Penn State Lacrosse Voted Ineligible for Conference Tournament

Penn State men’s lacrosse will not be able to participate in the 2013-14 Colonial Athletic Association tournament, per InsideLacrosse.com.

According to the report, CAA athletic directors voted on the decision to bar the Nittany Lions from competing in the tournament at the recommendation of the league’s men’s lacrosse coaches. Penn State joined the league, which is made up of Delaware, Drexel, Hofstra, Massachusetts, Penn State, and Towson, in 2010. The team will leave the CAA after this coming season to join the Big Ten, which is the reason for this vote.

“While we are not in favor of the decision by the CAA administrators, we understand they had the right to do so according to the CAA by-laws,” Penn State men’s lacrosse SID Jeremy Fallis told Inside Lacrosse. “It’s disappointing that our seniors won’t have the opportunity to compete for the CAA Tournament title and its automatic NCAA bid. Nevertheless, we’re incredibly excited to get back to work this fall as we try to earn a second-straight NCAA at-large bid this upcoming spring.”

Penn State is the defending runners-up in the conference after losing to Towson in the conference finals last year, 11-10. The Nittany Lions did earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament as an 8 seed last year, where they lost in the first round to Ivy League champions Yale.

Because of this ruling, Jeff Tambroni’s Nittany Lions will be unable to automatically qualify for the NCAA Tournament by winning their conference tournament — for those unaware of how college lacrosse’s postseason works, think of automatic qualifying for winning your conference tourney in college basketball — and will be forced to rely on an at-large bid like they did last season.