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A year after being considered one of the biggest snubs of the tournament, the Rutgers men's lacrosse team once again finished on the outside looking in.
#RUMLax is not selected for the NCAA Tournament. RU finishes the season at 10-4, recording double-digit wins for the 2nd consecutive season.
— Rutgers Men's LAX (@RUmlax) May 8, 2017
Entering conference tournament play, the Scarlet Knights seemed like a lock to make the tournament, but when Marquette upset Denver in the Big East Tournament, the odds became stacked against the Scarlet Knights.
Entering Saturday, the Knights still had an outside chance to get an at-large bid but it was going to take a crazy amount of luck to get in. The Scarlet Knights needed Ohio State to beat Maryland, Army to beat Notre Dame, Brown to beat Yale, and Boston University to beat Duke. Only one of the four happened and unfortunately the Scarlet Knights were left out.
Fans are going to look at the records of teams such at Notre Dame, North Carolina, and Johns Hopkins and wonder why they made the tournament over Rutgers and it all comes down to RPI. All of those teams had a higher RPI than Rutgers and that is one of the top criteria that the selection comittee uses to determine the tournament teams.
Next year, look for Rutgers to perhaps add one or two more top tier teams in an effort to boost their RPI.
The Scarlet Knights finish the season 10-4.