BOTC - US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums MID-ATLANTIC LACROSSE MARYLAND FORUM Boys High School

8 teams, why? What was the Loyola (#8 seed) and BL (#1seed) score this past Spring? The top seeded teams deserve a bye and playing a team you just beat 16-6 is not a reward for the number one seed. Lopsided scores aren't good for the winning or losing program.

Keep it at 6. Every game matters in the regular season.

Love the idea of moving it to 7 or 8.
2021 was so much fun with the extra playoff games.
The reward for playing well in the regular season is an easier path to the championship.
It's for the kids. Let them play as many games as possible.

I like adding the play-in. More lacrosse is better. It doesn't make the regular season irrelevant at all - it's for seeding.

Everyone needs to make the playoffs. Everyone needs a trophy. Why not put your son in a better program if you want him in the playoffs?

The MIAA regular season is a grind. Teams works hard for wins and they don't come easy. Just adding teams to make it fun for your son's 4-6 team is silly. HTW

2 more spots would actually be great for the league.
The league has stated it wants to keep marketing the playoffs, championships, game of the week etc.
They need more product. Dont be surprised if this happens.

I agree - let them all in the playoffs. A team can get hot and get players back from injuries and make magic happen.

Remember when loyola won it all and just barely made the playoffs?

Even this year, MSJ was scaring the [Censored] out of St. Marys during the season and they were the worst team and St. Marys was the best team.

Bottom feeders like MSJ Spalding JC Gilman can have their playoffs if they like. Happy now????

Two more spots actually seems like a good idea to me too.
Spalding and JC both had wins over SEMIFINALISTS, St. Mary's and Calvert Hall.
If the bottom feeders are able to do that?!

Such hostility over the bottom teams. Why do you care so much?

What do you care if the “bottom feeders” are in the playoffs? Let them play as many games as they can, even if it’s just one more in the first round. If they don’t care about another loss, why do you care so much? Do you feel threatened? Scared your top team may choke against them? Just really curious why you care.

Spaulding did make the playoffs this year. An 8 team playoff makes sense in a bigger league, but over half of the teams make it as it is. There is no rando formula if you simply win games. Loyola and St. Paul’s both blew winnable games during the season and it was those losses and not a rando formula that kept them out. Look at Calvert Hall. They slumped hard mid-season, but they won on the field and turned things around after John Carroll embarrassed them. Wins matter, not playing a tough team close or moral victories.

This is the best league in the nation. The bottom teams beat the upper teams. It happens every year. It happened again this year.

The only people who are so bothered by adding 2 more teams are programs who are threatened by real competition.

It’s like the crusty old Hopkins fans who don’t understand the game (league) has changed. They want to brag about a title they won when there were only 4 schools who had lax teams.

How deep is the Conference? It varies year by year. Do you want to give the #1 and #2 teams rest before the quarters or not? Or is it more important to have the #7 and #8 teams participate. Frankly, last year, the #7 could well have won the whole thing the way SP was playing at the end of the season. #8 would not have been in the mix, given LB was beaten handily by teams #1-4.

No one getting a bye dilutes the importance of the regular season. Do you limit the first round by to #1 and expand the first round field to seven teams? No question, the current format makes every regular season game more important. Just ask the Crussies.

Why are people asking for teams with losing records to be rewarded in the playoffs?

By definition - your school was a lost for the whole season.

Hit the wall and see you next year. This is how things work in the real world.

FYI the St.Mary’s coach used his bench for this game and told his defense not to slide. I don’t think St. Mary’s gave a [Censored]

Look lady stop reposting the same argument. 6 out of 11 teams is more than enough. "Real competition" happens every regular season game and when it's over the records speak for themselves. Your problem is you don't want "real competition." You want your son to be given a playoff spot. If you wanted "real competition" you would have put him in one of the better programs and let him compete for a spot against better players. Instead, you put him at LB/SP/Gilman because you knew he would have a better chance to get on the field. You were threatened by the "real competition" from players at McD/BL/CHC. No one is threatened by your son's sub .500 team.

Wow. Not the OP, but my kid goes to one of lower level schools because of logistics, not because he’s ducking “real competition”. You clearly feel strongly about not letting them in. Like another poster stated, why do you care if all teams are included in playoffs or not? What skin is it off your back? I’m just curious.

People go to their local public school for logistics. In public school every team makes it. Might be a better fit.

Because that’s not how sports or any competition works where people keep score.

Sure hope your kid isn’t a [censored] like you.

Why only six teams Mom asks? Why isn't there a copper medal for the fourth place finisher in the Olympics? Because only the best belong in the A Conference playoffs and historically that number has been in the 6 team range give or take a squad. I will agree the bottom 3-4 teams have improved dramatically over the best teams in the Conference over the past several years. Spalding played in the championship last year and was a top four finisher this past season. JC knocked off CHC this past Spring and Severn has become a much deeper program. The Conference's fifth place team won the League championship the past two years. I believe only one sixth place team won the SHIP (LB in 2013) since the current playoff system. IMHO only the top 6 or 7 teams (only in a very deep year) can actually win the championship and that should be the criteria for making the playoffs.

Last place Chaos won the PLL championships last year. Never count anyone out during the playoffs.

Except for the teams that don't make it.

More games would be awesome.
And as someone said- this league can support it.
Any of the top 8 teams could get hot and win it.

The top teams know this too. It's why a couple schools (and their fans) want to keep the format exactly as-is. They are scared at what that little change could bring.

We saw the .25Zips lose their mind when Spalding decided to spend a few bucks and recruit. A new team int he playoffs?! Clutch my pearls! Could you imagine if one of these teams with 140 kids in their program lost to a "pushover" 7 or 8 seed in the first round? LOLZ

If the league opens up the possibility of the playoffs to just two more teams, the large schools no longer have their natural advantage.

It would be fun to see.

All for expanded playoff to eight teams. It would also change the process in deciding where kids attend school. League needs to be opened up. If MIAA is going to allow schools(StM, BL, StP & Severn) to play in the A conference for lax but virtually no other sports than you can expand to allow the schools that put their neck on the line to compete in every sport an opportunity to make playoffs. Those bottom feeders as some call them make a concerted effort to field strong teams across all sports. They don't have excessive numbers play one sport like lax and want to play B conference in every other sport.

Look at these top Lacrosse schools, very few of them are competitive in other sports in the A conference. At least the so called bottom dwellers deliver on all athletics.
If you want to play in the A conference for Lacrosse, maybe you should play the A in all sports. Kind of like D1 sports, excluding Hopkins and we can see how that is working out.

So Calvert hall has 400 boys per class and Severn has less than 100 coed per class and you want all schools to complete in the A for all sports pipe dream.

Knew that comment was coming-took the bait hook, line & sinker. The short answer is yes, find a way to compete in A in the majority of sports. Those schools have had it both ways for two many years. Then their alumni & supporters want to come on this site and bark about bottom feeders and not expanding playoffs. Try to be good at multiple sports at the highest level or stop talking about your dominance in one sport.

I agree with this. MSJ has been competitive in Basketball Wrestling and Soccer. The AD at MSJ should be working with a competent coach. One that understands landscape, recruiting, talent etc. MSJ could be a great job for a coach who knows what he has

I agree with this. MSJ has been competitive in Basketball Wrestling and Soccer. The AD at MSJ should be working with a competent coach. One that understands landscape, recruiting, talent etc. MSJ could be a great job for a coach who knows what he has

If other sports are the measure, BL and StP need to move to the B.

☝🏻

They aren’t the measure. Someone has come to a lacrosse forum to tout other sports because their team didn’t make the playoffs. Weird.

Lacrosse runs the MIAA. No A team would be force to drop down because they are B in others sports. Sorry your bottom feeder team can’t make the playoffs in the A. Tell your boy to hit the wall and play better. Then maybe they can transfer to a playoff team after sitting out for a year…..

I'm a proponent of keeping the playoffs at 6... that's 54% of the teams in the league.

Definitely heightens the regular season games.

I realize this is a lacrosse forum but it is certainly fun to watch the elite MIAA athletes later play in the NFL, NBA and MLB. The football and basketball programs of the MIAA are sending their athletes to better schools than lacrosse. MIAA lacrosse is no longer what it used to be because lacrosse has become less regional and more national.

Very few lacrosse players are athletes, true dual or 3x sports. They focus on one sport and only one.
The boys are afraid to compete at a higher level in other sports because they don't want to get their buts handed to them so they play down.
Sound familar....HOLDBACKS.... If you want to beat your chest in Lacrosse and tell us how good you are please at least compete at the same level in other sports

Programs with smaller male enrollments (Severn, BL, SP, SM and McD) are forced to recruit multi sport lacrosse players to field teams in other sports The best A Conference lacrosse teams have historically been filled with 2 and occasionally 3 sport athletes. What complicates the matter is not all of the teams complete at the same level in other sports (some B and others A). Traditionally a large majority of your fogos, poles and middies were multi sport athletes with the occasional attackman and keeper thrown in.... If you break out the two teams (two schools with smaller male enrollment numbers) in the A Conference Finals this past season, you will see this distribution pattern holds true.