For Princeton University and the Ivy League, the consolidation of competitive college programs into larger conferences has made the path to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament an even more difficult one for teams in the already relatively disadvantaged conference. Despite the realignment of the NCAA landscape, Princeton coaches have expressed they are confident they can put their teams in ideal positions for postseason success.
This summer, the world of collegiate sports experienced a seismic shift. The Power 5 Conferences underwent a major realignment: the PAC-12 disbanded and the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big 12, Big 10, and Southern Conference expanded, ushering in the Power 4 era. This realignment was spurred largely by demands related to the schools’ respective football programs — however, its reverberating effects have been felt across all NCAA Division 1 conferences and sports.
For sports like lacrosse, scheduling high-quality opponents is paramount, and conference realignment has complicated this process.
“It was probably the most challenging scheduling out of conference year that I’ve had in my 17 years as a coach,” women’s lacrosse Head Coach Jenn Cook shared with The Daily Princetonian. “It definitely has to do with conference realignment and conference expansion, primarily.”
While scheduling for lacrosse normally starts around November and ends around June, this season, the schedule wasn’t finalized until September.
“This year, it was really down to the wire,” Cook said.
Teams in the now-expanded Power 4 conferences have more in-conference commitments due to the additional teams, limiting the space in their schedules that historically has been reserved to play teams like Princeton.
“For us, there are always historical matchups that we like to play,” coach Cook explained. “You know, that’s your UVAs, Loyolas, Penn States, and Maryland. Unfortunately, this year, a date to play Maryland just did not mesh for us.”
Last season, Princeton played Maryland on April 17 in a game that the Tigers lost 16–12. Despite the loss, the matchup was crucial. By competing well against a team like Maryland — which was ranked No. 8 nationally at the time — Princeton was able to substantially improve their chances of receiving an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, which they eventually did.
“I think the importance of being really strategic in your out-of-conference play is really, really important, and how you go about it — looking at RPI, strength of schedule, quality wins — all come in as a factor,” Cook said.
Rating percentage index (RPI) is a mathematical system that takes a team’s performance and strength of schedule into account to rank programs across conferences. By playing stronger opponents and performing well in those matchups, a team like Princeton that is not in a larger conference can still receive an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament if they have a sufficiently strong RPI.
“Of course, we want to win the Ivy League Tournament,” coach Cook said. “But you also have to do your homework and make sure that if you have a game that maybe isn’t your best within your league, that you’re still setting your team up for success in the future to get that at-large bid.”
The women’s lacrosse program added strong matchups against schools like Stony Brook University and Towson University to supplement Power 4 matchups they could not schedule, like Maryland. These opponents, although lacking the prominence of a powerhouse like Maryland, still give Princeton the opportunity to face schools with good RPIs and strengths of schedule, improving their tournament chances.
“There is a ripple effect that is undeniable [with conference realignment],” Cook explained. “And so sometimes sports, like lacrosse, … have to adapt regardless and be creative and make it work and figure it out along the way.”
Although conference realignment poses challenges for crafting a strong schedule, Cook and the other Ivy League lacrosse coaches have worked to give their respective programs the opportunities to play formidable opponents.
“For us, like our coaching group within the Ivy League, we meet and we’re constantly communicating,” Cook said. “You want your league to be strong … You get your league strong by everybody within the league playing really quality opponents outside of conference.”
Where the women’s lacrosse team came up short in their attempt to schedule Maryland, women’s basketball Assistant Coach Lauren Battista says that her team has been able to retain some of its Power 4 annual matchups — despite challenges.
“We’ve played Rutgers the past few years, and we want to continue playing them, but the dates that they’re available are less just because … they have to fit in so many conference games,” coach Battista stated. “The Big Ten will block off certain dates … that typically would be open for a non-conference game.”
Women’s basketball — the perennial Ivy League favorite — has been able to put together a strong schedule in spite of realignment — although much like Cook’s, Battista’s squad has had to make up for the loss of some marquee matchups.
“I would say this year we don’t have as many of the Power 4 opponents as we did last year,” coach Battista explained. “We still have a few, but we have some really high-quality mid-major opponents that played in the postseason and played in the tournament.”
Flexibility has been the name of the game for the Tigers when it comes to beefing up their schedule.
“I think that what’s been successful for us is we’re open to playing anybody,” coach Battista said. “We’re open to going most places … we were pretty lucky with the mix [of games] we got.”
Despite the scheduling difficulties, Princeton women’s basketball will still play Rutgers this season on Nov. 24.
While playing Power 4 schools and strong opponents is crucial for an at-large NCAA Tournament bid, Battista is hopeful the Tigers can continue their Ivy League dominance and earn the automatic bid to the Tournament that they have received each of the last five seasons.
“Our goal is to continue to win Ivy Madness and continue to hopefully get that automatic bid. That is goal number one, always,” coach Battista said. “But I think just putting together … a good resume, so if … we don’t get the automatic bid, the committee can look at our body of work and say that this team is worthy of a spot in March Madness.”
Doug Schwartz is a Sports contributor and a News contributor for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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