US Club Lacrosse Rankings Out

[Anonymous]

There are a ton of teams still not ranked due to amount of games played it will change and they will end up around 100 again

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How the heck did Pride 26 go from 100 to 47? They played in the lowest brackets at all tournaments. This exemplars how inaccurate these things are.

Wow. You seem like you must be an insider on lacrosse tournaments. You're a good resource. Can you tell us how you figured out that Pride played in the LOWEST bracket (as an outsider I don't get to see bracket rankings like you) at ALL tournaments (you are totally dialed in...are you a tournament director with connections) AND MOVED UP IN THE RANKINGS!!?? Like show us empiracally how you were able to get to that conclusion. I think your analysis would be useful in letting USClublax rankings know they made a mistake. Do share and we'll help you out.

Not the PP but you are making yourself sound foolish here. Anyone paying even the slightest bit of attention knows that Pride was in lower brackets all Fall season. Granted this seems to have worked in there favor still not outrageous to point it out. Your response however seems a bit over the top. I do think Pride 2026 is a better team than last year and wish them the best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How the heck did Pride 26 go from 100 to 47? They played in the lowest brackets at all tournaments. This exemplars how inaccurate these things are.

Wow. You seem like you must be an insider on lacrosse tournaments. You're a good resource. Can you tell us how you figured out that Pride played in the LOWEST bracket (as an outsider I don't get to see bracket rankings like you) at ALL tournaments (you are totally dialed in...are you a tournament director with connections) AND MOVED UP IN THE RANKINGS!!?? Like show us empiracally how you were able to get to that conclusion. I think your analysis would be useful in letting USClublax rankings know they made a mistake. Do share and we'll help you out.

Not the PP but you are making yourself sound foolish here. Anyone paying even the slightest bit of attention knows that Pride was in lower brackets all Fall season. Granted this seems to have worked in there favor still not outrageous to point it out. Your response however seems a bit over the top. I do think Pride 2026 is a better team than last year and wish them the best.

Pride 26 went 4-0 against good competition (Coppermine, Dynasty, Impact) at President's Cup and 2-0-1 at Chesapeake Invitational (CavLax, NXT). They are ranked about where they should be (below Cap Blue and some of the other big clubs from the DMV).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How the heck did Pride 26 go from 100 to 47? They played in the lowest brackets at all tournaments. This exemplars how inaccurate these things are.

Wow. You seem like you must be an insider on lacrosse tournaments. You're a good resource. Can you tell us how you figured out that Pride played in the LOWEST bracket (as an outsider I don't get to see bracket rankings like you) at ALL tournaments (you are totally dialed in...are you a tournament director with connections) AND MOVED UP IN THE RANKINGS!!?? Like show us empiracally how you were able to get to that conclusion. I think your analysis would be useful in letting USClublax rankings know they made a mistake. Do share and we'll help you out.

Not the PP but you are making yourself sound foolish here. Anyone paying even the slightest bit of attention knows that Pride was in lower brackets all Fall season. Granted this seems to have worked in there favor still not outrageous to point it out. Your response however seems a bit over the top. I do think Pride 2026 is a better team than last year and wish them the best.

Pride 26 went 4-0 against good competition (Coppermine, Dynasty, Impact) at President's Cup and 2-0-1 at Chesapeake Invitational (CavLax, NXT). They are ranked about where they should be (below Cap Blue and some of the other big clubs from the DMV).

Good for them....still doesn't mean they were playing in tough brackets. At President's Cup they were in the 18th bracket. Teams in higher brackets played tougher teams and may have lost by one or tied. Again, not ridiculing the system just pointing out that the method of bracket selection worked to their benefit when it comes to the rankings.

[Anonymous]

15th bracket my mistake...but point still stands

[Anonymous]

In the grand scheme of things these rankings mean little more than bragging rights, more so for parents, than the players.

But for players who are serious about playing in college it does matter who you play against. Teams can only play who they are scheduled against. When playing in lower brackets it’s critical to win those games and unfortunately do so in dominating fashion, meaning win by a lot. These are two variables (wins and goal differential) used to calculate a team’s ranking.

The third variable is strength of schedule. For a team to build their resume in this area they have to keep winning to move up into the tougher brackets. Once in the higher brackets it’s not as much about winning anymore, it’s about being competitive with the better teams you are playing against. This is the formula to building up your SoS. Play the top 20s and keep games close or win.

What is disappointing to hear about Pride is their high school team had the #2 toughest strength of schedule just several years ago. Now posters are talking about the club playing top 50 teams. What happened?

[Anonymous]

Interestingly enough another point towards taking these rankings with a grain of salt....MC Elite 2026 didn't even go to President's Cup or many other relevant tournaments....ranked higher than many quality teams...looks like wins count more than Strength of Schedule in the calculations

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the grand scheme of things these rankings mean little more than bragging rights, more so for parents, than the players.

But for players who are serious about playing in college it does matter who you play against. Teams can only play who they are scheduled against. When playing in lower brackets it’s critical to win those games and unfortunately do so in dominating fashion, meaning win by a lot. These are two variables (wins and goal differential) used to calculate a team’s ranking.

The third variable is strength of schedule. For a team to build their resume in this area they have to keep winning to move up into the tougher brackets. Once in the higher brackets it’s not as much about winning anymore, it’s about being competitive with the better teams you are playing against. This is the formula to building up your SoS. Play the top 20s and keep games close or win.

What is disappointing to hear about Pride is their high school team had the #2 toughest strength of schedule just several years ago. Now posters are talking about the club playing top 50 teams. What happened?

Capital Lacrosse Club happened. It became the no doubt best club for high school in the NoVA and DC area and draws the top players from local clubs, including from Pride's very strong middle school program.

Also Stars started a high school program and YJ MA launched as well, and further diluted the NoVA talent pool for High School.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:15th bracket my mistake...but point still stands

Top 5-6 brackets were absolutely the best clubs out there (30-40 clubs). Pools 7-20 (80-ish clubs) I would argue are all closer in talent/skill and the last 7 pools are not great teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:15th bracket my mistake...but point still stands

Top 5-6 brackets were absolutely the best clubs out there (30-40 clubs). Pools 7-20 (80-ish clubs) I would argue are all closer in talent/skill and the last 7 pools are not great teams.

Agreed. That middle batch could play each other and it would be a toss up on who would win each time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:15th bracket my mistake...but point still stands

Top 5-6 brackets were absolutely the best clubs out there (30-40 clubs). Pools 7-20 (80-ish clubs) I would argue are all closer in talent/skill and the last 7 pools are not great teams.

Playing in the top 2, maybe 3, divisions of a tournament is key as you get into the high school age groups. These get the most exposure to college coaches.

[Anonymous]

They do matter as pointed out above, in that the higher ranked teams play each other in the same pools every tournament. The higher concentration of top players, the more coaches will be on the sidelines.

The caveat is that not all the best players in every class are on the top teams. As more programs are added to D1 (and the diminishing number of COVID year players), the number of players who will be recruited for just D1 will grow. That means D1 coaches on the sidelines of the middle tier pools at tournaments. A top 5 coach at the PC was looking for a game in the 13th pool of 2026 to watch one player. Great players can come from anywhere. If they can get a coaches attention via film, club reaching out, a showcase, prospect day or other, the coach will want to see them.

[Anonymous]

Capital Lacrosse Club happened. It became the no doubt best club for high school in the NoVA and DC area and draws the top players from local clubs, including from Pride's very strong middle school program.

Also Stars started a high school program and YJ MA launched as well, and further diluted the NoVA talent pool for High School.


There hasn’t been a dilution of talent. There has been a shortage of talent. Gone are Cardinal -Super Nova -2 Separate 3D & Metro teams - Cavalier. Could be others this is just off top of my head.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Capital Lacrosse Club happened. It became the no doubt best club for high school in the NoVA and DC area and draws the top players from local clubs, including from Pride's very strong middle school program.

Also Stars started a high school program and YJ MA launched as well, and further diluted the NoVA talent pool for High School.

There hasn’t been a dilution of talent. There has been a shortage of talent. Gone are Cardinal -Super Nova -2 Separate 3D & Metro teams - Cavalier. Could be others this is just off top of my head.

You can thank travel clubs in third grade for that. Rec. lacrosse is almost extinct.

[Anonymous]

Very true!