2021 Tournament Thoughts

[Snog]

There is a lot of chatter on the mens board suggesting that it will be a 16 team tournament this year. With the amount of AQ in womens lax as well as the IVY league sitting out makes for some crazy thoughts. 13 or 14 automatic qualifiers would only open it to possibly 2 or 3 at large bids (all ACC more than likely). Lots of top 15 teams ranked could be hosed.

[livelovelax]

Since there are 40 plus more women's D1 programs, I think 24 make the tournament. ACC gets the most with 5, Big Ten gets 3, CAA may get 2-3 teams and on down to the AQ for Conference Champs.

[seacoaster]

If it is a 16 team tournament, there are going to be a lot of unhappy women....Does women's lacrosse have 15 AQs (so, 14 without the Ivy)?

ACC
America East
B1G
AAC
A10
Atlantic Sun
Big East
Big South
CAA
Patriot
MAAC
Pac-12
Northeast
Southern

So...Syracuse gets in as the sole At-Large?

Sure hope it is at least 24.

[Cletus]

We ought to be hearing about this soon enough as this is typically the time of year that US Lacrosse magazine releases their nifty Bracketology feature which presupposes the amount of teams invited to the dance.

[Cletus]

The Gold!

https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/champi ... Champs.pdf

[Cletus]

Here’s the straight dope:

“NCAA Division I Women’s Lacrosse Championship provides for a 29-team, single-elimination tournament. For the 2021 championship, 16 conference automatic bids will be awarded, and 13 teams will be selected at large.”

[Itsallgood]

The Gold!

https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/champi ... Champs.pdf

Thank you !

[seacoaster]

Here’s the straight dope:

“NCAA Division I Women’s Lacrosse Championship provides for a 29-team, single-elimination tournament. For the 2021 championship, 16 conference automatic bids will be awarded, and 13 teams will be selected at large.”

Excellent. Thanks for digging into this.

[Snog]

That is great news ! however it was dated November 2020, I still am very optimistic that it is the intent to hold a regular tournament.

[Cletus]

You’re most welcome, gents. I enjoy digging and researching.

[Cletus]

So boiled down it looks like there will be 15 automatic qualifiers and 14 at-large bids granted this year. All the good shtuff is in section 2 of the manual.

[njbill]

That is great news ! however it was dated November 2020, I still am very optimistic that it is the intent to hold a regular tournament.

Yup. Also lists the Ivy as being an AQ. So 28 teams?

[TNLAX]

That is great news ! however it was dated November 2020, I still am very optimistic that it is the intent to hold a regular tournament.

This is from section 2:

AT-LARGE SELECTION
Thirteen teams will be selected at large. For the 2021 championship only, to be considered during the at-large selection
process, a team does not need a Division I overall won-lost record of .500 or better.

So even though it was written in Nov. of 2020, it looks like they knew that the 2021 season would not be a normal season so they are making exceptions. Looks like they were making room for some Big10 teams since they would only be playing conference games.

[Cletus]

That is great news ! however it was dated November 2020, I still am very optimistic that it is the intent to hold a regular tournament.

Yup. Also lists the Ivy as being an AQ. So 28 teams?

Nope—29. I imagine they’ll add an at-large to replace the missing Ivy AQ.

[njbill]

Where do you get that?

[Cletus]

Where do you get that?

This is from the NCAA manual:

“NCAA Division I Women’s Lacrosse Championship provides for a 29-team, single-elimination tournament. For the 2021 championship, 16 conference automatic bids will be awarded, and 13 teams will be selected at large.”

I’m assuming they will replace the one Ivy AQ with another at-large bid to make the 29 teams.

[njbill]

OK, saw that too. (And thanks for posting the manual.)

But we now know that reference to 16 automatic qualifiers isn’t accurate.

So will they add an at large selection or leave the at larges at 13?

I guess we’ll see.

[Can Opener]

It's interesting that in the 29-team draw, the #4 seed has to play an extra game while seeds #1-3 get a first round bye. If they drop the Ivy AQ and move to a 28-team draw, the #4 seed would get a bye. I agree with Cletus that they will probably keep the draw at 29, but that's not spelled out in this manual. As for my mini-obsession with the BC/ND rankings, they wouldn't really matter much since if they go into this draw at #4 & #5, they would wind up playing each other in the quarters for the final spot in the Final Four. It looks as if the first official RPI will be released next Tuesday for women's lacrosse. With unprecedented overlap in schedules this year, this may be less of a factor because common opponents will look so similar (i.e. conference teams) and there have been very few inter-conference games among the big dogs. Based on a quick look, there really haven't been many of the big dogs playing other big dogs from different conferences, due largely to the B1G lock-down and a lack of Ivies who usually big games outside the Ancient Eight.

[Laxfan500]

It's interesting that in the 29-team draw, the #4 seed has to play an extra game while seeds #1-3 get a first round bye. If they drop the Ivy AQ and move to a 28-team draw, the #4 seed would get a bye. I agree with Cletus that they will probably keep the draw at 29, but that's not spelled out in this manual. As for my mini-obsession with the BC/ND rankings, they wouldn't really matter much since if they go into this draw at #4 & #5, they would wind up playing each other in the quarters for the final spot in the Final Four. It looks as if the first official RPI will be released next Tuesday for women's lacrosse. With unprecedented overlap in schedules this year, this may be less of a factor because common opponents will look so similar (i.e. conference teams) and there have been very few inter-conference games among the big dogs. Based on a quick look, there really haven't been many of the big dogs playing other big dogs from different conferences, due largely to the B1G lock-down and a lack of Ivies who usually big games outside the Ancient Eight.

ACC teams have played several teams outside their conference , ie SB, FLA, JMU, Gtown, etc. Really it’s been Big10 with the biggest disparity. I wish they had opened up, as the country opened up...and added a few non conf games .

[Can Opener]

It's interesting that in the 29-team draw, the #4 seed has to play an extra game while seeds #1-3 get a first round bye. If they drop the Ivy AQ and move to a 28-team draw, the #4 seed would get a bye. I agree with Cletus that they will probably keep the draw at 29, but that's not spelled out in this manual. As for my mini-obsession with the BC/ND rankings, they wouldn't really matter much since if they go into this draw at #4 & #5, they would wind up playing each other in the quarters for the final spot in the Final Four. It looks as if the first official RPI will be released next Tuesday for women's lacrosse. With unprecedented overlap in schedules this year, this may be less of a factor because common opponents will look so similar (i.e. conference teams) and there have been very few inter-conference games among the big dogs. Based on a quick look, there really haven't been many of the big dogs playing other big dogs from different conferences, due largely to the B1G lock-down and a lack of Ivies who usually big games outside the Ancient Eight.

ACC teams have played several teams outside their conference , ie SB, FLA, JMU, Gtown, etc. Really it’s been Big10 with the biggest disparity. I wish they had opened up, as the country opened up...and added a few non conf games .

Fair point that some non-ACC/B1G games have taken place, but when all of the top 6 teams and 11 of the top 20 come from only two conferences, you have an unprecedented echo chamber inside the RPI. There may be some hard decisions to make at tournament selection time with programs like Vanderbilt (11-2), Denver (6-1), Arizona State (7-3), and UConn (8-2) who are all currently outside the top 20. How do you rate them against top 20 teams with losing records like Michigan, Louisville and Ohio State? With 29 slots, maybe there is room at the inn for everyone, but it will be hard to make assessments with such limited cross pollinization this year.