Notre Dame’s Exclusion From NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Tournament Causes Uproar

Twitter was in an uproar Sunday night after the top 16 lacrosse teams were announced for the 2022 men’s NCAA tournament. One specific omission was the source of most of the fury.  

Notre Dame didn’t make the field for the first time since 2005 after finishing the season 8–4. The Fighting Irish struggled to start the year after a season-opening win against Detroit Mercy, losing three consecutive games against Maryland, the tournament’s No. 1 seed, Georgetown, the tournament’s No. 2 seed and Ohio State, a squad that made the field as an at-large team. It also lost a late March game against Virginia, which dropped its record to 2–4.

But Notre Dame won its last six straight and shared the ACC title with Virginia. Even still, it wasn’t enough. Committee chair Donna Woodruff explained that the six teams being considered for the the final four at-large spots were Notre Dame, Duke, Ohio State, Brown, Virginia and Harvard. Duke was eliminated because of its three losses to teams that didn’t qualify for the tournament, and this directly impacted Notre Dame’s stock. The Fighting Irish’s win over Duke became less impressive after the Blue Devils were held out of the tourney.

Here are some of the reactions from Twitter after Notre Dame was left out of this year’s NCAA tournament.