ACC lax teams face strong schedules, but lack uniformity in total number of games played

Syracuse heads into the postseason having played 15 regular season games, more than each of the four other ACC teams contested this year.

Syracuse head coach Gary Gait speaks to the media following a regular season loss April 4 at North Carolina. | Brad Bierman , The Juice Online - On SI

When Syracuse first announced its 2026 lacrosse schedule back in December, what was most notable was something that had not occurred in over 50 seasons - a six-game road trip.

The Orange survived that gauntlet in respectable fashion with a 4-2 mark, dropping the first two games in a one-sided affair with Princeton, preceded by being stung by pesky Harvard late in regulation.

In all, the 'Cuse finished at 11-4 and 2-2 in the always crazy competitiveness of the boutique ACC, dropping all four games on the road, as it heads into Friday night's matchup against North Carolina in the ACC Tournament semifinals in Charlotte (8:00 p.m. ET / ACC Network).

A commonality of strong schedules, but a different number of games played

Going into the ACC semifinal doubleheader in which top-seed Notre Dame (10-1, 3-1) first faces-off against Virginia, Syracuse is number two in strength of schedule from the analytics produced by Lacrosse Reference behind only the Irish.

Both teams played strong competition in the OOC portion of their schedules, but SU played 15-games, certainly taking advantage of the uniqueness of the Dome to host three early February games, while Notre Dame played just 11 regular season contests.

The Irish did not begin their season (February 14) until after the Orange had already jumped out to a fast 3-0 start, including a win over Maryland. The two teams both played the Terps and Georgetown, among non-ACC games, and ND also faced Ohio State and Michigan from the Big Ten and Richmond on a neutral field (suburban Chicago) when the Spiders were top-ranked.

Comparably, North Carolina No. 6 SOS) and Virginia (No. 4 SOS) both played 14 games, and Duke played 13 times this season. Ironically, Duke's lighter OOC schedule, currently 12th as the Blue Devils sit home and wait for the NCAA bracket to be revealed Sunday night (9:30 p.m. ET / ESPNU), may cost them a bid despite ending the season with a resounding win over Carolina.

The NCAA is flexible how many games a team can play in a season

For the 2026 season, based on calendar weeks between February-May, teams could play a maximum of 17 games, not including the postseason.

The difference in games played can often come down to geography - the travel and expense involved to play in certain parts of the country, cold weather sometimes hampering scheduling in the early part of the season, and different coaching philosophies when it comes to balancing the strength of a particular team's opponents.

While SU coach Gary Gait has taken a no holds barred philosophy of testing his team against top competition far and wide and playing more games than not, it has also worked for Notre Dame and longtime coach Kevin Corrigan.

ND does not have as many easily accessible D-1 programs near-by in northwest Indiana, and the early February weather can make it tough to play outdoors, but in the end what matters most is winning whatever games are on an 11 or 15 game schedule, and that is why the Irish are the top-seed heading into this weekend's games.

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