Syracuse, N.Y. -- The hottest ACC men’s lacrosse team at the end of the season now has another prize to target: a chance to play for the league tournament title on its home field.
A format change recommended by the coaches and approved by the ACC during the off-season tinkers with the tournament format. For the past four seasons, four of the ACC’s five teams qualified for the tournament; now, all five teams will get a shot at the hardware.
A predesignated site will still host the first round and semifinals. In 2019, those games will be played at North Carolina.
The first round will be April 25, when the No. 5 seed takes on No. 4. In the April 27 semifinals, the winner of that game will meets the top seed while No. 2 takes on No. 3.
On May 4, the two survivors will play on the field of the highest remaining seed for the ACC title. If that happens to be SU, the championship showdown would come to the Carrier Dome.
Orange coach John Desko sounded like he wants to see how the format plays out before rendering judgment.
"That’s the way it is right now,'' Desko said. "We’ll see if we like it. But it is a lot of lacrosse for that time of year. At least everybody can participate. I hesitate only because of the unknown at that time of year, and the number of games that you could potentially play.''
One twist under the new format is that the three teams that don’t qualify for the ACC final could potentially sit out two weeks before their possible first-round NCAA game. In the past those teams could schedule a post-ACC tournament game as a filler to keep sharp (as the Orange did with Colgate).
But now since that in-between date will be filled with the ACC title game, all five league teams will have to keep it open to account for the possibility they reach that round.
