The Big Ten Conference is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives in 1896, it predates the founding of its regulating organization, the NCAA. It is based in the Chicago area in Rosemont, Illinois. For many decades the conference consisted of 10 prominent universities. As of 2014, it consists of 14 member institutions and 2 affiliate institutions, with 2 new member institutions scheduled to join in 2024. The conference competes in the NCAA Division I and its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, the highest level of NCAA competition in that sport.
The Villanova Wildcats are the athletic teams of Villanova University. They compete in the Big East for every sport; except football and rowing where they compete in the Colonial Athletic Association. On December 15, 2012, Villanova and the other six, non-FBS schools announced that they were departing the Big East for a new conference. This conference assumed the Big East name on July 1, 2013.
College lacrosse is played by student-athletes at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. In both countries, men's field lacrosse and women's lacrosse are played at both the varsity and club levels. College lacrosse in Canada is sponsored by the Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association (CUFLA) and Maritime University Field Lacrosse League (MUFLL), while in the United States, varsity men's and women's lacrosse is governed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). There are also university lacrosse programs in the United Kingdom sponsored by British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) and programs in Japan.
The Johns Hopkins Blue Jays are the 24 intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Johns Hopkins University, located in Baltimore, Maryland. They compete in the NCAA Division III, except for their lacrosse teams, which compete in Division I. They are primarily members of the Centennial Conference, while the men's and women's lacrosse teams compete in the Big Ten Conference. The team colors are Hopkins blue and black, and the blue jay is their mascot. Homewood Field is the home stadium.
The Johns Hopkins Blue Jays men's lacrosse team represents Johns Hopkins University in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college lacrosse. Since 2015, the Blue Jays have represented the Big Ten Conference.
The 2009 NCAA Division I men's lacrosse tournament was held from May 9 through May 25, 2009. This was the 39th annual Division I NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship tournament. Sixteen NCAA Division I college men's lacrosse teams met after having played their way through a regular season, and for some, a conference tournament, to play in the NCAA Tournament.
The Maryland Terrapins men's lacrosse team represents the University of Maryland in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I lacrosse as a member of the Big Ten Conference. Maryland was a founding member of the Atlantic Coast Conference before withdrawing after the 2014 season.
The Florida Gators women's lacrosse team represents the University of Florida in the sport of college lacrosse. The Gators compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and are single-sport members of the American Athletic Conference, which they joined in 2018 after four seasons in the Big East Conference. Before joining Big East women's lacrosse, the Gators were members of the American Lacrosse Conference (ALC), which folded after the 2014 season due to aftereffects of conference realignment. They play their home games in Donald R. Dizney Stadium on the university's Gainesville, Florida campus, and are currently led by head coach Amanda O'Leary. The Gators have won regular-season conference titles in 11 of the 12 completed seasons of the women's lacrosse program's existence, with four each in the ALC and Big East plus two in The American. Additionally, they have won eight conference tournament titles and advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament six times, with their best NCAA finish being a semifinal berth in 2012.
The Johns Hopkins–Maryland lacrosse rivalry is an intercollegiate rivalry between the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays, which represent Johns Hopkins University, and the Maryland Terrapins, which represent the University of Maryland. The most prominent event has been the men's lacrosse series, which is widely regarded as one of the greatest rivalries in the sport. More than 115 contests in the series have been played since the schools first met in 1895. The competition is intensified by each program's status as a traditional lacrosse powerhouse. As such, the game has often held national championship implications, and twice the teams played to represent the United States in the Olympics.
The Maryland Terrapins women's lacrosse team represents the University of Maryland in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I women's college lacrosse. The Maryland program has won 15 national championships, the most of any women's lacrosse program. The Terrapins have also made the most NCAA tournament appearances, won the most tournament games, and made the most NCAA championship game appearances. Before the NCAA sanctioned women's lacrosse, Maryland also won the AIAW national championship in 1981.
John S. Emmer is a former American lacrosse coach. He retired in 2005 with 326 wins, making him the lacrosse coach with the most wins in NCAA history. This mark was surpassed in 2008 by Jim Berkman of Division III Salisbury University. Emmer is one of only two head coaches to have led three different teams to the NCAA men's lacrosse tournament.
The Denver Pioneers men's lacrosse team represents the University of Denver (DU) in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college lacrosse. The DU men's lacrosse program was first introduced in 1966 as a club sport. The program alternated between varsity and club status until entering Division I in 1999.
The Michigan Wolverines men's lacrosse team is the intercollegiate men's lacrosse program representing the University of Michigan. The school competes in the Big Ten Conference in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Prior to joining the NCAA, Michigan competed as a club-varsity program at the Division I level of the Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association (MCLA) in the Central Collegiate Lacrosse Association (CCLA), where the Wolverines secured three MCLA national championships and won 11 consecutive conference titles. The team is coached by Kevin Conry.
The Michigan Wolverines women's lacrosse team is the intercollegiate women's lacrosse program representing the University of Michigan. The school competes in the Big Ten Conference in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The Wolverines play their home games in Ann Arbor, primarily at Michigan Stadium with the indoor Oosterbaan Field House as a secondary option. Women's lacrosse was established as a varsity sport in 2014, and the team played in the American Lacrosse Conference during its inaugural season before joining the Big Ten in 2015. The team is currently coached by Hannah Nielsen.
The 2016 Big Ten Men's Lacrosse Tournament was held May 5 to May 7 at Homewood Field in Baltimore, Maryland. The winner of the tournament received the Big Ten Conference's automatic bid to the 2016 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship. Four teams from the Big Ten conference competed in the single elimination event. The seeds were based upon the teams' regular season conference record with Penn State winning the head-to-head tie breaker over Ohio State to earn the #4 seed and final spot in the field. In the final, Maryland beat Rutgers 14–8.
The Johns Hopkins–Syracuse lacrosse rivalry is an intercollegiate lacrosse rivalry between the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays and Syracuse Orange. The two programs are the most historically successful and winningest in collegiate lacrosse, combining for 60 national titles spanning the pre-NCAA and NCAA eras. Since the advent of the NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship, the Syracuse and Johns Hopkins have the first- and second-most titles respectively. Hopkins leads the series 32–28–1 through 2023.
The Johns Hopkins–Princeton lacrosse rivalry is an intercollegiate lacrosse rivalry between the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays and Princeton Tigers. The teams first met in 1890 but would not meet again until 1930, after which, it became an annual staple on the schedule. Part of the enmity in the rivalry stems from the two school's similarities in high-level academics and lacrosse prominence, along with competing for a similar body of applicants. Through much of the latter half of the 20th century, Hopkins would dominate the rivalry. The series would resume national importance in the 1990s with the return of Princeton to the game's elite; since 1990, the Tigers have won six national championships and the Jays have claimed two. With the 90th meeting occurring in 2020, Johns Hopkins leads the series 59–31.
The Johns Hopkins–Virginia lacrosse rivalry is an intercollegiate lacrosse rivalry between the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays and Virginia Cavaliers. The teams compete for the Doyle Smith Cup, which was first awarded in 2006. Edward Doyle Smith Jr., the only inductee to the U.S. Lacrosse Hall of Fame to have never competed in the sport, was a team manager and statistician at Johns Hopkins for five years before becoming UVA's first assistant sports information director, which he held for 31 seasons. Smith is also credited with the standardization of game statistics for lacrosse at the national level, twice receiving the USILA Man of the Year Award.
The Johns Hopkins–Navy lacrosse rivalry is an intercollegiate lacrosse rivalry between the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays and Navy Midshipmen. While historical rivals in football, the lacrosse series has been the headlining competition between the two universities. The Maryland programs were both national powers prior to NCAA sponsorship of the sport, with 35 national titles for the Blue Jays and 17 for the Midshipmen. They both continue to rank one-two in the most total national championships of any program in collegiate lacrosse. While both mainstays on the national stage in the modern era, Hopkins has dominated Navy head-to-head, winning 36 consecutive from 1975 to 2009. The series, annual since 1950 was halted in 2017 due to scheduling issues from conference realignment, as the longtime independents joined the Patriot League and Big Ten Conference respectively in the last decade. A 2020 renewal was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As of 2020, Johns Hopkins leads the series 62–27–1.
Janine Rene Tucker is an American lacrosse coach. As the head coach for the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays women's lacrosse team, Tucker is the all-time winningest coach at Johns Hopkins.
