Renewed Rivalries, Notable Firsts Highlight 2026 Division I Men's Lacrosse Schedule

In just about two months, the 2026 NCAA Division I men’s lacrosse season will be underway. 

As of Wednesday, Dec. 3, about a third of the Division I men’s lacrosse programs have officially released their schedules. Around half of the Division II and Division III men’s programs have officially released their schedules. Through some clever reverse engineering, a diligent fan can work out a sizable chunk of the 2026 slate. 

Richmond and North Carolina have not yet dropped their full slate, but eight dates on each of their schedules are known thanks to schedules from their opponents. 

There’s still a long way to go to completely fill in the calendar, but here are our early takeaways that stand out.

Rivalries and other big games

Ocean State Cup dates. Brown, Providence and Bryant battle every year for the Ocean State Cup. Providence and Bryant haven’t released their full slates yet, but Brown has. Bruno visits Providence on Feb. 21 and then hosts Bryant on Feb. 28.

Army vs. Navy. One of the best rivalry games of the year is scheduled for April 11. Michie Stadium will host this year, and the Black Knights will look to extend their winning streak to four. Army won last year in front of over 10,000 fans, though Navy holds the all-time edge in the rivalry.

Charles River Rivalry. Boston U hosts Harvard on March 24 in the second edition of this newly named rivalry game. Harvard won last year’s contest 16-7.

Johns Hopkins vs. Maryland. Yet another classic rivalry game, and now it caps the regular season. Hopkins and Maryland play April 18 at Homewood Field to wrap Big Ten play. It is the Hopkins homecoming game, scheduled for a 2 p.m. faceoff — as is tradition.

Michigan vs. Ohio State. Sorry Buckeye fans, I wrote Michigan’s name first because it has its schedule out already. The classic rivalry renews April 18, with defending Big Ten champ Ohio State playing host in Columbus.

Final four preview. We’ll get a preview of the championship weekend venue in late March. Utah travels to play Virginia on March 21, and Scott Stadium will be the site. The last time UVA played a regular-season game in Scott Stadium was 2011, the year it won the national title. This game is part of a doubleheader, with the women’s team taking on Syracuse.

Princeton loads up. The Princeton Tigers have a strong 2026 slate, with a few noteworthy non-conference contests. The Tigers host Rutgers for the Meistrell Cup on March 7. And in a classic rivalry that lacrosse fans who grew up in the 90s will particularly love, Princeton hosts Syracuse on Feb. 27.

Battle of Black Rock. Fairfield and Sacred Heart are less than 10 miles from one another, just a short ride on the Merritt Parkway. The neighborhood they “share” between them is known as Black Rock, offering a fitting name to this geographic rivalry game. Does anyone call it this but me? Who can say? Last year, this game was an instant classic, ending in overtime with the Stags celebrating in a snow pile. This year, Sacred Heart hosts on Feb. 18.

Johns Hopkins vs. Virginia. This year’s regular season meeting is the 100th matchup between the two historically great programs. It will be played on Feb. 28 in Charlottesville.

First-Evers and renewed matchups

Brown vs. St John’s. Bruno makes the trip to Queens on March 21 to take on St John’s for the first time in program history.

Duke, Syracuse head west. Air Force will play host to both the Blue Devils and the Orange, facing Duke on March 7 and then Syracuse on March 12. It’s the first time Duke and Syracuse have visited the Air Force Academy.

Johns Hopkins vs. Robert Morris. The Colonials visit Homewood Field on Jan. 31. It’s the first-ever meeting between the teams, and the first-ever Johns Hopkins game to be played in the month of January.

A former Big East classic is back. Be it basketball or any other sport, fans of a certain age hear Georgetown-Syracuse and think of classic matchups in the Big East. Times have changed and conference affiliations are different, but it’s good to have this back. These two haven’t met in the regular season in over a decade. Georgetown visits Syracuse on March 22.

Delaware in the A-10. The Blue Hens make the jump, and while they have not yet released their schedule, there are a few conference dates known thanks to their opponents. They host High Point on March 21, Binghamton on March 28, and St. Bonaventure on April 18. They visit UMass on April 11.

Fairfield vs. Yale. The Stags host Yale on March 7, marking the first time they have have met since 2018. When that game was played, Andrew Baxter was on the Yale sideline as associate head coach and defensive coordinator.

High Point challenges itself. The Panthers will head to Columbus for their first-ever matchup with Ohio State on Feb. 21. They will also travel to Ithaca to play defending national champion Cornell, the first meeting since 2020. All told, High Point has games against, among others, Ohio State, North Carolina, Virginia, Cornell and Navy outside of A-10 play.

Neutral Sites

Atlanta Lacrosse Invitational. Michigan and Army head south to the ATL and play on April 21. It’s a full day of lacrosse in Atlanta, as the Michigan and Boston College women follow the Michigan-Army game, and then the Army and Florida State women wrap the day. Harvey Stadium at Morehouse College will host the games.

The Crown Classic is back! American Legion Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, N.C., will host a full day of lacrosse. Wingate and Tampa will have a Division II women’s clash, followed by Wingate vs. Lenoir-Rhyne in a heavyweight men’s matchup. The headliner is the night game in which Penn State takes on North Carolina. The Crown Classic is played March 14.

Continuity. High Point and Jacksonville have played every season since the lacrosse program at High Point launched (with the exception of the cancelled COVID season). This year, the game will be played at Georgia Southern University on Feb. 28.

Texas tangle. Texas will host another high-end Division I game this year. Last year, Duke and Denver played in Texas. This year Michigan and Harvard will play in Houston on March 7.

Nearly 40 years since. In a game that’s both a neutral site and a renewed matchup, UMass will play Penn in Farmingdale, N.Y. on April 24. UMass and Penn have played just one other time, way back in 1987.

South for the winter. Jacksonville and Rutgers will open on a neutral site on Jan. 31. The game will be played in Naples, Fla., at Paradise Coast Sports Complex.

Neutral site finale. Bucknell and UMBC wrap their regular season with a neutral-site matchup at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pa., on April 24.

The Callum Robinson Mustang Classic. A must mention as a neutral site event, the Callum Robinson Mustang Classic held at Stevenson in Maryland is one of the most competitive weekends of the Division III season. It spans two days, from Friday, March 13, through Saturday, March 14, with five games each day. 

Every team attending is a perennial top-20 power, including two time defending national champion Tufts. This year’s participants are the aforementioned Jumbos, Christopher Newport, Lynchburg, Gettysburg, RIT, St. Lawrence, Dickinson, Denison, Washington and Lee, and host Stevenson. It wouldn’t be crazy to suggest the 2026 national champion could come from this group.