Last week’s announcement by SMU to add men’s lacrosse was seismic, expanding the sport on the momentum of donor cash and bringing Division I lacrosse to Texas.
In the larger picture, its knock-on effects will reverberate into the next edition of May Madness and beyond.
For starters, the Atlantic Coast Conference will have an automatic qualifier again. How it determines that AQ remains to be seen, but discussions are already underway according to Matt VanSandt, director of Olympic sports at the ACC.
“Our 2028 schedule exists already,” VanSandt said ahead of a meeting last Thursday with conference coaches. “So, how do we adopt that, modify it, blow it up and create a new one?”
From that meeting, the ACC will work with the league coaches to sort out the regular-season schedule and the tournament, which has been a four-team event of late. VanSandt said a four-team or a six-team event was on the table.
How it affects the NCAA tournament
It’s not only obvious, and it may not seem that important — the best ACC team would make the NCAA tournament regardless. All five teams made it last year.
Upon the ACC's confirmation by the NCAA men's lacrosse oversight committee as an automatic qualifier, the NCAA tournament would expand to 19 teams in 2028 — a record 11 automatic qualifiers and eight at-large teams (and up one total team from the current system). That will guarantee at least three opening-round games.
It will also likely push a highly rated AQ into that opening-round game while allowing one more bubble team into the field.
Who would have been most affected by this in 2025 and 2026? The Georgetown Hoyas.
In 2026, Georgetown would’ve been among the bottom six automatic qualifiers, even with an RPI of 13, and would have hosted someone like Stony Brook or Jacksonville for a Wednesday opening-round game.
In 2025, the Hoyas likely would have been in the same situation, this time rated 16th in the RPI (a spot behind No. 15 Colgate).
The winners in these scenarios would have been Army (2025) and Maryland (2026), the first teams left out in each respective edition. Going back further, previous snubs like Denver (2023) or Notre Dame (2022) would have made the field in this new format.
The case to expand the at-large pool
The number of at-large teams has decreased (10 in 2010, now eight), while the automatic qualifiers will have nearly doubled (six AQs in 2010 up to 11 in 2026).
Should the NCAA tournament expand to include more at-large teams? It’s something fans and coaches have been asking for.
“Our coaches, I believe, are in full support of expanding the field,” VanSandt said. “They have been before SMU was even part of the conversation.”
The Division I men’s field has sported eight at-large bids in every tournament since 2013 (save for 2021 when nine at-larges were included after the Ivy League opted out of the season).
That might be a more difficult thing to get passed. Here’s why.
The 2028 tournament will feature 19 teams, which is 24.4 percent of Division I programs that sponsor the sport (78). That percentage goes up to 25.6 percent if it’s a 20-team tournament (11 AQs, nine at-larges).
Aside from men’s ice hockey (28.1 percent), no sport has more than 25 percent of its sponsored schools in the NCAA postseason. The next closest is women’s ice hockey at 25 percent.
For comparison, other Division I sports sit just below men’s lacrosse in terms of representation in their NCAA tournaments: men’s soccer (22.5 percent), field hockey (22 percent) and women’s lacrosse (21.8 percent).
When USA Lacrosse Magazine reached out to the NCAA about the possibility of expanding the field, it deferred to the member schools participating in the sport.
VanSandt said it will submit its membership form to the NCAA men’s lacrosse oversight committee in February, which will state that SMU will be part of the league for 2028. From there, the committee will review it and work on formal approval.
