It depends what you want out of it but for me a top 20 program is a combination of both good academics + good lax but that’s not everyone’s priority. Mind you that any kid who goes to any school and gets and education is good in my book. But my (just an opinion) top 20 dual threat academics + lax (with academics > lax in terms of weight)
1) Duke 2) yale 3) notre dame 4) hopkins 5) penn 6) cornell 7) virginia 8) Princeton 9) Michigan 10) gtown 11) UNC 12) Maryland 13) Harvard 14) Brown 15) Army 16) Navy 17) Rutgers 18) BU 19) Penn state 20 Syracuse
Honorable mention academic mention to Dartmouth and Colgate - terrible lax
Honorable lax mention to Denver
Just Outside the top 20: Richmond, lehigh, Ohio state, nova, Air Force
Lax is just one of those sports where the best lax schools are also the best academic schools. Not really the case in college football, basketball, hockey or baseball.
Solid list, I'd put Princeton top 5. They're ranked the number 1 university in the US and they have been stocking up on blue chip recruits. Don't be surprised if you see them do extremely well in the next several years (multiple final four appearances and possibly NCAA title games). Their 2023 freshman class is especially talented with about 5 players that could start as freshman
I would love to move Princeton up. Like Madalon as coach. They’ve underperformed lax wise which is why they are down at 8 but academically, I have them only behind MIT and Stanford (yup MCLA is a good option for your kids too) in my book. But in all honesty anything in the top 16 is splitting hairs. All amazing.
2020 Princeton looked like they had a strong chance to go deep in the NCAA playoffs and make a push for the natty. Too bad that season was cut short. 2021 looked promising for them too, unfortunately no season that year for the Ivies. They had a down season last year but I don’t expect that to be the norm over there based on their coaching and quality of recruits
Agreed. They are on the precipice. But the teams in front have had a better track record thus far so unfortunately potential doesn’t count. But maybe next year….
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