Qualifying Teams
The Division I NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Committee was responsible for selecting the teams that competed in the championship tournament. The qualifying teams, along with the seeding for each team in the tournament, were announced on Sunday, May 4, 2008. Seven conferences received automatic bids to the tournament for its top team. The remaining nine teams were selected as "at large" bids by the committee.
Five conferences held a conference tournament championship to award the conferences' bid. Canisius earned an automatic bid by winning the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) championship. This marks the first time that Canisius College has gained entry to the National Championship tournament. Colgate earned an automatic bid by winning its first-ever Patriot League championship. Hofstra earned an automatic bid by winning Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) championship, Notre Dame earned an automatic bid by winning Great Western Lacrosse League (GWLL) championship, and UMBC earned an automatic bid by winning America East Conference championship.
Two conferences award their bids based on regular season conference records. Loyola earned an automatic bid by winning the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) championship with a 6–1 conference record. The Ivy League's automatic bid was awarded to Cornell. Cornell and Brown had identical conference records, but due to a victory by Cornell in head to head competition earlier in the season the tiebreaker was given to Cornell.
The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) conference tournament champion was Duke. However, the ACC does not receive an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament because a conference must have at least six members competing (for 2 years) in order to be awarded an automatic bid.
The following teams were awarded at-large bids by the NCAA Selection Committee: Duke (ACC), Virginia (ACC), Syracuse (Independent), North Carolina (ACC), Johns Hopkins (Independent), Maryland (ACC), Denver (GWLL), Navy (Patriot), and Ohio State (GWLL).
Read more about this topic: 2008 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship
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