The NCAA women’s lacrosse brackets all have a few things in common when it comes to their buildout.
Part of the criteria is to prevent teams from the same conference from meeting each other. Nowhere in the regulations says how deep into the tournament conference rivals should be kept apart.
That has led to a number of situations in all three brackets where not only conference rivals could meet up in the second round of their respective tournaments, the game itself could be a replay of a conference championship game played a week earlier.
In the Division I tournament, that could happen up to five times. Rutgers is in Maryland’s host bracket (Big Ten), Loyola and Navy (Patriot) are in the same section, as are Florida and Colorado, who met for the Big 12 title last week. Clemson, if it beats Davidson, will meet ACC rival North Carolina in the second round Sunday. Michigan and Penn State (Big Ten) are also in the same portion of their first/second round bracket.
In Division II, this might happen four times. This includes the last two teams to win the Division II national titles, The 2023 winners, the Pace Setters, the winners of the Northeast-10 Conference, could meet conference rival Southern Connecticut State on Sunday, barely two weeks after the two teams met in the quarterfinals of the conference championship. In addition, two-time champion University of Tampa may have to meet up with its Sunshine State Conference rival Florida Southern in the second round on Sunday. Tampa would need to beat Embry-Riddle in order to get there.
The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference might have this situation twice in its quarter of the Division II bracket. Kutztown would have to beat Wingate in order to meet Slippery Rock, while East Stroudsburg might have to play West Chester, if the Rams beat Frostburg State.
In Division III, you might think that the New England Small Conference Athletic Conference (NESCAC) would have a lot of teams meeting each other on the way to the final. After all, last fall, eight teams from that dominant competition made the Division III field hockey bracket.
However, this spring, NESCAC teams are in the same subsection of the 49-team bracket just once. That is where Colby, if it beats Cortland on Saturday, will face Wesleyan on Sunday. In addition, you could have a rematch of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, as champion Pomona-Pitzer will be awaiting the winner of a first-round game between Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Whitman College.
Yep, just two conference rematches are possible for the second round of the Division III Tournament.
Of course, I’ll be interested to see how many of these 11 possible rematches will happen by Sunday afternoon. Given the power inherent in many of the superconferences, however, you’re going to see more conference rematches, especially on Championship Weekend.