When Maryland announced their decision to leave the ACC in November 2012 the immediate response was shock. Shock at losing one of the founding members of the conference as well as one the league’s historic basketball programs. However, the biggest impact from Maryland’s departure may have been the loss of their men’s and women’s lacrosse teams. With the loss of Maryland, the ACC was left with 5 lacrosse schools, one short of automatic qualification for the NCAA tournament. How would the ACC and their powerhouse programs respond?
Now we have our answer. After a thrilling all ACC National Championship game between the Fighting Irish and Blue Devils last season, with Duke coming away with the title, the ACC has now won three of the last four National Championships. Four of the leagues five teams have won a National Title and with 13 National Championships since 1971, the ACC can lay claim to more titles than any other conference.
This season it is becoming even more apparent that the ACC is more than fine without Maryland, the ACC is a super conference. All 5 of the ACC’s lacrosse members are in the Top 6 of the Inside Lacrosse Top 25. The league already owns multiple wins over top 25 teams including #1 Denver, #7 Loyola and #9 Johns Hopkins. As lacrosse continues to rise in popularity across the United States it can’t hurt for the ACC to have the best collection of lacrosse programs in the country as ESPN continues to look into an ACC Network.
In all likelihood all 5 ACC members will find themselves in the postseason for the second straight year. With the amount of talent in this league and the coaching pedigree at all 5 schools it isn’t hard to imagine another all ACC National Championship.In case you were wondering the women are also holding their own with all 7 of the ACC women’s lacrosse participants residing in the top 25, including 5 in the top 10.
So while Maryland is enjoying contests against unranked Michigan and Ohio State squads. North Carolina, Duke, Virginia, Syracuse and Notre Dame will happily enjoy playing meaningful games week in and week out. Every week will be a battle in ACC play and that is why recruits will continue to flock to the those five schools. The ACC is the best lacrosse conference in the country and don’t expect that to change anytime soon.
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