I'd expect ND to add 2 February games

I'd expect ND to add 2 February games
by ShermanOaksND (2017-12-12 12:36:40)

In reply to: That's only 10 games plus the ACC tourney posted by tf86

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

That seems really weird. They are going to burn up

two weekends to accomodate the tournament. They should just play a Tuesday - Friday - Sunday.

Interestingly, the Patriot League has a 6-team

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.