Patrick Stevens' Division I Men's Top 20 Reflective of Calm Week 0

Looking for a chaotic start to the season? Then Saturday wasn’t the afternoon for you.

Go through a handful of teams that made last year’s NCAA quarterfinals — Duke, Georgetown, Maryland and Syracuse — and there were a bunch of results that were effectively sealed by halftime. Michigan and Penn State, two more tournament teams from a season ago, avoided any serious friction in their debuts.

And while Johns Hopkins warrants credit for coming out of Denver with an opening victory, the teams played within a five-goal range. The Blue Jays never led by more than four or trailed by more than one. Hopkins walking away with a 13-10 defeat to a team that is working its way through a hefty number of graduation losses is in no way a shock.

Even the result that seems the most striking featured a team coming off consecutive NCAA trips (Utah) dealing a 19-13 loss to a team that posted sub-.500 records the last two seasons (Ohio State).

It was a fine result for the aggressive Utes, who still have Denver, Syracuse and Virginia to play. It had to be at least a little unnerving for the Buckeyes, who were more than doubled up on faceoffs (23-11) and gave up two goals in less than a minute four times.

But the overall view of the Division I season wasn’t altered much Saturday, in part because only a bit less than half of the sport got underway.

Patrick Stevens is a longtime USA Lacrosse Magazine contributor. This is his weekly submission to the USA Lacrosse Division I Men's Top 20.

PATRICK STEVENS’ DIVISION I MEN’S TOP 20

1. Notre Dame (0-0)

The back-to-back champions do not open the season until Feb. 12 against Cleveland State, and there’s no reason to dislodge the Irish from their opening perch until they actually play.

2. Syracuse (1-0)

How good was Gary Gait’s bunch in its 24-5 rout of Jacksonville? It scored the first 10 goals of the game, gave up a couple and then fired in the first 10 goals of the second half. One blowout doesn’t ensure an Orange restoration come May, but it didn’t provide fodder for pooh-poohing the idea, either.

3. Princeton (0-0)

Still another two weeks until Ivy opening day, so the Tigers have another Saturday without a game before things get started. Princeton’s take-on-all-comers schedule starts with a Feb. 15 trip to Penn State.

4. Cornell (0-0)

Another Ivy counting down the days to a Feb. 15 opener. The Big Red opens at reigning Patriot League champ Lehigh, which dropped its debut Saturday against Rutgers.

5. Virginia (0-0)

Not that the Cavaliers are being ignored, but there’s probably more muted external expectations for them than at any point since 2019. And everyone knows how that turned out for Lars Tiffany’s program. The fun begins in Charlottesville on Saturday against Colgate.