2022 Schedule Guesses

[Powellfan]

Air Force opening the season February 5th at Virginia. Crazy how far up the calendar has moved up these past few years.

 

[fieldystick]

Air Force opening the season February 5th at Virginia. Crazy how far up the calendar has moved up these past few years.

I've been starting to work on 2022 season stuff these last few days. I fully expect there to be 3-5 games played the last weekend in January this season - a few are already announced.

The schedule creep into February the last 5-15 years (it varies by program as to when this really started) has been because of two main factors, in my opinion:

1) More and more programs having legitimate claims to the final few at-large spots in any given season

and

2) Expansion of and increased emphasis on conference tournaments

Has led to: fewer mid-week games being scheduled - particularly by top teams - due to their worry that they are going to suffer a bad loss on (because of?) short preparation time and wreck their at-large chances.

I don't like the creep into early February and particularly now January. I would prefer the hard date for first scrimmages to be Feb 1 and then hard date for first games to be mid-February. But it seems that the coaches don't want that, so I suspect that the fans are going to continue to suffer from a whole month of terrible weather lacrosse.

This is something that I made ahead of the 2020 season for Hopkins, when I was trying to lock down our schedule for that year, but it still applies here and demonstrates the point that you are making about schedule creep:

 

[wgdsr]

I've been starting to work on 2022 season stuff these last few days. I fully expect there to be 3-5 games played the last weekend in January this season - a few are already announced.

The schedule creep into February the last 5-15 years (it varies by program as to when this really started) has been because of two main factors, in my opinion:

1) More and more programs having legitimate claims to the final few at-large spots in any given season

and

2) Expansion of and increased emphasis on conference tournaments

Has led to: fewer mid-week games being scheduled - particularly by top teams - due to their worry that they are going to suffer a bad loss on (because of?) short preparation time and wreck their at-large chances.

I don't like the creep into early February and particularly now early January. I would prefer the hard date for first scrimmages to be Feb 1 and then hard date for first games to be mid-February. But it seems that the coaches don't want that, so I suspect that the fans are going to continue to suffer from a whole month of terrible weather lacrosse.

This is something that I made ahead of the 2020 season for Hopkins, when I was trying to lock down our schedule for that year, but it still applies here and demonstrates the point that you are making about schedule creep:

View attachment 211092

sweet graphics. the other thing is teams have added another game or 2 (or 3+ if you go back) 30 years. that's all good.
one thing to remember is teams are practicing anyway. the bench guys might not like it standing there (or fans sitting), but they have to be out playing anyway. players would rather be playing games. and that includes mid-week.

it would be an endeavor and never happen, but i'd love for someone to do an analysis of whether mid-week or short-prep next weekend games resulted in more bad losses than otherwise. my guess is it would be nearly identical. with a 50/50 chance of even being slightly lower.

 

[Shrmdougluvr]

I've been starting to work on 2022 season stuff these last few days. I fully expect there to be 3-5 games played the last weekend in January this season - a few are already announced.

The schedule creep into February the last 5-15 years (it varies by program as to when this really started) has been because of two main factors, in my opinion:

1) More and more programs having legitimate claims to the final few at-large spots in any given season

and

2) Expansion of and increased emphasis on conference tournaments

Has led to: fewer mid-week games being scheduled - particularly by top teams - due to their worry that they are going to suffer a bad loss on (because of?) short preparation time and wreck their at-large chances.

I don't like the creep into early February and particularly now January. I would prefer the hard date for first scrimmages to be Feb 1 and then hard date for first games to be mid-February. But it seems that the coaches don't want that, so I suspect that the fans are going to continue to suffer from a whole month of terrible weather lacrosse.

This is something that I made ahead of the 2020 season for Hopkins, when I was trying to lock down our schedule for that year, but it still applies here and demonstrates the point that you are making about schedule creep:

View attachment 211092

Do you know if Hopkins is playing at home the Saturday before Easter? (April 16 I think)

 

[fieldystick]

Do you know if Hopkins is playing at home the Saturday before Easter? (April 16 I think)

I don't want to get too bogged down in the details of Hopkins 2022 in a thread that is nominally about Syracuse's schedule guess, but what I here's my best guess based on what I have heard/think/know.

The rumor is that the Big Ten games will be the same as what 2020 was meant to be. I take that to mean in terms of locations and the order of games.

If that's the case, Hopkins should be @ Ohio State on April 16th or at least sometime during the Easter weekend.

But again, the rumor could be wrong and/or I could be interpreting it wrong. Don't make definitive plans based on my guesses!

Full disclosure of my current best guess attached

 

[Zack80]

I don't want to get too bogged down in the details of Hopkins 2022 in a thread that is nominally about Syracuse's schedule guess, but what I here's my best guess based on what I have heard/think/know.

The rumor is that the Big Ten games will be the same as what 2020 was meant to be. I take that to mean in terms of locations and the order of games.

If that's the case, Hopkins should be @ Ohio State on April 16th or at least sometime during the Easter weekend.

But again, the rumor could be wrong and/or I could be interpreting it wrong. Don't make definitive plans based on my guesses!

Full disclosure of my current best guess attached

You have probably got it right.
One thing that I would mention was that Virginia was schedule to play at UMd on March 14 in 2020 - which would correspond to March 12 this year.
Virginia seemed to clear out the end of February by dropping Princeton.

 

[fieldystick]

You have probably got it right.
One thing that I would mention was that Virginia was schedule to play at UMd on March 14 in 2020 - which would correspond to March 12 this year.
Virginia seemed to clear out the end of February by dropping Princeton.

Good catch. It's the order of the 3 ACC games that I feel the least certain about on our schedule - and what actually brought me here in the first place: to see what the 'Cuse folks knew.

I ended up going with the historical order of those three games on Hop's schedule as my best guess, but who knows with many programs making significant schedule changes since we last saw something resembling a normal season in 2019.

In any case, I suspect we'll have much more clarity on everyone's schedules within the next two weeks. I count about 15 of the 73 teams with their full schedules out right now. Once that gets up to around 35-40 range, we'll be able to piece together the rest pretty easily.

 

[Zack80]

Good catch. It's the order of the 3 ACC games that I feel the least certain about on our schedule - and what actually brought me here in the first place: to see what the 'Cuse folks knew.

I ended up going with the historical order of those three games on Hop's schedule as my best guess, but who knows with many programs making significant schedule changes since we last saw something resembling a normal season in 2019.

In any case, I suspect we'll have much more clarity on everyone's schedules within the next two weeks. I count about 15 of the 73 teams with their full schedules out right now. Once that gets up to around 35-40 range, we'll be able to piece together the rest pretty easily.

You are a step ahead of me, as at least JHU has said who they are playing. Arealax feels pretty strongly that UMd will have games at Syracuse and at Notre Dame, but the UVa game is just conjecture.

 

[Powellfan]

I've been starting to work on 2022 season stuff these last few days. I fully expect there to be 3-5 games played the last weekend in January this season - a few are already announced.

The schedule creep into February the last 5-15 years (it varies by program as to when this really started) has been because of two main factors, in my opinion:

1) More and more programs having legitimate claims to the final few at-large spots in any given season

and

2) Expansion of and increased emphasis on conference tournaments

Has led to: fewer mid-week games being scheduled - particularly by top teams - due to their worry that they are going to suffer a bad loss on (because of?) short preparation time and wreck their at-large chances.

I don't like the creep into early February and particularly now January. I would prefer the hard date for first scrimmages to be Feb 1 and then hard date for first games to be mid-February. But it seems that the coaches don't want that, so I suspect that the fans are going to continue to suffer from a whole month of terrible weather lacrosse.

This is something that I made ahead of the 2020 season for Hopkins, when I was trying to lock down our schedule for that year, but it still applies here and demonstrates the point that you are making about schedule creep:

View attachment 211092

That is striking to see with the visuals. I hope you share more of these in the future (Syracuse based of course)! Personally, I don't mind having the season start so early, that just means we get to watch lacrosse that much sooner. As a Syracuse fan it seems extra beneficial since a lot schools seem to want to play in the weather controlled Dome early in the season, so less road games for the Orange.

For the "good of the game" though it does seem silly to have the season start so early - watching crowds at Homewood in 30 degree weather does not look enjoyable. Plus, most casual fans are most likely still focused on college basketball. There is not a lot of coverage of lacrosse in general, but it seems to start with a whimper when the season starts in early Feb.

The best way to fix all this, to me, seems to involve moving the Final Four back past Memorial Day. More games in better weather seems like a good thing to me, and you will get more fans in the seats. But given the history and the tradition of the sport, this seems unlikely to happen. I'm not sure what the answer is.

 

[fieldystick]

The best way to fix all this, to me, seems to involve moving the Final Four back past Memorial Day. More games in better weather seems like a good thing to me, and you will get more fans in the seats. But given the history and the tradition of the sport, this seems unlikely to happen. I'm not sure what the answer is.

Like you, I'm really torn on the issue. I am a traditionalist, and I would prefer to keep the Final Four on Memorial Day weekend if at all possible, but I feel like we're either fast approaching - or maybe even past - the point where that doesn't make sense anymore.

Between the NCAA tournament expanding from 2 weekends to 3 and with conference tournaments now taking up the weekend before that - and in extreme cases (e.g., 2019 ACC, 2021 and 2022 Big Ten), two weekends before that - we've lost 2 or 3 weekends of what used to be prime regular season lacrosse.

Broadly speaking, the season from first game to crowning a champion now lasts 16 or 17 weeks. It's a matter of identifying when the best 16-17 weekends to hold those competitions are, not necessarily a question of less or more lacrosse in my mind. From March 1 to Memorial Day weekend is roughly 13 of those weekends, and I view those as a no-brainer.

The question is the other 3 or 4: February or June?

If it weren't for the tradition of Memorial Day final fours, I know what I would choose. But the tradition makes it tricky.

Foy wrote about this issue on IL several years back if anyone is interested in more fleshed out thoughts: Opinion: NCAA DI MLAX Needs a Universal Start Date, New Tournament Format

I agree with some of his ideas and have minor issues/other ideas about others.

 

[fieldystick]

And now for me to actually contribute something Syracuse/ACC related (sorry for getting the thread sidetracked).

Interview with Corrigan seemingly confirms that the 6-game ACC "round robin and a half" format - with no conference tournament following the regular season - will continue through the 2024 season.

Part about ACC schedules starts around 9:30 and sounds pretty definitive to me:
Teams will play the same two opponents twice in 2022 as they did in 2021 and then switch doubled opponents for 2023 and 2024.

2021 / 2022 home and home:
UNCCH: Duke, UVA
Duke: UNCCH, ND
UVA: UNCCH, Syracuse
Syracuse: UVA, ND
ND: Duke, Syracuse

2023 / 2024 home and home:
UNCCH: Syracuse, ND
Duke: UVA, Syracuse
UVA: Duke, ND
Syracuse: UNCCH, Duke
ND: UNCCH, UVA

I know there was some talk earlier in the thread that the 6 game ACC slate would continue, but I don't know if anyone ever definitively confirmed who the two doubled opponents would be.

 

[Powellfan]

And now for me to actually contribute something Syracuse/ACC related (sorry for getting the thread sidetracked).

Interview with Corrigan seemingly confirms that the 6-game ACC "round robin and a half" format - with no conference tournament following the regular season - will continue through the 2024 season.

Part about ACC schedules starts around 9:30 and sounds pretty definitive to me:
Teams will play the same two opponents twice in 2022 as they did in 2021 and then switch doubled opponents for 2023 and 2024.

2021 / 2022 home and home:
UNCCH: Duke, UVA
Duke: UNCCH, ND
UVA: UNCCH, Syracuse
Syracuse: UVA, ND
ND: Duke, Syracuse

2023 / 2024 home and home:
UNCCH: Syracuse, ND
Duke: UVA, Syracuse
UVA: Duke, ND
Syracuse: UNCCH, Duke
ND: UNCCH, UVA

I know there was some talk earlier in the thread that the 6 game ACC slate would continue, but I don't know if anyone ever definitively confirmed who the two doubled opponents would be.

Thanks for sharing, that’s surprising to hear they will keep the same schedule as last year instead of rotating the teams every year. Hopefully SU will still have Virginia’s number. I hope the Orange will fair better against Notre Dame, they seem to have our number the way we have Virginia’s. Seems no better or worse than having to play Duke and UNC twice this year.

Don’t love the system, frankly it’s just weird, but in a way I guess it makes as much sense as having a conference tournament with no AQ.

 

[Zack80]

Interview with Corrigan seemingly confirms that the 6-game ACC "round robin and a half" format - with no conference tournament following the regular season - will continue through the 2024 season.

Part about ACC schedules starts around 9:30 and sounds pretty definitive to me:
Teams will play the same two opponents twice in 2022 as they did in 2021 and then switch doubled opponents for 2023 and 2024.

2021 / 2022 home and home:
UNCCH: Duke, UVA
Duke: UNCCH, ND
UVA: UNCCH, Syracuse
Syracuse: UVA, ND
ND: Duke, Syracuse

2023 / 2024 home and home:
UNCCH: Syracuse, ND
Duke: UVA, Syracuse
UVA: Duke, ND
Syracuse: UNCCH, Duke
ND: UNCCH, UVA

I know there was some talk earlier in the thread that the 6 game ACC slate would continue, but I don't know if anyone ever definitively confirmed who the two doubled opponents would be.

So Virginia played Syracuse on Feb 27 last year, and Virginia played UNC on Mar 11 (Thursday) last year. If those dates continued, it would eliminate the possibility of either JHU or UMd playing UVa on Mar 12.

 

[Hoo's That]

And now for me to actually contribute something Syracuse/ACC related (sorry for getting the thread sidetracked).

Interview with Corrigan seemingly confirms that the 6-game ACC "round robin and a half" format - with no conference tournament following the regular season - will continue through the 2024 season.

Part about ACC schedules starts around 9:30 and sounds pretty definitive to me:
Teams will play the same two opponents twice in 2022 as they did in 2021 and then switch doubled opponents for 2023 and 2024.

2021 / 2022 home and home:
UNCCH: Duke, UVA
Duke: UNCCH, ND
UVA: UNCCH, Syracuse
Syracuse: UVA, ND
ND: Duke, Syracuse

2023 / 2024 home and home:
UNCCH: Syracuse, ND
Duke: UVA, Syracuse
UVA: Duke, ND
Syracuse: UNCCH, Duke
ND: UNCCH, UVA

I know there was some talk earlier in the thread that the 6 game ACC slate would continue, but I don't know if anyone ever definitively confirmed who the two doubled opponents would be.

By doing this until 2024, it evens things out so everyone will have gained an extra home game against every other team. That make the earliest they can return to the regular home-away rotations (like they had in 2018 and 2019) with a tournament is 2025.

 

[ivorytower]

So Virginia played Syracuse on Feb 27 last year, and Virginia played UNC on Mar 11 (Thursday) last year. If those dates continued, it would eliminate the possibility of either JHU or UMd playing UVa on Mar 12.

Deducing further , Cuse will be at Homewood that weekend

 

[Hoo's That]

Like you, I'm really torn on the issue. I am a traditionalist, and I would prefer to keep the Final Four on Memorial Day weekend if at all possible, but I feel like we're either fast approaching - or maybe even past - the point where that doesn't make sense anymore.

Between the NCAA tournament expanding from 2 weekends to 3 and with conference tournaments now taking up the weekend before that - and in extreme cases (e.g., 2019 ACC, 2021 and 2022 Big Ten), two weekends before that - we've lost 2 or 3 weekends of what used to be prime regular season lacrosse.

Broadly speaking, the season from first game to crowning a champion now lasts 16 or 17 weeks. It's a matter of identifying when the best 16-17 weekends to hold those competitions are, not necessarily a question of less or more lacrosse in my mind. From March 1 to Memorial Day weekend is roughly 13 of those weekends, and I view those as a no-brainer.

The question is the other 3 or 4: February or June?

If it weren't for the tradition of Memorial Day final fours, I know what I would choose. But the tradition makes it tricky.

Foy wrote about this issue on IL several years back if anyone is interested in more fleshed out thoughts: Opinion: NCAA DI MLAX Needs a Universal Start Date, New Tournament Format

I agree with some of his ideas and have minor issues/other ideas about others.

The biggest driver for keeping a Final 4 and having it Memorial Day weekend is ESPN. Baseball and softball, which get much higher ratings than lacrosse, are still in their conference tournaments, so ESPN needs filler and the D1 lacrosse tournament is perfect. From 1971-85, the two semifinals were held at campus sites and only the Final had a pre-announced location the following weekend. If the championship moves from Memorial Day, we'll end up going back to that. We can have a Final 4 because it's Memorial Day and people are off from work. We won't get as big a crowd if people have to take a vacation day to go. Also the later it's scheduled, the more likely you'll watch a major portion of the playoffs on The Ocho because ESPN would rather show baseball and softball.

 

[nyclax]

Deducing further , Cuse will be at Homewood that weekend

Shouldn't JHU be going up to the Dome this year? The 2020 game was played at Homewood. Everything may have reset after Covid but I'd think they will still make an effort to alternate the location from when it was last played. The 2020 non-conference games that were NOT played could revert back to those same locations this season, but the handful of non-con games that did manage to happen in 2020 before the cancelation will probably be switched for this year.

Either way, boy will it be something to see Petro back on the sidelines at Homewood in orange. If it doesn't happen in 2022 then it'll be 2023.

 

[fieldystick]

Shouldn't JHU be going up to the Dome this year?

Most rumblings have Syracuse at Hopkins this year. I have gone on that rumor. Difficult to guess how teams are approaching where games in their series "should be" this year. There are two schools of thought:

I've heard two different ideas.

1. Pretend that 2021 never happened, which would put the game in Syr.

2. Pretend that 2021 was a normal season, which would put the game back in B-More (even numbered year).

 

[fieldystick]

I finished working on the schedule matrix that I make every year a few months before the season. As with most things that I make, I made this for my own personal use - in this case, trying to put together/deduce schedules, but you are free to use it if you find it useful somehow. I suspect these will fill out considerably during the next two weeks.

ACC, Big Ten, Ivy League, Big East, Patriot League:

CAA, America East, SoCon, ASUN, NEC, MAAC:
2022 NCAAL Matrix B.pdf


Notes:
It's split into two documents because my computer struggles to handle all 70+ teams' schedules in the same document. I'm not trying to make some statement about a stratified two-tiered D1 college lacrosse.

These are straight PDFs. They're rendering a little weird on Google Drive, but I can't figure out a better way to share them. Download the files if you want to look at them and they aren't rendering correctly for you.

Colour codes: blue=home, green=neutral, white=away, pink = inferred matchup; location tbc

 

[ivorytower]

Most rumblings have Syracuse at Hopkins this year. I have gone on that rumor. Difficult to guess how teams are approaching where games in their series "should be" this year. There are two schools of thought:

@ Hop

 

[DoctahLexus]

We have done 2 and 2 with Hopkins in the past. 16-17 were at hop and 18-19 at home.

 

[fieldystick]

We have done 2 and 2 with Hopkins in the past. 16-17 were at hop and 18-19 at home.

I don't 100% remember the details of why right now, but one of the schools needed to change the order of the home games for those years. It might have had something to do with Hopkins Big Ten transition or Syracuse basketball conflicts.

I'm sure someone will remember or can check. But I think the sequence game locations you're referring to there was more of an aberration than a trend to look at.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

I don't 100% remember the details of why right now, but one of the schools needed to change the order of the home games for those years. It might have had something to do with Hopkins Big Ten transition or Syracuse basketball conflicts.

I'm sure someone will remember or can check. But I think the sequence game locations you're referring to there was more of an aberration than a trend to look at.

SU women's hoops.

Had to move a Hop game so the Women could host the 1-2 rounds of the NCAA Tournament.

We played 2 games back-to-back at Homerwood in 2016 & 2017.

Played 2018 & 2019 in Syracuse.

2020 was at Homewood, ended up being the last game of the Covid season.

Didn't play in 2021.

 

[Powellfan]

Most rumblings have Syracuse at Hopkins this year. I have gone on that rumor. Difficult to guess how teams are approaching where games in their series "should be" this year. There are two schools of thought:

"Reports" on fanlax are that Syracuse is hosting Maryland this season, so I could see them wanting to split up matchups against two Maryland based teams. I'm assuming that the game against Maryland is at least a two-year deal.

 

[Hoo's That]

"Reports" on fanlax are that Syracuse is hosting Maryland this season, so I could see them wanting to split up matchups against two Maryland based teams. I'm assuming that the game against Maryland is at least a two-year deal.

That's what we always did when we had both on our schedule in the past.