US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums MID-ATLANTIC LACROSSE MARYLAND FORUM Boys 2026 Grads - Mid Atlantic Region

NLF ranking is not accurate at all. See previous posts in this thread to see why

US Club Lax is a formula based ranking. They also cap the number goals a team wins by. The ranking is heavily influence by strength of schedule of opposing teams. Unfortunately US Club Lax data is filled with errors so rankings are flawed at this point. Look for a revised list in a couple of weeks once they clean up their data. Also their rankings in general don’t have enough games in the season to give a true ranking - every team needs around 30plus games to make this ranking methodology accurate.

I believe goals are capped at a maximum goal differential of 7.

Hawks beat Tigers already, Crabs 2x and havent lost 2 games

Give it some time. Once the data is verified and cleaned up, this will reflect the most objective measure of a team's ranking. As the summer tourney season kicks off and all the scores go in, it will be more accurate. However, all scores, good or bad, must be recorded. Or else the rankings become meaningless.

Also, the top MD-VA-DC area teams play in a spring league, I don't see those 7-9 games listed.

They lost to Eclipse in OT for the 6th seed..entered the regional ranked 7th

At least you're current......

Express loss this winter/spring
Tigers loss last summer
Edge loss fall 2019
LXC loss summer 2018
Looneys and Madlax???? you tell me.........

Hard to have confidence in a system when the #1 ranked LI Express has a losing record of 1-5 against the Hawks ranked #7 and Tiger ranked #3 and both those teams won all the tournaments and only have one loss. To say the Hawks are not #1 is crazy.

Not saying the Hawks are #1, but they for sure are not #7

Agreed. US Club lax guy really needs to do some data quality review on his rankings. Last time it was also a mess. This comes across as a guy in his basement doing a bad cut and paste job. He needs to add some people to his staff or not bother putting out a ranking.

maybe they take age into consideration?

possibly. Maybe roster size? Distance traveled by players to practice?

Why? it is grade based

If you look they are only taking games into account from the fall on. LIE is not 1-5 against the Hawks in that time period and Tigers didn't beat Hawks. Hawks rankings seems to be an issue as it has them with 2 losses but if you look at the inputted games there are no losses. Overall this system should be the better one as it is a mathematic algorithm vs a committee talking to coaches and "experts". But every system is flawed. And in the end they are 13/14 rankings don't matter unless we has parents and coaches make them matter. Kids should play their hardest no matter who they are playing. Everyone by now knows who are the top 5 teams regardless of where they are ranked on these lists. And those 5 teams will change by the time they are 15/16. Enjoy watching the kids play and encourage them to continue to get better. The smile on their face when they leave a game is worth more than a #1 ranking.

I agree. He needs to hire a support staff and a qualified CEO.

Needs to get more data and facts behind the rankings. Unfortunately, people will start looking at these as a joke. Shouldn’t bother putting out rankings until actually have some real basis behind them

It is a joke with no Laxachusetts in the top 145!

For anyone who has watched the 2026 level play, it is clear that Hawks and Express are 1&2 or 2&1 depending on who you ask. Then Tigers and Sweetlax are 3&4 or 4&3.

In 2021 Express beat the Hawks, Tigers beat Express, Hawks beat Tigers and Express beat Sweetlax four times, parity at the top

Sounds good and please tell us the club your son plays for?

I think the rankings are predictive of how the summer will play out. Hawks will lose some big games this summer. So I agree that the Hawks are not #1, probably a solid 4th or 5th ranked team.

Updated rankings from US Club lax. 3d NE is now ranked first, looks like they are pulling game data every week and updating the rankings.

They have played 1 ranked team (ranked 40th)

Every team they have played will be ranked. They need at least 5 games to be included. It gets updated once a week on Saturdays. They played Laxachusetts black 4 times. Laxachusetts will be ranked 8 or 9 next time the rankings come out.

OK, so this "algorithm" takes into account the future? It knows where teams will be ranked on day down the road? Maybe Laxachusetts will be ranked. But the still doesn't put 3Ds schedule strength currently anywhere near Tigers, Express, Sweetlax or Hawks.

If it is just a math formula, then the math formula wont take into account what a teams ranking 'will' be one day, it will only calculate on what a teams ranking is now.

No ..More likely around 25-30, Where they belong

Looks like a little movement in the NAL pools...Tigers and Sweetlax switched, not sure if other changes or not.

Click on the team...every team has a "rating". They just aren't "ranked" yet. They use the "rating" even though the team isn't ranked. Once they get 5 official results, they get ranked. But it still able to calculate an accurate rating.

VLC and Team United, then soon after that, VLC & BBL. Hopefully a schedule is coming soon

Gotchya. Still odd though. 0-3 Kings Blue with a better rating than HP Mohicans who are 18-20 and played Express pretty tight twice this weekend and beat team 91 twice.

Also, Kings Blue is actually an MA based team. There is a Kings team out of Colorado but Kings Blue isn't that team, so there is a mistake in the team's description.

*18-2

Schedules are out for NAL on Tourney Machine

What team do you think will join that group of teams next( sweet lax, hawks, tigers, express)

Is the MadLax Monuments 13U WSYL team a legit 2026 team or just their WSYL team? Why are they listed separately and why aren’t their games counted for/against ML Capital like every other club playing in WSYL?

How are the National teams like 3d National and MadLax National being factored into this entire equation? Those teams have very high ratings of 97.68 and 93.55 respectively, yet don’t appear in the ranking list and only have only played in 5 games in the club nationals tourney? If they’re not in the ranking list, should their ratings be counted? My guess is their ratings are included and are boosting others’ SOS … re: TommyKnockers.

Alcatraz Outlaws have played 6 games and none of them against anyone in the top 25, yet are ranked higher than teams like BBL, True Annapolis, MadLax Capital, Prime Time, etc.?

Pool Winners: Hawks, Express, Tommyknockers, Tigers, Sweetlax, Towerman.
Wild Cards: BBL, 2Way (never seen them but all 5 losses are to Express or Sweetlax)

Crabs, Tommyknockers, Mohicans, Express north, Laxachusetts? This weekend will tell a lot

Pool Winners - Hawks -Express -Tommy Knockers - Tigers - Sweetlax - Towermen

Wild Card - Crabs - Express North