NCAA Division I men's lacrosse tournament

Association	NCAA
Sport	College field lacrosse
Founded	1971; 54 years ago (1971)
Division	Division I
No. of teams	18
Country	United States
Most recent champion	Cornell (4th Title)
Most titles	Syracuse (10 Titles)
Broadcaster	ESPN
Official website	NCAA.com
2025 Championship

TheNCAA Division I men's lacrosse tournament is an annual tournament organized by theNCAA to determine the national champion of men'scollegiate field lacrosse among itsDivision I members in theUnited States. It has been held every year since1971, except 2020.^[1]

From 1936 through 1970, theUnited States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) awarded theWingate Memorial Trophy annually to the collegiate champion based on regular season records.

Syracuse has been the most successful program since 1970 with 10 national titles, followed byJohns Hopkins with 9 national titles in the NCAA era.

Cornell is the reigning national champion, winning the school's fourth title in 2025.

The first Division I Championship tournament held in 1971 replaced the USILA and Wingate Memorial Trophy national title awards. As of 2023, 52 NCAA tournaments have been played (not held in 2020). In that span, 12 teams —Johns Hopkins,Syracuse,Princeton,North Carolina,Virginia,Cornell,Duke,Maryland,Loyola University (Maryland),Denver,Yale andNotre Dame — have won the national title with Syracuse leading with ten titles (plus one vacated by the NCAA^[a]). In all, 41 teams have participated in the NCAA tournament since its inception. Only seven unseeded teams — the 1988 Cornell Big Red, the 1991Towson Tigers, the 2006Massachusetts Minutemen, the 2010Notre Dame Fighting Irish, the 2011 and 2012 Maryland Terrapins and the 2016North Carolina Tar Heels — have made it to the championship game, and only ten unseeded teams have made it to the tournament semi-finals, the most recent being North Carolina in 2016. Johns Hopkins has appeared in every tournament but three (1971, 2013, 2021). The Number One seed in the tournament has won the title 22 times and there have been 13 undefeatedNational Champions. North Carolina in 2016 was the first unseeded team to win the national title.

Originally consisting of eight teams, the size of the tournament field has changed over the years, increasing to 10 in 1986, 12 in 1987, 16 in 2003, 18 in 2014, and down to 17 in 2017. Since 2021, the size has varied almost annually: 16 in 2021, 17 in 2023 and 2024, and 18 in 2022 and 2025. The two semifinal games and the final have been played on the sameweekend at the same stadium since 1986. All three matches have always been scheduled forMemorial Day weekend, with the semifinals doubleheader on Saturday afternoon and the final held on the holiday itself.

The sport has historically been focused in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, with the sport's U.S. heartland today extending from New England to North Carolina. Only eight schools from outside the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic have played in the NCAA tournament—Air Force,Butler, Denver,Marquette, Notre Dame,Ohio State,Michigan andUtah. No team west of the Eastern Time Zone won an NCAA championship until Denver in2015.

21 coaches have won Division I titles:Richie Moran,Glenn Thiel,Bud Beardmore,Bob Scott,Henry Ciccarone, Willie Scroggs, Jr.,Roy Simmons, Jr., Dave Klarmann,Don Zimmerman,Bill Tierney,Dom Starsia,John Desko,Dave Pietramala,John Danowski,Charley Toomey,John Tillman, Joe Breschi, Andy Shay,Lars Tiffany,Kevin Corrigan and Connor Buczek. Tierney is the only one to have won at two different schools (Princeton and Denver).

Below is a list of championships awarded by the NCAA. A vacated title is not included in the total.

Syracuse

Virginia

Princeton

North Carolina

Maryland

Cornell

Duke

Denver

Yale

Notre Dame

Baltimore schools
Johns Hopkins
Loyola

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National Championships by school
– 10 championships, – 9 championships, – 7 championships, – 6 championships, – 5 championships, – 4 championships, – 3 championships, – 2 championships, – 1 championship

Key

•  CH  National Champion
•  RU  National Runner-up
•  SF  Semifinals
•  QF  Quarterfinals
•  10  12  16  First Round (10 teams in 1986, 12 teams starting in 1987, 16 teams starting in 2003)
•  •  Play-In Round (1 or 2 teams per year, starting in 2014.); Opening Round (4 teams, starting in 2025)
•  CH  Syracuse national championship vacated in 1990.

Each tournament has seeded the top 8 seeds. The top seed is shown withdouble underline, the teams seeded between No. 2 and No. 4 are shown withsingle underline, and the teams seeded between No. 5 and No. 8 are shown withdotted underline.

State	Titles	University	Runners-up	University
Maryland	14	Johns Hopkins (9), Maryland (4), Loyola (1)	27	Maryland (14), Johns Hopkins (9), Navy (2), Loyola (1), Towson (1)
New York	14	Syracuse (10), Cornell (4)	11	Syracuse (6), Cornell (5)
North Carolina	8	North Carolina (5), Duke (3)	5	Duke (4), North Carolina (1)
Virginia	7	Virginia (7)	4	Virginia (4)
New Jersey	6	Princeton (6)	2	Princeton (2)
Indiana	2	Notre Dame (2)	2	Notre Dame (2)
Connecticut	1	Yale (1)	1	Yale (1)
Colorado	1	Denver (1)	0
Massachusetts	0		1	Massachusetts (1)
Ohio	0		1	Ohio State (1)

Below is a list of team championship titles, inclusive of those awarded prior to the formation of the NCAA Division I Championship. These include the ILA champions (1881–1898), the USIULL and ILA champions (1899–1905), the USILL champions (1906–1925), the USILA champions (1926–1935), and theWingate Memorial Trophy (1936–1972) recipients. Of note several schools have claimed their Northern and Southern Division titles won during the USILL years as national championships (based on the results of 3 or 4 intra-division games), while others have not. Still others were acclaimed in their time as unofficial title winners based on being leading teams in the collegiate ranks in particular years. Furthermore, the USILL (1906–1925) was a closed membership organization. Some strong teams of the era, such as Army and Navy, were never members, so that in some years, the USILL champion was not necessarily the best team in the United States.