Lax 2014 - who to add to fix SOS

Poll

Who to add so Cornell's SOS is top 10 - first team we add

Only registered users are allowed to vote for this poll.
41 votes were received.

Albany (2013 EOS RPI 12)	4		10%
Lehigh (16)	3		7%
St. John's (22)	0		0%
Hofstra (21)	0		0%
St. John's (22)	3		7%
Army (23)	4		10%
Stony Brook (35)	1		2%
Non-NYS Top 10 (Hopkins, Md, Duke, NC)	19		46%
Newbie Top 10 (Denver, ND, TOSU)	7		17%

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Who would you add to improve Cornell's lacrosse strength of schedule? Should it be a New York State team? Somebody out of state that we play on neutral territory (at Hofstra, at Meadowlands) to raise our Metro New York profile?

I vote Lehigh, simply because they're about 10 miles from my home. One more game I can get to easily.

But I have to admit, I've love to see the rivalry with Hopkins start up again.

Everybody is picking the second St. John's. That has to be some sort of psychological effect.

Go where the players come from. That used to be Long Island, MD and VA. Now it's probably any gated white suburb with too many lawyers.

Very hard to reliably "fix SOS." This year, if you played Hopkins and Virginia who had unusually bad seasons, it hurt SOS. Colgate looked like a quality opponent before the season began. Traditionally strong Navy is down. Army, not very fearsome before Garrett Thule arrived, is rebounding somewhat. Bucknell didn't look like a great addition to the schedule when it was released. Albany was almost a seeded team but was ranked 39th in the preseason by the Inside Lacrosse Annual. 39th! Those who saw our scrimage with them did some handwringing over what they (at that time) thought should have been a more dominant performance.

That said, 95% of the time your schedule is better off with any ACC team than Canisius or Siena, the iron of the Metro Atlantic Conference.

Penn State and Lehigh can't be that much further than Canisius. No reason to give Tambroni immunity from an opportunity to get nostalgic about the fan and alumni support he used to have with his former team. And an annual ass-kicking as well.

Ouch! Did the lawyers all leave Long Island? I know there are plenty in Virginia, my son included.

It's possible to fix SOS with a balanced portfolio of opponents. If Virginia is down, Penn State or Ohio State or Notre Dame is up. If Canisius is down, Lehigh or Albany is up. I think the eLynah poll respondents were on target in picking several teams that are less likely to be competitive in the future. Canisius is not a good choice to play except it's a close ride; the same probably holds for Binghamton. Cornell is 10-0 lifetime vs. Binghamton and Canisius (1-0 vs. Siena). You want wins and Canisius, Siena, Binghamton are close to assured, but we're finding out you also want a strong schedule if you don't AQ into the NCAAs.

I don't know: How far in advance does Cornell lock in lax opponents: now for next year, or do we negotiate bigger games two years in advance? (Enquiring minds want to know if Princeton-Cornell resumes at the Meadowlands next year and Princeton uses its home-field year in 2014.) A year in advance, we have a reasonable idea of who's ascending. Also, how many day trips does Cornell take for lax: Binghamton? Canisius? Bucknell?

Distances of current, possible opponents.

Cornell to Canisius (Buffalo), 2:40, 150 miles
Cornell to Bucknell (Lewishburg), 2:40, 150 miles
Cornell to Albany, 2:55, 160 miles
Cornell to Penn State, 3 hours, 180 miles.
Cornell to Lehigh (Bethlehem), 3:10, 180 miles
Cornell to Army, 3:25, 195 miles
Cornell to Hofstra, 4:30, 250 miles (traffic permitting)
Cornell to Stony Brook, 5:00, 280 miles
Cornell to Hopkins, 5:20, 305 miles
Cornell to Dartmouth, 5:35, 300 mioles < farthest Ivy/ECAC opponent
Cornell to Harvard, 5:35, 330 miles < farthest Ivy/ECAC opponent
Cornell to Maryland, 5:45, 350 miles
Cornell to TOSU, 7:30, 465 miles.

Don't forget, everybody else is trying to improve their own SOS too.

Saaaaayyyyyy......how about forming a superconference with the Ivies and the ACC? And Hopkins. We could call it “The National Collegiate Lacrosse Conference!”

Cornell may have the ability to choose its opponents more than Canisius or Binghamton since other top teams realize they need 6-8-10 potential top 20 opponents each year since 2-4 will falter and be ranked below #20. Cornell is the poster child for the dangers of not having enough strong opponents; when so many favorites lost in conference tournaments, the number of at-larges dropped and we almost went from the #2 team in the country a week ago to out of the tournament Sunday night.

Cornell would also be the posted child for losing to the handful of top teams it played (Syracuse, Bucknell) and then saw some other top opponents that we beat fall out of the top 10/top 20 (Virginia).

Trotsky
Everybody is picking the second St. John's. That has to be some sort of psychological effect.

Go where the players come from. That used to be Long Island, MD and VA. Now it's probably any gated white suburb with too many lawyers.

Alright, I'll take the bait. How many lawyers is too many?

And don't forget, all these good teams we add to our schedule to replace non-top 10 NY teams have to come to Ithaca in March at least every other year to play lacrosse. I am sure they are all lining up to drop UNC and get on our schedule instead

Swampy

Trotsky
Everybody is picking the second St. John's. That has to be some sort of psychological effect.

Go where the players come from. That used to be Long Island, MD and VA. Now it's probably any gated white suburb with too many lawyers.

Alright, I'll take the bait. How many lawyers is too many?

Hey, lets keep the political discussions over in JSID please!

This year we had a free weekend April 20 for a late season NC game if desired. Yes, if you can do a home and home with Virginia, Duke or Maryland, great, But Virginia, Duke and Maryland also need top 10 or top 20 teams to play, too.

The concern about picking up Cornell as an opponent was that Cornell might play 3-5 spots better than its position in the ratings, meaning you wouldn't get as much credit for beating Cornell as Cornell's toughness deserved, and if you lost, it really killed you in the polls. That is from a Cornell viewpoint and probably has its roots in those incredible teams of the late '60s that got voted down in the rankings and there was no NCAA playoff to prove who really was the best.

Swampy

Trotsky
Everybody is picking the second St. John's. That has to be some sort of psychological effect.

Go where the players come from. That used to be Long Island, MD and VA. Now it's probably any gated white suburb with too many lawyers.

Alright, I'll take the bait. How many lawyers is too many?

Sometimes the best punch line is letting everybody imagine their own.

Trotsky

Swampy

Trotsky
Everybody is picking the second St. John's. That has to be some sort of psychological effect.

Go where the players come from. That used to be Long Island, MD and VA. Now it's probably any gated white suburb with too many lawyers.

Alright, I'll take the bait. How many lawyers is too many?

Sometimes the best punch line is letting everybody imagine their own.

You're thinking of the line, "How do you keep an idiot in suspense?"