It’s looking nearly certain that Maryland and Colgate will play in the final weekend of the lacrosse regular season next season.
Maryland lost its season-ending opponent (Yale) when the Ivy League adopted a tournament. Colgate presumably lost its when Syracuse joined the Big East and needed to find room for a handful of opponents that were not on its schedule previously.
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So this game makes a lot of sense all around, especially since neither team is going to take a serious RPI hit by playing the other.
The Terrapins, you might recall, played 12 of their 17 games last season on the road. So by flipping things around, this will be an extremely home-heavy season.
Yes, it’s Maryland’s turn to make short trips to Georgetown and UMBC, and the Terps enter the second year of contracts to play Duke and Johns Hopkins at Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium.
But Towson’s coming to College Park. As is Virginia. And Navy. And the ACC tournament. And, now to finish the season, Fairfield and Colgate.
Put it this way: In March, April and early May, there’s a chance Maryland travels more than an hour from campus once (at North Carolina).
That’s not to say the Terps will win a championship. But they’re certainly looking at a far friendlier schedule next spring than they enjoyed in 2009.
—- Patrick Stevens
