2008 Woodie Awards
Men's Lacrosse: ECAC pondering adding conference tournament
Michael King, Collegian Staff
Issue date: 5/1/08 Section: Sports
As a seven-team conference, the regular season winner of the ECAC men's lacrosse league earns the league's automatic qualifier for the NCAA Tournament. But unlike other Division I conferences, the ECAC has no season-ending conference tournament.
According to UMass coach Greg Cannella, the possibility of adding a tournament has been a contentious issue among the league's coaches.
"We talk about that every year, but there's been a resistance from a few schools year after year," Cannella said. "When you're in the upper-echelon of the conference every year, you don't want a conference tournament. But if you finish third or fourth every year, you want one."
Despite the disagreement among some other members, Cannella believes the league and his program would benefit from a conference tournament.
"I've always wanted a tournament," Cannella said. "It's exciting for your kids. That's your shot [to make the NCAA Tournament]."
Seven leagues maintain NCAA automatic qualifiers, though not each of these conferences has a season-ending tournament. Other conferences, which lack enough membership to be eligible for an automatic bid, have a conference tournament, such as the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Beyond the implications a tournament can have for an individual team's season, Cannella believes the ECAC is not harnessing an opportunity to market itself.
"It's only going to help your conference in terms of exposure," he said. "If you have a conference tournament, people are going to be talking about it."
Though the coach does not dismiss the potential for a conference tournament, he acknowledged that the member schools would need to be fully in accord for the plan to move forward.
Instead, the Minutemen (5-8, 3-3 ECAC) will end their season Saturday against Rutgers (5-7, 3-3 ECAC). With a losing record regardless of the outcome, it will be the final game for UMass. The NCAA mandates that teams must win at least half of their games to be eligible for its tournament.
Unstable future
With ECAC-member school Hobart (8-5, 4-3 ECAC) deciding to reorganize its men's lacrosse program at the Division III level, the ECAC and UMass lacrosse are left with an uncertain future. Hobart, which competes at the Division III level in every other sport, does not offer athletic scholarships to its student athletes.
After enjoying significant success at the Division III level, the Statesmen upgraded their program after the 1995 season. Since that season, Hobart has qualified for the NCAA Tournament four times, while UMass has qualified six times.
But the decision has an overarching impact on UMass.
"Obviously we're disappointed," Cannella said. "You hate to lose a good program from Division I. They have a shot to make the NCAA Tournament this weekend and they've been the most improved team in our conference."
As a product of losing a team in conference, UMass will also lose a game off of its schedule next season. Cannella said that the decision about whether to add another team to next year's schedule will be made early in the offseason. Though, the ECAC will not lose its automatic bid next season as long as it does not lose any more teams before next season.
But there's also been talk that the seven Big East schools that maintain Division I lacrosse programs will form their own conference. The institutions include Syracuse, Notre Dame, Georgetown, Rutgers, Providence, Villanova and St. John's.
"I think that's a reality," Cannella said. "The Big East has its meeting sometime in May, so we may get that decision. It certainly concerns us since we would have to realign ourselves with another conference as quickly as we can."
But there is a precedent for the Big East adding schools to its league on an individual sport basis. For example, Loyola's women's lacrosse team maintains Big East membership, while its men's team is a part of the ECAC.
Michael King can be reached at mking@dailycollegian.com
According to UMass coach Greg Cannella, the possibility of adding a tournament has been a contentious issue among the league's coaches.
"We talk about that every year, but there's been a resistance from a few schools year after year," Cannella said. "When you're in the upper-echelon of the conference every year, you don't want a conference tournament. But if you finish third or fourth every year, you want one."
Despite the disagreement among some other members, Cannella believes the league and his program would benefit from a conference tournament.
"I've always wanted a tournament," Cannella said. "It's exciting for your kids. That's your shot [to make the NCAA Tournament]."
Seven leagues maintain NCAA automatic qualifiers, though not each of these conferences has a season-ending tournament. Other conferences, which lack enough membership to be eligible for an automatic bid, have a conference tournament, such as the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Beyond the implications a tournament can have for an individual team's season, Cannella believes the ECAC is not harnessing an opportunity to market itself.
"It's only going to help your conference in terms of exposure," he said. "If you have a conference tournament, people are going to be talking about it."
Though the coach does not dismiss the potential for a conference tournament, he acknowledged that the member schools would need to be fully in accord for the plan to move forward.
Instead, the Minutemen (5-8, 3-3 ECAC) will end their season Saturday against Rutgers (5-7, 3-3 ECAC). With a losing record regardless of the outcome, it will be the final game for UMass. The NCAA mandates that teams must win at least half of their games to be eligible for its tournament.
Unstable future
With ECAC-member school Hobart (8-5, 4-3 ECAC) deciding to reorganize its men's lacrosse program at the Division III level, the ECAC and UMass lacrosse are left with an uncertain future. Hobart, which competes at the Division III level in every other sport, does not offer athletic scholarships to its student athletes.
After enjoying significant success at the Division III level, the Statesmen upgraded their program after the 1995 season. Since that season, Hobart has qualified for the NCAA Tournament four times, while UMass has qualified six times.
But the decision has an overarching impact on UMass.
"Obviously we're disappointed," Cannella said. "You hate to lose a good program from Division I. They have a shot to make the NCAA Tournament this weekend and they've been the most improved team in our conference."
As a product of losing a team in conference, UMass will also lose a game off of its schedule next season. Cannella said that the decision about whether to add another team to next year's schedule will be made early in the offseason. Though, the ECAC will not lose its automatic bid next season as long as it does not lose any more teams before next season.
But there's also been talk that the seven Big East schools that maintain Division I lacrosse programs will form their own conference. The institutions include Syracuse, Notre Dame, Georgetown, Rutgers, Providence, Villanova and St. John's.
"I think that's a reality," Cannella said. "The Big East has its meeting sometime in May, so we may get that decision. It certainly concerns us since we would have to realign ourselves with another conference as quickly as we can."
But there is a precedent for the Big East adding schools to its league on an individual sport basis. For example, Loyola's women's lacrosse team maintains Big East membership, while its men's team is a part of the ECAC.
Michael King can be reached at mking@dailycollegian.com
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