NCAA men's lacrosse: Best conference tournament matchups

The NCAA men’s lacrosse regular season is coming to an end, and the start of conference tournaments in every big lacrosse conference is starting in the next few days.

There’s a potential for some of the best programs in the nation to go up against each other to see who are the contenders and who are the pretenders, and who really has a chance to win at all in the National Championship.

But first, let’s focus on the conference tournaments and see which teams have a chance to play each other and what could be the best possible matchups that we could see before the NCAA tournament.

Now, the Big Ten has so many great teams, but there is one side of the bracket that could be very interesting. The No. 3-seeded Penn State Nittany Lions will host the No. 2-seeded Johns Hopkins Blue Jays. Both of these programs are some of the most prestigious men’s lacrosse teams of all time.

Penn State did get the better of Johns Hopkins in their last matchup this season, with top goal scorer Matt Traynor scoring seven of their 10 goals.

And if the Nittany Lions come out on top, they will face the Maryland Terrapins in a highly anticipated rematch between these two Big Ten rivals.

One of the best men’s lacrosse conferences in D1 is the ACC. There are so many talented teams that could face off against each other in the conference tournament, and even could face off against each other in the NCAA tournament.

In the NCAA’s top 10, three teams are from the ACC and the conference only has five total programs that play men’s lacrosse.

The three teams that are in the top 10 are Notre Dame, North Carolina and Syracuse. And a lot of people say that Duke has a strong case as well.

Any of these four teams could face off against each other in the semifinals and then the final of the ACC tournament, but it all really depends on each of these teams’ last game of the season.

Another very good men’s lacrosse conference in the NCAA is the Ivy League. Multiple teams in the Ivy League have so many talented lacrosse players. Some really good teams are Cornell, Harvard and Princeton.

Two of these three teams will most likely face off in the Ivy League semifinals, and the winner of those two teams will most likely play the No. 1-seeded and best team in the nation, Cornell.

Cornell is gonna be hard to beat, not only just in conference play and not just in the conference tournament, but in the NCAA tournament.

The Big Red are 11-1 and 5-0 in conference play and their only loss this season is to the Penn State Nittany Lions.

There are so many other potential matchups that could take place in every conference tournament in the NCAA and all lacrosse fans are looking forward to watching all of these matchups unfold and then eventually see the NCAA tournament in May.

Massimo Buonagurio is a first-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email mkb6750@psu.edu.