Saturday Week 12 college lacrosse preview: The final day of the regular season

What a day of lacrosse we had yesterday. We now know a little more about what to expect from conference tournaments next weekend, but there’s still pieces of the puzzle left to solve.

With that, we’ll go over all the conference races that are in play today. But first, we’ll recap what happened yesterday before going into what happens today. And make sure you check out the composite schedule for all your streams and stats links.

PATRIOT LEAGUE

The Patriot League’s regular season concluded yesterday. Here are the seedings for next week’s tournament, followed by quarterfinal matchups:

1. Loyola Greyhounds (7-1)
2. Lehigh Mountain Hawks (5-3)
3. Boston University Terriers (5-3)
4. Army West Point Black Knights (5-3)
5. Holy Cross Crusaders (4-4)
6. Bucknell Bison (4-4)

Navy (4-4), Colgate (2-6), and Lafayette (0-8) all missed out.

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
Quarterfinals - Tuesday, April 30 | Hosted by No. 3 & No. 4 Seed

No. 5 Holy Cross at No. 4 Army West Point, 3 p.m., PLN
No. 6 Bucknell at No. 3 Boston University, 7 p.m., PLN

Semifinals - Friday, May 3 at Loyola

Lower-seeded quarterfinal winner at No. 1 Loyola Maryland, 5 p.m., CBSSN
Higher-seeded quarterfinal winner vs. No. 2 Lehigh, 8 p.m., CBSSN

Championship Game - Sunday, May 5, Noon, CBSSN

For the rest of the conferences, we’ll go in alphabetical order.

ACC

The ACC semifinals are today in Chapel Hill. Winners move on to next weekend’s championship at the site of the highest remaining seed.

#1 Virginia Cavaliers vs. #5 North Carolina Tar Heels (2 PM, ESPNU)
#2 Duke Blue Devils vs. #3 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (4:30 PM, ESPNU)

Virginia, Duke, and probably Notre Dame are in the NCAA Tournament as of now. North Carolina is not. But with Ohio State losing to Michigan on Friday, their chance of making it to the big dance got a little easier. They’ll still need to beat Virginia to have a better chance and perhaps have to win the ACC altogether to get to the NCAA Tournament. But don’t count out Joe Breschi’s squad.

AMERICA EAST

Yesterday: Stony Brook defeated Albany to secure the #1 seed and hosting rights in the America East Tournament.
Yesterday: UMass Lowell loses to Binghamton and was eliminated from postseason contention.

This afternoon’s game between the UMBC Retrievers and the Hartford Hawks (Noon, ESPN+) is a win-and-in situation for the final spot in the America East Tournament.

The standings will be as follows:

1. Stony Brook Seawolves
2. Vermont Catamounts
3. Albany Great Danes
4. Winner of Hartford/UMBC

BIG EAST

Yesterday: Denver ends on 8-3 run to edge Marquette by a goal.

Denver was already in, but the Pioneer win helped clinch Big East Tournament spots for Villanova and Providence. The Wildcats can clinch the #1 seed with a win over the Friars (1 PM, Big East Digital Network).

As for the final spot, it’s up between Marquette and the Georgetown Hoyas with the latter controlling their own destiny. The Hoyas are in with a win OR if ‘Nova wins. But the Golden Eagles get in if Georgetown loses to St. John’s and the Friars upset the Wildcats.

BIG TEN

Yesterday: Ohio State upset on the road against Michigan for first time in program history.

With the Buckeye loss, they went from a slim chance to making the Big Ten Tournament to finishing last in the conference. Johns Hopkins has officially clinched a spot in next week’s conference tournament.

Penn State hosts Rutgers (2:30 PM, BTN) and Maryland hosts the Blue Jays (7:30 PM, BTN) in the regular season finale. The Nittany Lions are locked into the #1 seed, Maryland cannot finish any lower than three, and Rutgers cannot finish any higher than three. Here’s the four scenarios for today:

Rutgers, Johns Hopkins win
1. PSU (4-1), 2. JHU (3-2), 3. MD (3-2), 4. RU (3-2)

Rutgers, Maryland win
1. PSU (4-1), 2. MD (4-1), 3. RU (3-2), 4. JHU (2-3)

Penn State, Johns Hopkins win
1. PSU (5-0), 2. JHU (3-2), 3. MD (3-2), 4. RU (2-3)

Penn State, Maryland win
1. PSU (5-0), 2. MD (4-1), 3. JHU (2-3), 4. RU (2-3)

CAA

Yesterday: UMass defeated Delaware to secure top seed in conference tournament and hosting rights.

The Drexel Dragons host the Towson Tigers this afternoon (Noon, Dragons TV). A Towson win would give the Tigers the #2 seed, followed by Delaware and Drexel. If the Dragons pull off the upset, the tiebreaker would go to goal differential since all Delaware, Drexel, and Towson are 3-2 and 1-1 against each other (and lost to UMass). I’m not sure if it’s goal differential within games involving those three teams or altogether in conference play. If it’s the first option, Delaware has a goal differential of zero (two-goal win vs. Drexel, two-goal loss vs. Towson), Towson is +2, and Drexel is -2. If Drexel wins by two and this situation applies, then my goodness.

IVY LEAGUE

Penn and Yale are in the Ivy League Tournament as the #1 and #2 seeds respectively. Harvard and Dartmouth are out. Cornell, Brown, and Princeton are fighting for the final two spots.

If Cornell beats Princeton (Noon, ESPN+), Brown and Cornell are in. If Dartmouth beats Brown (1:30 PM, ESPN+), Princeton could be in with a win over the Big Red.

But if Brown beats Dartmouth, which is what will more than likely happen, it gets crazy. Here’s all the scenarios:

• Cornell win over Princeton: Cornell is #3, Brown is #4
• Princeton win by one or two over Cornell: Cornell is #3, Brown is #4
• Princeton win by three, four, or five over Cornell: Brown is #3, Princeton is #4
• Princeton win by six or more over Cornell: Princeton is #3, Cornell is #4

So why is that? Let me have my good pal Jerry Price over at Princeton walk you through it, starting with the fourth tiebreaker in the Ivy League.

If a tie still persists, add the goals for and against in the games between the tied teams; teams with the greatest goal differential gets higher seed (6-goal maximum differential per game). Once a highest seed (amongst the tied teams) is determined, the remaining seeds will be determined on the basis of head-to-head competition.

Should Brown win and Princeton win, then Brown, Princeton and Cornell would all be 3-3, with losses to Yale and Penn, wins over Harvard and Dartmouth and a 1-1 record against each other, which renders the first three tiebreakers useless.

Princeton lost to Brown 14-10, and Cornell defeated Brown 12-9. That leaves Brown at plus-one, Cornell at plus-three and Princeton at minus-four. The goal-differential determines the third seed and then head-to-head would then break the last tie.

So with that, a Princeton win over Cornell by one or two would leave the Big Red at either plus-two or plus-one, which would make them the third seed and Brown then the fourth seed because it beat Princeton. Should Princeton win by three goals or more, the Tigers would definitely be in the tournament, since Brown would now be ahead of Cornell in goal-differential, so Brown would be the third seed and then Princeton the fourth by virtue of the win over Cornell it would need to make all this happen.

Ah, but this is where it gets even more nuts. If Princeton wins by three, four or five, then Brown is still in first in goal differential among the three. But if Princeton wins by six or more, then the Tigers go from minus-four to plus-two, Brown stays at plus-one and Cornell now goes to minus-three. Princeton would be the third seed, but Cornell would be the fourth seed because head-to-head now comes into play instead of goal-differential and the Big Red have the win over Brown.

It’s crazy, I know.

MAAC

Yesterday: Marist secures regular season title and #1 seed in MAAC Tournament with 10-8 win over Canisius.

There’s still two spots left. Detroit Mercy has the other spot.

If Quinnipiac beats Manhattan (3 PM, Jasper Sports Network), the Bobcats would be the #2 seed thanks to their head-to-head win over the Titans.

If Siena beats Monmouth (1 PM, ESPN3), the Saints will jump ahead of Canisius and secure a spot in the MAAC Tournament.

If Quinnipiac loses and Siena wins, a three-way tie at 4-3 would occur. It’s possible.

NEC

There’s a chance Hobart, Mount St. Mary’s, Robert Morris, Sacred Heart, and Saint Joseph’s could all finish with a 4-2 conference record and a share of an NEC regular season title. And one of them would be left out of the postseason. Which is insane. That would mean Robert Morris beats Hobart, Sacred Heart beats Wagner, and Saint Joseph’s beats Mount St. Mary’s.

That’s one of eight scenarios to happen in the NEC season finale Saturday afternoon. Thankfully, the NEC provided a chart for all the possible scenarios.

As for the games:

• Sacred Heart vs. Wagner (Noon, no live stream per Wagner)
• Saint Joseph’s vs. Mount St. Mary’s (1 PM, NEC Front Row)
• Hobart vs. Robert Morris (1 PM, NEC Front Row)

SOCON

The big conference game is between the Richmond Spiders (5-1) and the High Point Panthers (5-1) (Noon, ESPN+). Air Force (5-1) and Jacksonville (4-2) are also in the SoCon Tournament. The final weekend will decide seeds for the conference tourney. The Falcons host Bellarmine at 2 PM (Mountain West Digital Network). Jacksonville visits Mercer at 3 PM. Here are the scenarios:

• If High Point wins: High Point is #1, Air Force is #2, Richmond is #3, Jacksonville is #4
• If Richmond, Air Force, and Jacksonville win: Air Force is #1, Richmond is #2, Jacksonville is #3, High Point is #4
• If Richmond, Air Force, and Mercer win: Air Force is #1, Richmond is #2, High Point is #3, Jacksonville is #4
• If Richmond, Bellarmine, and Jacksonville win: Richmond is #1, Air Force is #2, Jacksonville is #3, High Point is #4
• If Richmond, Bellarmine, and Mercer win: Richmond is #1, High Point is #2, Air Force is #3, Jacksonville is #4

Finally, if you want to enjoy some nonconference games, Penn plays Vermont in Wilton, Connecticut (1 PM, LSN) and Utah closes out their inaugural season at home against Detroit Mercy (3 PM, Pac-12 Plus).

#CollegeCrosseGameday will start at 11 AM right on our Twitter page. Hope to see you then.