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Every member of Division I lacrosse has played at least one game this season. Of those 69 teams, 19 have yet to win a game. Of those 19 teams, 17 programs form the participant pool for Reverse Survivor, a chronicle that tracks Division I's winless teams and simultaneously tears at your heart.1 No team should exist on the fringe of consciousness simply due to the fact that it struggles to bag kills, and these teams need love -- the desire to watch them earn a victory against an opponent at the highest level of college lacrosse -- and attention. This isn't about highlighting "bad" teams as much as it's helping illustrate who you should be pulling for after your favorite team. These teams work as hard as the unbeatens and should have a place in your lacrosse soul.
While the 17-team field for Reverse Survivor is defined, not all of the contenders are playing with similar circumstances. The number of winless teams is likely to rapidly dwindle over the next few weeks, leaving only a handful of teams with true Reverse Survivor realities. This is due to a number of factors: (1) A bunch of currently winless teams can really play and they're going to find victories relatively soon; (2) Teams win even when they shouldn't, ruining your brain; and (3) Reverse Survivor tends to figure itself out by late-March and early-April, leaving only a team or two with a dastardly null set when asked, "Hey, how are things going?"
Here's the field and what's upcoming for each team:
TEAM | RECORD | NEXT OPPONENT | DATE | AFTER NEXT OPPONENT | DATE |
Georgetown | 0-2 | Hofstra | February 28 | at Mount St. Mary's | March 4 |
Drexel | 0-2 | Villanova | February 24 | at Maryland | February 28 |
Hofstra | 0-2 | Manhattan | February 24 | at Georgetown | February 28 |
Massachusetts | 0-3 | Brown | February 28 | at Albany | March 7 |
Vermont | 0-3 | Boston University | February 28 | at NJIT | March 3 |
Binghamton | 0-1 | Cornell | February 24 | Hobart | February 28 |
Canisius | 0-3 | at Michigan | February 28 | at Hobart | March 10 |
Hartford | 0-1 | Manhattan | February 28 | Brown | March 4 |
Robert Morris | 0-3 | at High Point | February 28 | Siena | March 7 |
Monmouth | 0-1 | at Rutgers | February 28 | Wagner | March 3 |
Quinnipiac | 0-1 | at NJIT | February 28 | at Harvard | March 3 |
Wagner | 0-1 | at Rutgers | February 24 | at Massachusetts-Lowell | February 28 |
Sacred Heart | 0-1 | at Dartmouth | March 4 | at Providence | March 7 |
Mercer | 0-2 | Siena | February 24 | at Detroit | March 4 |
Dartmouth | 0-1 | at Notre Dame | February 28 | Sacred Heart | March 4 |
Manhattan | 0-3 | at Hofstra | February 24 | at Hartford | February 28 |
VMI | 0-3 | St. Joseph's | February 25 | at Richmond | March 7 |
You can see that this list could shrink pretty quickly: There are two Reverse Survivor-offs this week alone and a lot of teams in this table are facing situations conducive to a win in their hyper-near future. Regardless, keep these teams on your "Must Send an Edible Arrangement" list as they are worth an extra fist pump or two when their name comes up on the daily calendar.
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1 New programs aren't eligible for Reverse Survivor. To include new programs in this competition misses the point as they're still learning how to get on and off the bus.