2023 NCAA Championship Bracket

[Brownlax]

https://www.ncaa.com/brackets/lacrosse-women/d1/2023

[wlaxphan20]

I’m intrigued by a potential BC-Florida & Denver-UNC matchup

[8meterPA]

Not sure,I understand having Denver play USC. The rest of their bracket have easier games

The 4th seed UNC draws sacred heart and the 5th seed Denver draws USC?

At large UVA draws Albany?

Richmond draws Marquette?

[8meterPA]

Not sure,Drexel earned the right to be in the tournament? Feel like PSU and Marquette were also on the bubble

[truster49]

Feel like Yale got jipped. Idk

[Fischer]

Not sure,I understand having Denver play USC. The rest of their bracket have easier games

The 4th seed UNC draws sacred heart and the 5th seed Denver draws USC?

At large UVA draws Albany?

I agree with you That’s probably the closest matchup Not sure cuse should be 2 seed either

[8meterPA]

Feel like Yale got jipped. Idk

Agreed, but their losses to Cornell and Harvard sunk them

[laxfan22]

Not sure,I understand having Denver play USC. The rest of their bracket have easier games

The 4th seed UNC draws sacred heart and the 5th seed Denver draws USC?

At large UVA draws Albany?

Richmond draws Marquette?

I assume Denver’s matchup is a geography thing which is absurd.

[Puck Swami]

This USC thing is only a small part of the Denver screwing.

Denver was egregiously screwed as a five seed, after a perfect season, a win over ACC champ BC, 12 road wins and six wins over top 20 teams. NCAA protected a four loss Carolina team by keeping them in state all the way to the finals if they win.

SOS is a very questionable metric in a short-season sport, considering the built-in advantages for ACC and Big 10 programs with all those extra high RPI games. It makes it basically impossible for even undefeated teams like Denver, with ACC and Big 10 non-league wins, to get to a four seed.

That's immoral. Denver can't get a much better schedule than they got this year, as a lot of teams won't play them. This hurts the game...

[thedisciple516]

Not sure,I understand having Denver play USC. The rest of their bracket have easier games

The 4th seed UNC draws sacred heart and the 5th seed Denver draws USC?

At large UVA draws Albany?

I agree with you That’s probably the closest matchup Not sure cuse should be 2 seed either

Cuse should definitely be #2 if you judge it by the entire body of work for the whole season. Nobody has better number than Syracuse (SOS, RPI, Top 10 Wins, Top 5 wins etc.). If you judge it by how they look right now at the end of the season then definitely not. Looks like the committee went by entire season

[ExLax]

....immoral. Denver can't get a much better schedule than they got this year, as a lot of teams won't play them. This hurts the game...

Can't agree, not immoral at all - they are in the dance as a seeded team and they can take it all. Doesn't hurt the game whatsoever IMHO and just whining from a privileged Homer....

[PhanLax99]

Denver should be in an uproar with their draw in round one. Insane that UNC gets an absolute cupcake while Denver has to play the PAC-12 champion!

Richmond getting Marquette is a gift from the lacrosse gods. Went from being a bubble team to smacking UMASS and getting a winnable 1st round game. What a day for Richmond.

Marquette is a wonderful story and I am happy for them, but they beat the worst team in the Big Ten by 1 (OSU) and beat the second to last team in the ACC by 3 (Louisville). Virginia Tech and Clemson (neither of which did enough to get in) clobbered Louisville by running clock. Their SOS is low 30’s. They beat Niagara by 1!

Drexel being in makes zero sense to me. Committee took PSU at 32, why not take Towson at 35? Drexel literally lost to them twice. Drexel beat a Hopkins team that was free falling early on in its season. Drexel need OT to beat a Temple team that didn’t make their conference tournament.

[ExLax]

Denver should be in an uproar with their draw in round one. Insane that UNC gets an absolute cupcake while Denver has to play the PAC-12 champion!

Richmond getting Marquette is a gift from the lacrosse gods. Went from being a bubble team to smacking UMASS and getting a winnable 1st round game. What a day for Richmond.

Marquette is a wonderful story and I am happy for them, but they beat the worst team in the Big Ten by 1 (OSU) and beat the second to last team in the ACC by 3 (Louisville). Virginia Tech and Clemson (neither of which did enough to get in) clobbered Louisville by running clock. Their SOS is low 30’s. They beat Niagara by 1!

Drexel being in makes zero sense to me. Committee took PSU at 32, why not take Towson at 35? Drexel literally lost to them twice. Drexel beat a Hopkins team that was free falling early on in its season. Drexel need OT to beat a Temple team that didn’t make their conference tournament.

GREAT WHINING!!!! Pios should submit a suit to the US Supreme Court immediately for having your feelings hurt - is this a Tierney culture to legacy??

Win and progress, help your team to stay focused and not argue about mice droppings.

[Womenslaxxfan]

Do people not read the criteria the committee uses to select teams? The teams included were not hard to predict based on the committees criteria of RPI, wins, quality wins. The bubble wasn’t particularly close this year.

The only minor surprise was Florida seeded over jmu against the rpi ranking which I took to mean the committee took into account the last game of the season head to head for Florida over jmu.

Cuse deserved the second seed. The committee has talked about body of work many times.

And as for Denver being “screwed” by having to play usc, usc is statistically one of the weakest 5 teams in the field. Which , combined with their geography, is why they are likely playing the 5 seed.

It’s a great bracket a great field. Nobody who isn’t in it other than Rutgers (who was ineligible), can look at this bracket and say “we did enough during our season to definitely be in over XXXX”

[Puck Swami]

Can't agree, not immoral at all - they are in the dance as a seeded team and they can take it all. Doesn't hurt the game whatsoever IMHO and just whining from a privileged Homer....

Homer? Certainly.

Privileged? Perhaps.

As for immoral, I am sticking up for every team not in the ACC or Big 10, who are all basically permanently exiled from a top 4 NCAA seed, due to the structural inequity of a selection system that is partially broken. The ACC/Big 10, by virtue of league schedules that are stacked with more high RPI games than other conferences can ever schedule, make it virtually impossible for any other teams outside those leagues, even undefeated ones, to break through to secure a top 4 seed. RPI and SOS are tools that are not always accurate in a short-season sport with a limited amount of games. Even ESPN's commentator, Shea Stanwick Burch, said she was "surprised" by what happened to Denver today...

[thedisciple516]

Can't agree, not immoral at all - they are in the dance as a seeded team and they can take it all. Doesn't hurt the game whatsoever IMHO and just whining from a privileged Homer....

Homer? Certainly.

Privileged? Perhaps.

As for immoral, I am sticking up for every team not in the ACC or Big 10, who are all basically permanently exiled from a top 4 NCAA seed, due to the structural inequity of a selection system that is partially broken. The ACC/Big 10, by virtue of league schedules that are stacked with more high RPI games than other conferences can ever schedule, make it virtually impossible for any other teams outside those leagues, even undefeated ones, to break through to secure a top 4 seed. RPI and SOS are tools that are not always accurate in a short-season sport with a limited amount of games. Even ESPN's commentator, Shea Stanwick Burch, said she was "surprised" by what happened to Denver today...

Not disagreeing with you about the structural inquity, it will be very hard for a non ACC/Big 10 school to crack the top 5 as long as SOS is considered. That being said I disagree that it's hurting Denver in this particular bracket. In exchange for playing a first round game they have by far the easiest path to the Final 4 of any Top 8 seed. USC will not be a problem for Denver and it's questionable whether Virginia even belongs in the tournament. UNC is still finding it's footing and is the most beatable of the top 4 seeds (assuming Syracuse snaps out of its funk). I wouldn't be too upset as a Denver fan with this draw.

[Seacoaster(1)]

Any chance Notre Dame picks off Florida in the round of 16?

[LaxPundit07]

Denver should be in an uproar with their draw in round one. Insane that UNC gets an absolute cupcake while Denver has to play the PAC-12 champion!

Richmond getting Marquette is a gift from the lacrosse gods. Went from being a bubble team to smacking UMASS and getting a winnable 1st round game. What a day for Richmond.

Marquette is a wonderful story and I am happy for them, but they beat the worst team in the Big Ten by 1 (OSU) and beat the second to last team in the ACC by 3 (Louisville). Virginia Tech and Clemson (neither of which did enough to get in) clobbered Louisville by running clock. Their SOS is low 30’s. They beat Niagara by 1!

Drexel being in makes zero sense to me. Committee took PSU at 32, why not take Towson at 35? Drexel literally lost to them twice. Drexel beat a Hopkins team that was free falling early on in its season. Drexel need OT to beat a Temple team that didn’t make their conference tournament.

Denver is playing USC because of geography. Rather than flying someone to play Denver and flying USC to another location, they just flew USC to Denver and called it good. Until the NCAA gets rid of the flying requirements and restrictions, we will always see someone getting screwed in the seeding or match ups every year.

[Womenslaxxfan]

“USC will not be a problem for Denver and it's questionable whether Virginia even belongs in the tournament.”

On the former you are likely correct. On the latter you clearly have no idea of how the committee picks the field.
Uva was a lock with their win over notre dame, their record and their strength of schedule. They beat Norte dame once and lost to them by 1. They got ran away from in the second halves of the Syracuse and bc games, but were leading both late in second half. Their worst loss is to a team with a 22 rpi. Their games with unc and jmu were nail biters until very late in the 4th quarter. They weren’t close to the the last 4 in. They were the 7th at large out of 14.

Uva wasn’t consistent enough to be a top 10 team, but they absolutely “deserved” to be in the tourney.

[Womenslaxxfan]

Sorry. Meant second quarter for cuse and bc