Cornell lacrosse 2025

[RichH]

I mean RPI is probably here to stay so I don't know why we keep putting ourselves in this situation by scheduling multiple teams like Lehigh, Hobart, and Albany in the same year. I understand that some schools don't want to do a home and home with us but it's better to not hold a grudge about that and just play a good team away than it is to play these bad teams.

Lehigh and Albany both won their league championships last year and both have performed below expectations this year. Only Hobart was seen before this season as a truly weak team on the schedule.

And there's a long history of Cornell vs Hobart. Say what you want about it, but the Ivy League tag leans heavily on tradition for its panache.

Nothing inherently wrong with that.

One of, if not the oldest rivalries in collegiate lacrosse.  From the CU preview of this year's game, "Cornell and Hobart will face off for the 142nd time dating back to May 5, 1896 — no other rivalry has been played more than 126 times."

Wikipedia has a little background and recent history.

[Weder]

I mean RPI is probably here to stay so I don't know why we keep putting ourselves in this situation by scheduling multiple teams like Lehigh, Hobart, and Albany in the same year. I understand that some schools don't want to do a home and home with us but it's better to not hold a grudge about that and just play a good team away than it is to play these bad teams.

Lehigh and Albany both won their league championships last year and both have performed below expectations this year. Only Hobart was seen before this season as a truly weak team on the schedule.

And there's a long history of Cornell vs Hobart. Say what you want about it, but the Ivy League tag leans heavily on tradition for its panache.

Nothing inherently wrong with that.

Who'd be the best upgrade to the non-conference schedule that's close by? Army, I assume? Just guessing, but given the realities of squeezing 13 or 14 games into 10 weeks, those midweek nonconference games are most likely to be teams within a short-ish bus ride.

One of, if not the oldest rivalries in collegiate lacrosse.  From the CU preview of this year's game, "Cornell and Hobart will face off for the 142nd time dating back to May 5, 1896 — no other rivalry has been played more than 126 times."

Wikipedia has a little background and recent history.

[nshapiro]

I didnt think Lax used straight RPI type stuff like hockey does though?

Officially, no. Unofficially, kinda yes. Committee chair one year said they just started with the RPI list and then made adjustments.

This is a consequence of the official criteria being basically impossible to grok:

Primary Criteria:
Strength-of-schedule index [average RPI of top-10 opponents]
Results of the RPI:
- Record against ranked teams 1-5; 6-10; 11-15; 16-20; 21+.
- Average RPI win (average RPI of all wins).
- Average RPI loss (average RPI of all losses).
Head-to-head competition:
- Results versus common opponents.
- Significant wins and losses (wins against teams ranked higher in the RPI and losses against teams ranked lower in the RPI).
- Locations of contests.
Additionally, input is provided by the regional advisory committee for consideration by the Division I Men's Lacrosse Committee. Coaches' polls and/or any other outside polls or rankings are not used by the committee for selection purposes.

https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/championships/sports/lacrosse/d1/men/2024-25D1MLA_PreChamps.pdf

Just curious, how do they pick the "top-10 opponents"?

[RichH]

Who'd be the best upgrade to the non-conference schedule that's close by? Army, I assume? Just guessing, but given the realities of squeezing 13 or 14 games into 10 weeks, those midweek nonconference games are most likely to be teams within a short-ish bus ride.

We haven't played Binghamton very recently, and that used to be an annual game (definitely not an upgrade, just the shortest trip for a weekday game). We play Albany more regularly now after they emerged as a national power with the Thompson trio 10 years ago. But they've regressed.

Honestly, it should always be Cornell-Syracuse. We played the last two years, but did they really drop us for Princeton as an annual thing?? Really?? Maybe they got annoyed because they couldn't win outside the dome.

[jjanow99]

We have played Colgate and Army in the past, we should play either if them instead of Hobart. Not sure why neither became  an annual game.

[Scersk '97]

Honestly, it should always be Cornell-Syracuse. We played the last two years, but did they really drop us for Princeton as an annual thing?? Really?? Maybe they got annoyed because they couldn't win outside the dome.

Our annual fixtures should be Hobart and Syracuse, because and because. If Syracuse is not an annual thing anymore, then that's an indictment of Syracuse; thus, we shouldn't in turn "Syracuse" Hobart. (Not that you would suggest we should, but other posters...)

Army and Penn State are the other obvious choices for annual games, and I would be surprised if they would not feel like making those pacts.

Other than those, I'm fine with spreading outselves around a bit for our other three games. We should look into BU, since they seem to be making a real go of it. I'm fine with freezing out the South. Let the NCAAs be our out-of-conference meetings with them.

[nshapiro]

Honestly, it should always be Cornell-Syracuse. We played the last two years, but did they really drop us for Princeton as an annual thing?? Really?? Maybe they got annoyed because they couldn't win outside the dome.

Our annual fixtures should be Hobart and Syracuse, because and because. If Syracuse is not an annual thing anymore, then that's an indictment of Syracuse; thus, we shouldn't in turn "Syracuse" Hobart. (Not that you would suggest we should, but other posters...)

Army and Penn State are the other obvious choices for annual games, and I would be surprised if they would not feel like making those pacts.

Other than those, I'm fine with spreading outselves around a bit for our other three games. We should look into BU, since they seem to be making a real go of it. I'm fine with freezing out the South. Let the NCAAs be our out-of-conference meetings with them.

Syracuse is in the 'South' (ACC)

[Scersk '97]

Syracuse is in the 'South' (ACC)

True, true! Don't trouble me with facts!

[jjanow99]

Here's a question for you RPI gurus— on Saturday Yale plays Albany. In regards to Cornell's RPI, does it matter who wins?

[BearLover]

Here's a question for you RPI gurus— on Saturday Yale plays Albany. In regards to Cornell's RPI, does it matter who wins?

My guess is that it's moot, except for the fact Cornell may play Yale an extra time in the Ivy tourney, so Yale may end up weighing twice as much as Albany in Cornell's RPI.

[CU77]

We want Yale to win.

First because Yale has had better opponents: their average opponent's record is currently 0.644 vs Albany's 0.508. This goes into the opponents' opponents' contribution to Cornell's RPI.

Second because Yale is currently #16, and we want them to stay in the top 20. Albany is #48 and has no chance as the top 20. The committee uses wins over top 20 as a selection criterion.

Third because (as BearLover said) we are likely to see them again in the ILT, and then their record and opponents' record will count twice as much as Albany's towards Cornell's RPI.

Similarly we want Princeton (#1) to beat Penn (#29).

Dartmouth (#23) vs Brown (#35) is more complicated. If Dartmouth has a shot at top 20 (not sure) then we want them to win, but if not, Brown has a better opponents' record.

Also: Cuse over UNC, Penn State over Rutgers.

https://pro.lacrossereference.com/rpi-d1-men

[BearLover]

We want Yale to win.

First because Yale has had better opponents: their average opponent's record is currently 0.644 vs Albany's 0.508. This goes into the opponents' opponents' contribution to Cornell's RPI.

Second because Yale is currently #16, and we want them to stay in the top 20. Albany is #48 and has no chance as the top 20. The committee uses wins over top 20 as a selection criterion.

Third because (as BearLover said) we are likely to see them again in the ILT, and then their record and opponents' record will count twice as much as Albany's towards Cornell's RPI.

Similarly we want Princeton (#1) to beat Penn (#29).

Dartmouth (#23) vs Brown (#35) is more complicated. If Dartmouth has a shot at top 20 (not sure) then we want them to win, but if not, Brown has a better opponents' record.

https://pro.lacrossereference.com/rpi-d1-men

Oh, I was answering purely with respect to maximizing our RPI. I had forgotten about the opponents' opponents' thing though. If we're looking at non-RPI factors, you could argue we want teams in the top 20 to lose, since they could steal an at-large bid from us.

[CU77]

Generally we want teams we have played to win, ranked teams we have not played to lose.

[billhoward]

It seems as if Cornell chooses its schedule to [pick one or more]:

• Suport NYS especially upstate teams
• Vary the competition and/ but back away from teams that aren't currently doing well (Binghamton for sure, Albany, Stony Brook (only played them 4X last 25 years))
• Play nearby teams so we could do a one-day trip, less than ~2 hours, to Syracuse, Hobart, Binghamton. Bucknell is 2:30, Penn State is 2:30, Albany is 3 hours, Lehigh is 3 hours, Army is 3:20. Except Army and Penn State, most have RPIs in the 50s.
• Hobart is an exception because we have played them so many years and, as an early-season game, we're not playing a Duke or Virginia.
• Always play Syracuse because they're top ten most years, and it's a one-hour drive. The gap year in 2023 was reported as Syracuse's desire to play an Ivy power other than Cornell. They beat Princeton by 3 and returned to the Cornell series in 2024. I believe the last Cornell-Cuse gap was late 1980s.

I could see / would like to see us play Army again, don't mind playing the Big Ten schools (even if the drive to Ohio State is about the same as to Virginia or Duke). We want to make sure we play enough high-RPI teams. It may be that the indoor practice field, Meinig Fieldhouse, takes away the early season advantage the Southern schools have (and the field is said to be usable for actual lax games as well but not I believe for soccer).

BU, newish to highest level lacrosse, would be a logical extension from hockey, and UMass is a possibility though it hasn't been a regular series for a quarter-century.

[BearLover]

Since this was debated by others awhile back, I went on insidelacrosse.com to see how our recruiting is looking.

For 2025's entering class, we are holding our own. Our recruiting is around that of the other Ivies. The ACC is dominating, however, with Duke, UVA, UNC, and Notre Dame way ahead of the Ivies.

For 2026's entering class, which was the point of concern when this topic previously came up, we appear to be sorely lacking. Harvard is doing very well with this class, including two 5* recruits. I know it was mentioned previously that perhaps these rankings will be further updated and that could change things.

I would expect us to be doing better in recruiting given our recent success and all the #1 picks we've had the last few years (Teat, Adler, Kirst). What do you think explains why our recruiting has not caught up to our success? Lack of facilities (indoor practice facility might help)? Or is it as simple as lack of scholarships (despite generous financial aid)?