The Division I men’s lacrosse season kicks off on Saturday, Jan. 31, with highs in Maryland expected to come in below 20 degrees.
Wait, what?
That’s right. Loyola, Maryland and Navy were supposed to get going on Jan. 31, but their games were canceled or postponed. Johns Hopkins is still scheduled to host Robert Morris, with Towson hosting North Carolina a day later. Any games this weekend will be attended by … probably not many.
Local coaches discussed the impact of starting the season so early and potential fixes as part of Glenn Clark Radio‘s annual local lacrosse preview on Jan. 27, starting with Towson’s Shawn Nadelen.
“I think we’re doing a disservice to really the fan base and people coming out to watch the games,” Nadelen said. “I was fortunate as a player. We started in March, and it was able to draw more. As far as attendance, I think it’s going to take a lot of guys smarter than me and a lot of work to see if we can shift it for that. One, it’s not safe as well as people don’t want to be out when it’s 20 degrees with a 10-degree wind chill and all that good stuff. It’s what it is right now and we’re all kind of in it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some conversations come up down the road to try to shift some things.”
Johns Hopkins head coach Peter Milliman explained that the discussion about why the season starts so early actually begins with the NCAA Tournament selection process. The 18-team field includes 10 automatic qualifiers via conference tournaments, leaving just eight at-large bids. That has led to risk-averse resume-building among coaches, Milliman explained.
Ten-plus years ago, two-game weeks were common in the sport. However, coaches now want to play as challenging of a nonconference schedule as they can and prefer to have a full week between games, like a football schedule.
“I think the emphasis is that you can’t risk playing a midweek game before a big nonconference opponent on the weekend and you can’t risk playing a bottom-50 RPI team because even winning that can hurt your chances in the tournament,” Milliman said. “So you end up with the top teams playing the top teams. They don’t play anybody else. If you beat the No. 60 RPI team by 15, it hurts your RPI.”
If coaches want a full week between games and the Final Four is going to remain on Memorial Day weekend, that results in an early, cold start to the season … and a really early, really cold start to practice.
“It doesn’t make a lot of sense to be playing games and scrimmages in January given safety reasons,” said Maryland head coach John Tillman, whose team has access to an indoor facility. “If you are lucky enough to get outside, what’s the temperature? How hard is the ground? Is there some ice involved? Things like that.”
Loyola head coach Charley Toomey‘s squad had access to a practice bubble at Ridley Athletic Complex, but the bubble succumbed to the snowstorm and needs to be repaired. The Greyhounds now have to practice outside “like everybody else,” according to Toomey.
“We’ve got to acclimate to this stuff. If you’re going to play in it, you’ve got to acclimate.” Toomey said. “Now we don’t have to worry about even the challenge of, ‘Are we in or out?’ We’re out. Like everyone, we’re going to be really smart with our athletes. It might mean some shorter practices and some more up and downs just to keep them moving.”
A couple of coaches offered solutions to the dilemma of the season starting too early …
Push the championship game back to mid-June. The logistics are unclear given that ESPN has broadcast the championship game on Memorial Day for years and the semifinal matchups have always been played two days prior at the same venue. Would the Final Four remain a three-games-in-three-days destination for lacrosse families?
“We’ve been so locked into that weekend you’d have to go, ‘All right, we’re getting off that weekend. Is it permissible to do that?'” Tillman said. “Does moving it back, I don’t know, three weeks, help the beginning of preseason? We’re all really trying to speed-walk through this preseason. You’ve got to be careful with how much you do because an injury here, an injury there definitely changes any team.”
Embrace creativity in scheduling to allow for a mid-February start to the season. Navy head coach Joe Amplo suggested that conferences look into teams playing two league games in three days on the road at schools that are close in proximity. However, Big Ten teams would likely balk at that idea since those games are so taxing.
“That would force us as coaches to go back to the model of some midweek games or conferences saying, ‘Look, here’s a travel-partner scenario and you’re going to play a few weekends of Friday-Sunday,'” Amplo said. “I think if it’s a level playing field and everybody is forced into that situation, it makes it a heck of a lot easier because then you’re looking at your opponents and they’re in the same situation.”
Regardless of the solutions, every coach agreed that the current model doesn’t make much sense, and changes have to be made to create a better experience for fans and players alike.
“I can go back to my playing days. We didn’t play until March,” Amplo said. “We got 14 games in. Everybody was healthy. The experience from a student-athlete perspective, from a fan’s perspective was much better.”
This story was updated with the news of postponements or cancellations.
Photo Credit: Larry French