they usually don't change the weekend of previous years' games. For example, UVa usually plays Syracuse the weekend closest to March 1. It's been that way for 20+ years that we've played them. The game has been moved around within the weekend to accommodate ESPN, UVa basketball games, and other random reasons, but Greensboro has kept it on that weekend, even after they joined the ACC.
And Ohio State's schedule went up today -- ND plays in Columbus in the usual slot, albeit this time on a Sunday, March 25. At least two more OOC games figure to be scheduled.
This is how it would look with predicted ACC games in italics.
Sat. Mar. 3 -- at Maryland
Sat. Mar. 10 -- DENVER
March 17 or 18 -- VIRGINIA
Wed. Mar. 21 -- MICHIGAN
Sun. Mar. 25 -- at Ohio State, noon
Mar. 31 or Apr. 1 -- at Syracuse
Apr. 7 or 8 -- DUKE
Wed. Apr. 11 -- at Marquette
April 21 or 22 -- at North Carolina
April 27 and 29 -- ACC Tournament
Sat. May 5 -- ARMY
None of the UVa OOC games are in that slot based on the schedules the other schools have released. BTW the ACC has released Syracuse's schedule. They have ND @ Cuse listed as 3/31, 5 PM. Link is to Cuse board's schedule thread.
I would hope that we'd schedule at least 1-2 more. As it stands, there would be an opening for the weekend of April 14/15, and I suppose we could add a game for the weekend of February 24/25 as well.
OOC scheduling is pretty important in men's lacrosse. We already have a pretty tough OOC schedule, including Maryland, Denver, Ohio State and Marquette (3 of 4 of those on the road), but I think we need a few more games in our schedule.
That's a natural; we should play them most or all years. With the opener that early (I think it's ND's earliest-ever home opener), I expect 2 more February games to be announced before the schedule is final. That would give us 1 more game than in 2017.
Only drawback is that if Detroit winds up with the MAAC's AQ bid in the tourney, they are our likely first-round opponent for geographic reasons.
Perhaps Cleveland State would be a good opponent to add for a home game. It would be a bus trip for them, they did surprising well for a first-year program (RPI in the low 40's, IIRC) and as an independent, right now they have no path to speak of to the NCAA tournament.
OOC scheduling is pretty important in men's lacrosse. We already have a pretty tough OOC schedule, including Maryland, Denver, Ohio State and Marquette (3 of 4 of those on the road), but I think we need a few more games in our schedule.
That weekend of April 14-15 is possible, but ND has kept that slot between Marquette and UNC open the last few years.
By the way, I just learned that in 2019, the ACC will expand its conference tournament to two weekends. The first weekend (where the tournament presently is held), there will be a 5-4 game, with the winner playing the 1 seed and 3 playing 2. The winners of those games will play for the championship the following weekend at the home of the higher-seeded team, on the first weekend in May.
In addition, the Patriot League will be moving its conference tournament back one week to early May. That move, plus the ACC's, mean ND won't be playing Army to finish the regular season anymore. That's too bad, because I was thinking of making a trip to West Point in May 2019.
Unfortunately, this means
two weekends to accomodate the tournament. They should just play a Tuesday - Friday - Sunday.
Conference tournament, yet does it all in one week.
3 vs. 6 and 4 vs. 5 on Wednesday. 3-6 winner vs. 2 and 4-5 winner vs. 1 on Friday. Winners of Friday's games on Sunday.
I suspect the ACC could do something like that if it were so inclined.
I can see why the Patriot League moved their conference tourney, perhaps. Since the ACC and the Patriot League were the only conferences that finished up their conference tourneys early, the final week of the regular season had to feature ACC vs. Patriot matchups (it doesn't make much sense to have a conference game AFTER the conference tourney). Since there are only five ACC teams and nine Patriot League teams, that meant that a minimum of four Patriot League teams would be out of luck for the final weekend. I suppose they could round out the schedule with Division I independents as opponents, but two of those teams (NJIT and Hampton) are among the dregs of Division I men's lacrosse currently. Further, while this is only an educated guess on my part, I believe the ranks of the independents will be further depleted in 2019. St. Bonaventure adds men's lacrosse that year, and I believe that move will entail the Atlantic 10 beginning to sponsor men's lacrosse. Fwiw, the A-10 will then have four members (UMass, Richmond, St. Joe's and St. Bonaventure) competing in men's lacrosse. By comparison, the Southern Conference has only three full members playing men's lacrosse (Furman, Mercer and VMI), yet it sponsors men's lacrosse.
Slaughtering Michigan would be an awesome present.