While We’re Young (Ideas) | On NCAA Madness to Come
By TERRY LYONS, Editor of Digital Sports Desk
BOSTON – There are two (somewhat) hidden gems in the annual NCAA championship calendar. One is underway, and the other is Memorial Day Weekend – this year at nearly Gillette Stadium in Foxboro. Sometimes, they are overlooked with all of the hullabaloo of March Madness, the GranDaddy of them all. The two best?
- The NCAA Frozen Four
- The NCAA Lacrosse Championship
Here’s the bracket for the on-going men’s ice hockey tournament, noting local favorite Boston College was a 3-1 winner over nearby Bentley on Friday afternoon in a very hard-fought game. BC improved to 27-7-2 overall. UConn, Penn State and Denver advanced as well, all three knocking out New England-area schools. Denver will play Boston College on Sunday night at 7:00pm with the winner advancing to the Frozen Four. Boston University played Saturday afternoon and defeated Cornell, 3-2, in overtime, to advance to the national semifinals in St. Louis … You can see all the results by visiting HERE.
When all is settled to four hockey teams, the Frozen Four will convene in St. Louis, Missouri – the hockey capital of the Mississippi River – although the river that runs through it never freezes.
The Frozen Four usually pits schools from New England (and occasional New York State) against schools from the west (Minneapolis-St. Paul, Michigan, Denver). This year, Penn State is representing the top notch Big Ten schools.
Going into the tournament, the four schools ranked in the Top Four were the same to be assigned No. 1 seeds. They were:
- Boston College
- Michigan State (was ranked as No. 1, while BC was No. 2)
- Maine
- Western Michigan
No. 3 Maine was ousted by Penn State, 5-1, on Friday while No. 2 Michigan State was eliminated by Cornell, the lone Ivy League representative.
While the men’s Final Four basketball tournament is April 5 & 7, the Frozen Four is scheduled for April 10 & 12.
LAX: Come Memorial Day Weekend, May 24 & 26, with ancillary (Women’s semis/finals and Division II and III men’s championships all weekend, one of the great American events will be staged in nearby Foxborough, Mass., at the home of the New England Patriots (NFL) and Revolution (MLS). Tickets range between $33 and $100 and are available on Ticketmaster. The top schools currently ranked include:
- Cornell
- Maryland
- Ohio State
- Princeton
That’s two Ivy League schools and two Big Ten schools at the top but plenty of others knocking at the door, and there’s two months of action and tournament games to come.
One important thing of note, the women’s basketball Finals Four, women’s Frozen Four and the women’s lacrosse championship are tremendous events with outstanding student-athletes, competing at a very high level. I do not want to take one thing away by listing the men’s tournaments without mentioning the women, especially in lacrosse as we’ll see them play in Foxborough this May.
HERE NOW, THE NOTES: As long as the topic is tournament time, let’s look at the newest college tournament on the block. The College Basketball Crown is a new 16-team, single-elimination postseason men’s basketball tourney, featuring teams from the Big Ten, Big 12 and Big East conferences, along with additional at-large participants. It’s scheduled from March 31 to April 6, 2025, and will be played at two Las Vegas venues – the MGM Grand Garden Arena and T-Mobile Arena. All games will be broadcast on FOX and FS1.
Look for the likes of Boise State, Georgetown, Oregon State and Villanova competing for NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) money. According to reports, the champion team will receive a $300,000 in NIL money, the runner-up will earn $100,000, and the semifinalists will each take home $50,000 in NIL.
Utah vs. Butler will tip off the event on Monday, March 31, at 3 p.m. EDT.
