Maryland Recruiting

[Essexfenwick]

I think academics have become an issue during recruiting because of schools like UNC, BC and Northwestern. Good players would rather excel and win a national championship at one of those schools while getting a degree. Maryland is used to running the sport but now other schools have started to excel over them.

Just a point - Wasn’t UNC #20 in the rankings? How many National Championships have they won? In all the years of “elite recruiting” they won with transfers. What’s the draw here? Does it mean it’s a bad school? Not at all. Just can’t be blinded to assume NC has a shot of winning a National a Championship again. I think the 26 class will be smarter than the 25’s were unless they want to wear very comfortable shoes on the sideline.

Since unc got caught graduating illiterates for decades the reputation among smart people has taken a hit along with not winning many lax championships. I think the Terps will be among the most likely to start paying womans lax players more money than other schools since it’s a big ten school that prioritizes lacrosse both men’s and womens. Also the Terps pay less for football in general than all the other b10 lax teams. Being a pro football saturated area .. football is de-emphasized but the media money is flowing

Not sure why you think this. MD is lagging far behind other top schools in terms of providing NIL opportunities to players. MDs athletic department is a mess financially. While they're in the Big Ten, they took out a huge loan against future earnings from the conference to pay their buyout to the ACC. Not to mention the fact that MD has the lowest alumni contributions of any P5 team in the country. Where is this money coming from? They can't afford to pay football and basketball players, why would they start throwing money at lax players? I am a MD fan in all sports. But as usual your homerism is off base.

If they let any acc teams into the Big Ten the new schools may have to refund UMDs acc departure penalty with interest and adjusted for inflation (about 85 million) .That aside .. the ncaa is allowing schools to pay directly without NIL. UMD is full share Big Ten now. Next media contract will approach 100 mill just for media. Of course UMD sports money pales in comparison to its research budget which will be the top public research budget next year . It was number ten but just secured an 800 million pentagon contract . School has cash now and football is not a huge priority but basketball and lacrosse will get paid. The football windfall will be great for bball and lax

[forthelaxofit]

Some of the posts in this thread appear to be wide of the mark.

To begin with, while Maryland is positioned behind Northwestern and North Carolina in national academic rankings, it is ahead of Boston College and Syracuse. The thesis that Maryland cannot compete in recruiting due to academic shortcomings doesn't really pass even a cursory look at the facts.

As concerns the transfer portal, Maryland has gotten a number of elite players in recent years: Aurora Cordingley, Abby Bosco, Meghan Ball, and Sophie Halus are the standouts since the 2022 season. The standout issue here is that other than Cordingley the rest of those players are all defenders.

Which brings us to the real problem, Maryland's offense has been underwhelming subsequent to the 2019 championship season. Since then, other than the 2022 season, Maryland has averaged less than 13 goals per game. Not surprisingly, the 2022 season (in which Maryland made the final four and was defeated in a semifinal by the narrowest of margins) was when the Terps had the services of Cordingley.

Yes, recruiting has become far more competitive in recent years and Maryland can no longer count on dominating the scene as in the past. But as imprecise as recruit rankings may be, Maryland is still able to pull in top 3 recruiting classes year after year. It appears to me that College Park is still very much a desirable landing spot.

One noticeable issue this past season is that against top teams Maryland frequently looked small and unathletic. Even as the sport has been moving toward bigger, faster, and more athletic players, Maryland appears to have ignored the trend. Whether it was complacency, bad luck, or a confluence of factors Maryland's coaches appear to be in catch-up mode. And, it's not like the state of Maryland does not produce tall and athletic players. The irony is that in the NCAA Tournament Maryland faced two dominant 6 foot homegrown attackers (Isabella Peterson and Maggie Hall) in back-to-back games. You may not be able to get them all, but as a top program surely you can feature more than one elite scorer (Leubecker) and one elite passer (Clevenger), right? In 2024, Maryland scored an anemic total of 247 goals. The Terps' offensive inefficiency put a heavy burden on the defense against elite competition to keep games close.

With Cordingley, Maryland's offense averaged over 17 goals per game in 2022 and the defense hasn't slipped at all since the 2014 to 2019 run. As such, I think the position coaches haven't lost their edge; when given elite talent they coach them into elite units. Sadly, the fact that the offensive malaise has torpedoed 4 out of the last 5 seasons has to be laid at the head coach's door. At the very least, Reese should be on the hot seat going into 2025. Her immediate predecessors left Maryland 4 and 5 seasons after winning their respective last championships.

There is some hope, Maryland's top incoming recruit, Kayla Gilmore is 5'11" and excelled in three sports (lacrosse, basketball, and soccer). So, maybe Reese gets it and can turn the boat around relatively quickly. To be honest, I would have preferred Maryland to cut Reese loose and bring in Jen Adams (and maybe Adams could have brought Georgia Latch and Chase Boyle with her). But ces't la vie.

Great post!!!

I agree – great post.

But I do believe your example of Portal players reinforces my point. 2022 team with Cordingley and Bosco, lost in final 4 by 1 goal. Yes still had Bosco for 2023, but did not replace departing portal player Cordingley. Picked up Ball for 2024 to replace Bosco (Halus a good player I would take on my team, but not in the category of portal transfers mentioned on National championship teams.) So when Maryland had the 2 impact portal transfers to supplement their team in 2022, they were on the doorstep. Until a post Covid team wins a national championship without 2 (or more) significant portal transfers, I am sticking with the theory you need more than just home grown recruits to win. (And I am hoping the portal trend is broken for winning a championship – I hate the portal rent a player era)

[Max Roguespierre]

Not sure why you think this. MD is lagging far behind other top schools in terms of providing NIL opportunities to players. MDs athletic department is a mess financially. While they're in the Big Ten, they took out a huge loan against future earnings from the conference to pay their buyout to the ACC. Not to mention the fact that MD has the lowest alumni contributions of any P5 team in the country. Where is this money coming from? They can't afford to pay football and basketball players, why would they start throwing money at lax players? I am a MD fan in all sports. But as usual your homerism is off base.

Without any desire to wade into your debate with Essex, I would note that there is anecdotal evidence that Maryland's NIL position has significantly improved. Certainly that has become abundantly clear with women's basketball during this offseason. Brenda Frese specifically referenced NIL being a key in signing portal players in a number of interviews. If, as it appears, NIL money is flowing to women's basketball I would venture that it is also available to other high profile sports at the university (which certainly includes women's lacrosse).

[uncfan1013]

Well, UNC also lost a First Team All-American defender, the #1 recruit, two great freshman, an All-ACC Freshman Team, UNC’s previous season leading scorer and USA U-20 training team member + another great midfielder. Add that to a struggling defense and you would think they would be top ten? no..

You always reference all the injuries, but you also always reference all the top recruiting classes that UNC has. If it really mattered so much that they have year after year of top recruiting classes, then why did injuries impact the team so much? Shouldn't they have still been better than many of those other teams who ended the season ranked higher than UNC and never have top recruiting classes?

UNC might have great recruiting classes, but that doesn’t mean that everyone on the roster is extremely talented and can start. First, the midfield lacked depth and people noticed it at the beginning of the season when the first injuries were announced. Losing 3 of your top midfielders is very challenging, especially when other players aren’t ready to step up. The players are obviously being developed into better players, but lack of skill set stops them from getting playing time.

[hmmm]

Not sure why you think this. MD is lagging far behind other top schools in terms of providing NIL opportunities to players. MDs athletic department is a mess financially. While they're in the Big Ten, they took out a huge loan against future earnings from the conference to pay their buyout to the ACC. Not to mention the fact that MD has the lowest alumni contributions of any P5 team in the country. Where is this money coming from? They can't afford to pay football and basketball players, why would they start throwing money at lax players? I am a MD fan in all sports. But as usual your homerism is off base.

Without any desire to wade into your debate with Essex, I would note that there is anecdotal evidence that Maryland's NIL position has significantly improved. Certainly that has become abundantly clear with women's basketball during this offseason. Brenda Frese specifically referenced NIL being a key in signing portal players in a number of interviews. If, as it appears, NIL money is flowing to women's basketball I would venture that it is also available to other high profile sports at the university (which certainly includes women's lacrosse).

Yes, the women's basketball program literally had 0 NIL funds available prior to this offseason. Kind of my point though. They just now were able to provide money to Brenda. Let's not pretend that all of a sudden MD wlax will have a strong NIL program. The men's lax program doesn't and they'd certainly get it first. MD's athletic department is still underwater.

[Essexfenwick]

The schools allowed to directly pay players without needing NIL is going to be a big factor. Md just finished building a 275 million dollar indoor football facility. They have plenty of money.

[LaxDadMax]

Let's be honest. A meaningful percentage of top players (probably 25-33%) won't even look at MD because of their field hockey turf. Until that changes I can't see recruiting getting much better.

[spidey44]

Let's be honest. A meaningful percentage of top players (probably 25-33%) won't even look at MD because of their field hockey turf. Until that changes I can't see recruiting getting much better.

Do you really think that's the case??? Seems like maybe a tie breaker if two teams are equal. (That said, tough to believe that UMD doesn't have a lax only facility).

[LaxDadMax]

Let's be honest. A meaningful percentage of top players (probably 25-33%) won't even look at MD because of their field hockey turf. Until that changes I can't see recruiting getting much better.

Do you really think that's the case??? Seems like maybe a tie breaker if two teams are equal. (That said, tough to believe that UMD doesn't have a lax only facility).

Clearly, I’m guessing with percentages but 2 girls from
My 25’s club team (both top 50 players) didn’t visit MD for this reason and committed to another top 20 school.

[cdb]

You stated that MD is rated higher academically than BC. I thought I would check US News and World Report who publish the yearly ratings and found that BC is rated 39 and Md in the high forties. Moreover, further research shows that in the last year BC's admission rate has dropped from 25% to a little over 12%. Some surveys now rate them around 30. While I do not think anyone on these boards would have any problems with MD's academics, making statements that rate one school over another is a statement of fact -- and facts need to be supported. Moreover, many readers will discount what is said when they discover an unsupported statement.

Further, in all of the interviews of transfers I have seen on sites such as Youtube, the main reason given for transferring is to be playing on Memorial Day weekend. Academic rating of the school is not primary -- ability to compete for a NC is.

Most of the great high school players, realize that academics can affect their ability to attract offers from these schools as having great academics will make them eligible for academic scholarships as well as athletic. This is why the recruiting sites always provide their grades. Most of these athletes are also excellent students, so that they can be attractive to whatever school they are hoping for.

I ask that you provide the poll or survey that rated MD over BC. Opinions are always right, because everyone is entitled to them -- I can agree or disagree, but I cannot deny your right to them. But stating facts are another matter and I try to either avoid them or cite my source.

[hmmm]

You stated that MD is rated higher academically than BC. I thought I would check US News and World Report who publish the yearly ratings and found that BC is rated 39 and Md in the high forties. Moreover, further research shows that in the last year BC's admission rate has dropped from 25% to a little over 12%. Some surveys now rate them around 30. While I do not think anyone on these boards would have any problems with MD's academics, making statements that rate one school over another is a statement of fact -- and facts need to be supported. Moreover, many readers will discount what is said when they discover an unsupported statement.

Further, in all of the interviews of transfers I have seen on sites such as Youtube, the main reason given for transferring is to be playing on Memorial Day weekend. Academic rating of the school is not primary -- ability to compete for a NC is.

Most of the great high school players, realize that academics can affect their ability to attract offers from these schools as having great academics will make them eligible for academic scholarships as well as athletic. This is why the recruiting sites always provide their grades. Most of these athletes are also excellent students, so that they can be attractive to whatever school they are hoping for.

I ask that you provide the poll or survey that rated MD over BC. Opinions are always right, because everyone is entitled to them -- I can agree or disagree, but I cannot deny your right to them. But stating facts are another matter and I try to either avoid them or cite my source.

You are aware that there are college rankings other than USNWP correct? In fact, many people dismiss the USNWP rankings as universities have figured out how to manipulate their rankings. It has gotten to the point that some universities, Columbia, RISD, Colorado College, Bard, Harvard Law, Yale Law, Hopkins Medical, etc, have refused to participate in the rankings.

In the Forbes rankings, MD comes in at 34 and BC comes in at 88. There are other rankings that have MD higher than BC as well. In fact, BC students often have issues when transferring because top schools won't accept a lot of their credits.

[forthelaxofit]

You stated that MD is rated higher academically than BC. I thought I would check US News and World Report who publish the yearly ratings and found that BC is rated 39 and Md in the high forties. Moreover, further research shows that in the last year BC's admission rate has dropped from 25% to a little over 12%. Some surveys now rate them around 30. While I do not think anyone on these boards would have any problems with MD's academics, making statements that rate one school over another is a statement of fact -- and facts need to be supported. Moreover, many readers will discount what is said when they discover an unsupported statement.

Further, in all of the interviews of transfers I have seen on sites such as Youtube, the main reason given for transferring is to be playing on Memorial Day weekend. Academic rating of the school is not primary -- ability to compete for a NC is.

Most of the great high school players, realize that academics can affect their ability to attract offers from these schools as having great academics will make them eligible for academic scholarships as well as athletic. This is why the recruiting sites always provide their grades. Most of these athletes are also excellent students, so that they can be attractive to whatever school they are hoping for.

I ask that you provide the poll or survey that rated MD over BC. Opinions are always right, because everyone is entitled to them -- I can agree or disagree, but I cannot deny your right to them. But stating facts are another matter and I try to either avoid them or cite my source.

With all due respect, do you really think there is any quantifiable academic difference between US news ranked #37 BC and #46 Maryland? Their rankings are so accurate there is no margin of error? And if there is a difference, can you define what that quantifiable difference means between 37 and 46?

Women’s youth lacrosse (like soccer and other sports), is for the wealthy. How many jokes have their been about the type of cars at youth practices? Clubs fees, personal trainers, travel, camps, etc. Parents have no problem footing the bill for their kids staying in school 5 or 6 years chasing one more year of eligibility. Or turning down state schools to pay significantly more. So #37 BC annual cost of attendance is over $80k. For an in-state Maryland student, cost of attendance is over $50k less a year. You are willing to pay over $200,000 extra for 4 years to go up 8 academic slots based on some subjective ranking? (and yes I know these numbers are pre scholarship, but if you assume the student would get comparable aid percentages at both schools, the logic still holds)

[cdb]

Of course the Forbes polls are normally going to give a high grade to public colleges that have good academics over a private college. Their focus is value vs money spent. It now costs over $87 (more than Harvard) to go to BC vs the much lower cost of MD. If you had stated source, there would have been no confusion.

There are polls that measure many other factors vs academics -- my main point is that academics are NOT the primary reason an elite WLAX player uses to determine which offer they will accept. MD is a great program with a strong tradition.

And, for schools that are attracting more 5 stars -- if you get too many, it will be difficult to give them any playing time -- so there are positives and negatives in all areas of recruiting.

I just read that BC lost a 5 star freshman that it didn't play. So there is a balance.

I don't think we are all good here -- now that I see the focus of the poll you were relying on.

Have a great day!

[hmmm]

Of course the Forbes polls are normally going to give a high grade to public colleges that have good academics over a private college. Their focus is value vs money spent. It now costs over $87 (more than Harvard) to go to BC vs the much lower cost of MD. If you had stated source, there would have been no confusion.

There are polls that measure many other factors vs academics -- my main point is that academics are NOT the primary reason an elite WLAX player uses to determine which offer they will accept. MD is a great program with a strong tradition.

And, for schools that are attracting more 5 stars -- if you get too many, it will be difficult to give them any playing time -- so there are positives and negatives in all areas of recruiting.

I just read that BC lost a 5 star freshman that it didn't play. So there is a balance.

I don't think we are all good here -- now that I see the focus of the poll you were relying on.

Have a great day!

By normally do you mean that only 2 of the top 20 schools on the Forbes list are Public Universities?

[Max Roguespierre]

Let's be honest. A meaningful percentage of top players (probably 25-33%) won't even look at MD because of their field hockey turf. Until that changes I can't see recruiting getting much better.

Do you really think that's the case??? Seems like maybe a tie breaker if two teams are equal. (That said, tough to believe that UMD doesn't have a lax only facility).

Clearly, I’m guessing with percentages but 2 girls from
My 25’s club team (both top 50 players) didn’t visit MD for this reason and committed to another top 20 school.

Yeah, I am with Spidey here. I just can't see a substantial number of recruits getting so upset over how the field is painted that they bypass the opportunity to attend a top program with Maryland's history of success. Sure, 5 star recruits do have options but we are also talking about a niche sport with only a handful of truly elite programs. It's not like Northwestern, Boston College, or Syracuse don't play on artificial turf.

[McLax9777]

Let's be honest. A meaningful percentage of top players (probably 25-33%) won't even look at MD because of their field hockey turf. Until that changes I can't see recruiting getting much better.

Do you really think that's the case??? Seems like maybe a tie breaker if two teams are equal. (That said, tough to believe that UMD doesn't have a lax only facility).

Clearly, I’m guessing with percentages but 2 girls from
My 25’s club team (both top 50 players) didn’t visit MD for this reason and committed to another top 20 school.

Yeah, I am with Spidey here. I just can't see a substantial number of recruits getting so upset over how the field is painted that they bypass the opportunity to attend a top program with Maryland's history of success. Sure, 5 star recruits do have options but we are also talking about a niche sport with only a handful of truly elite programs. It's not like Northwestern, Boston College, or Syracuse don't play on artificial turf.

I have to agree with you. I can’t see the surface being a deal killer. A coach can be, even other kids, distance from home, money, but not the surface and especially from a perennial top 10 program with rich history. People just love to hate on Maryland.

[cltlax]

Let's be honest. A meaningful percentage of top players (probably 25-33%) won't even look at MD because of their field hockey turf. Until that changes I can't see recruiting getting much better.

Do you really think that's the case??? Seems like maybe a tie breaker if two teams are equal. (That said, tough to believe that UMD doesn't have a lax only facility).

Clearly, I’m guessing with percentages but 2 girls from
My 25’s club team (both top 50 players) didn’t visit MD for this reason and committed to another top 20 school.

Yeah, I am with Spidey here. I just can't see a substantial number of recruits getting so upset over how the field is painted that they bypass the opportunity to attend a top program with Maryland's history of success. Sure, 5 star recruits do have options but we are also talking about a niche sport with only a handful of truly elite programs. It's not like Northwestern, Boston College, or Syracuse don't play on artificial turf.

I don't think it's the painting. Field hockey turf is very different from regular fieldturf.

[Essexfenwick]

Let's be honest. A meaningful percentage of top players (probably 25-33%) won't even look at MD because of their field hockey turf. Until that changes I can't see recruiting getting much better.

Do you really think that's the case??? Seems like maybe a tie breaker if two teams are equal. (That said, tough to believe that UMD doesn't have a lax only facility).

Clearly, I’m guessing with percentages but 2 girls from
My 25’s club team (both top 50 players) didn’t visit MD for this reason and committed to another top 20 school.

Yeah, I am with Spidey here. I just can't see a substantial number of recruits getting so upset over how the field is painted that they bypass the opportunity to attend a top program with Maryland's history of success. Sure, 5 star recruits do have options but we are also talking about a niche sport with only a handful of truly elite programs. It's not like Northwestern, Boston College, or Syracuse don't play on artificial turf.

I have to agree with you. I can’t see the surface being a deal killer. A coach can be, even other kids, distance from home, money, but not the surface and especially from a perennial top 10 program with rich history. People just love to hate on Maryland.

When you’re the team of the lacrosse state and have too many championships for anybody to catch up with the graspers are going to nip at your heels.

[Seacoaster(1)]

Let's be honest. A meaningful percentage of top players (probably 25-33%) won't even look at MD because of their field hockey turf. Until that changes I can't see recruiting getting much better.

Do you really think that's the case??? Seems like maybe a tie breaker if two teams are equal. (That said, tough to believe that UMD doesn't have a lax only facility).

Clearly, I’m guessing with percentages but 2 girls from
My 25’s club team (both top 50 players) didn’t visit MD for this reason and committed to another top 20 school.

Yeah, I am with Spidey here. I just can't see a substantial number of recruits getting so upset over how the field is painted that they bypass the opportunity to attend a top program with Maryland's history of success. Sure, 5 star recruits do have options but we are also talking about a niche sport with only a handful of truly elite programs. It's not like Northwestern, Boston College, or Syracuse don't play on artificial turf.

I have to agree with you. I can’t see the surface being a deal killer. A coach can be, even other kids, distance from home, money, but not the surface and especially from a perennial top 10 program with rich history. People just love to hate on Maryland.

When you’re the team of the lacrosse state and have too many championships for anybody to catch up with the graspers are going to nip at your heels.

I think that nipping at "the heels" is a curious turn of phrase, and at this point, incorrect. I have no animus against Maryland, but the fact is -- and this from the eye test and watching incoming freshmen the last few years -- that UNC, BC, Syracuse and Northwestern are outpacing Maryland's recruiting efforts. And at least three of those programs just simply have better facilities than Maryland for this sport. As "graspers" go, BC, Northwestern and UNC are doing a pretty good job grasping the trophies.

[BigRedChant]

Speaking of facilities - does Bc really play some of their games indoors where fans/family can’t attend ?