale, they're probably on the bubble and Yale isn't. Lehigh had a good schedule - beat Cornell or Georgetown, and they're probably bubble-in. When Navy scheduled Queens, they pretty much had to beat Georgetown or Hopkins to offset even the win against Queens.
That's really the problem with the RPI. It means that probably half of all D1 teams are schedule radioactive to many Top 30-type teams. Top end PL teams can earn at-large bids but they have to schedule Top 10 opponents...and, you know, win one...to offset Holy Cross and Colgate.