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DECEMBER 22, 2025
composed by STEVE ULRICH
We cover DIII lacrosse like no other publication. #d3lax #whyD3

🌲 Counting Down the Days

🎶 Your Morning Pick-Me Up. Santa Claus Is Coming to Town. Bruce Springsteen

🗞️ In Today’s Edition. How Tufts Men's Lacrosse Went From Afterthought to Juggernaut. How Much Did The Top Programs Spend in 2023-24? IWLCA: NCAA Moving Toward Combined Women's Lacrosse Championships in 2027

📬️ Attention Coaches. We’re preparing our 2026 season preview, so be on the lookout for an email from us to assist us on your team’s outlook.

✅ Thank You. For making 2025 a great first year for D3Lacrosse. We look forward to even bigger things in 2026.

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TOP STORY

1. How Tufts Men's Lacrosse Went From Afterthought to Juggernaut

“A week removed from winning a second consecutive national championship, Tufts men’s lacrosse head coach Casey D’Annolfo grabbed a shovel and started doing yard work in the backyard of his home in Andover, Mass.

He reminisced on the Jumbos’ historic 23-0 season, their 14-13 loss to Hamilton in the NESCAC quarterfinals in 2024 and losing the 2023 national championship to Salisbury — which has remained in the front of his mind.

Since taking over for the highly regarded Mike Daly in 2017, D’Annolfo has produced a 145-18 record. He’s led the Jumbos to six NESCAC titles, five consecutive championship weekend appearances and two national championships.

Some might consider Tufts a dynasty. D’Annolfo doesn’t. He thinks the Jumbos are still missing one key component.”

» Field Awareness. “Apparently an undefeated season while playing the third-most difficult schedule in Division III, according to RPI, isn’t consistent enough. D’Annolfo added that to be considered a dynasty, you need to win three national championships in four years, which puts the Jumbos on the cusp.”

» Why It Matters. “The top priority at Tufts wasn’t always winning national championships. The program was in arguably its darkest time when 26-year-old Mike Daly took over in 1999. They had a combined record of 3-25 in 1997-98 and successful NESCAC programs like Amherst and Middlebury found a way to drop Tufts from their schedules in 1999 because of how uncompetitive it was. He built his program with three pillars in mind: fundamentals, discipline and excitement. The Jumbos qualified for the NCAA tournament in 2007 and made a momentous leap in 2010 after winning the NESCAC championship.”

» The Key Stat. “D’Annolfo described his style as the, “Best parts of lacrosse.” He compared it to the no-huddle offense that 2010 AP Football Coach of the Year Chip Kelly ran at Oregon. Jack Regnery, who shot over 20 times during two games last season, compared Tufts’ offense to the Showtime Los Angeles Lakers. Whether Regnery is Marcus Mariota or Magic Johnson, his aggressive play style embodies how D’Annolfo wants them to play. The Jumbos finished the season first in the nation with 418 goals, while averaging 58.5 shots each game.”

2. How Much Did The Top Programs Spend in 2023-24?

D3Lacrosse dove into the 2023-24 Equity in Athletics Data Analysis (EADA) forms for all NCAA Division III lacrosse-playing institutions to determine the total expenses for the sport on both the men’s and women’s sides.

» Definition. The U.S. Department of Education defined “total expenses” as “All expenses attributable to intercollegiate athletic activities. This includes appearance guarantees and options, athletically related student aid, contract services, equipment, fundraising activities, operating expenses, promotional activities, recruiting expenses, salaries and benefits, supplies, travel, and any other expenses attributable to intercollegiate athletic activities.”

➕ A subscriber bonus: Email me at [email protected] and I’ll send you your team and conference’s information. Not a subscriber? No better time than the present.

» Men’s Programs 11-25. 11-Middlebury ($406,300), 12-Bowdoin ($403,931), 13-Ohio Northern ($393,662), 14-Western New England ($392,990), 15-Springfield ($388,028), 16-St. John Fisher ($384,023), 17-Sewanee ($380,382), 18-Stevens ($379,534), 19-Gettysburg ($379,127), 20-Washington College ($373,102), 21-Randolph-Macon ($369,389), 22-Vassar ($359,256), 23-Muhlenberg ($349,635), 24-Franklin & Marshall ($347,671), 25-Salisbury ($343,653).

» Other 2024 NCAA Qualifiers. Stevenson ($318,884), Swarthmore ($309,386), Lynchburg ($302,871), RPI ($296,325), Babson ($286,307), Union ($266,167), Scranton ($263,856), Illinois Wesleyan ($260,661), Centre ($258,737), Pfeiffer ($253,572), St. Mary’s, Md. ($236,167), Geneseo ($227,686), Aurora ($214,020), St. Lawrence ($200,572), Roanoke ($199,915), Saint Joseph CT ($176,742), Transylvania ($170,843), Endicott ($161,056), Lake Forest ($157,368), SUNY Poly ($153,200), Dickinson ($152,521), Hope ($144,923), Plymouth State ($130,183), Farmingdale State ($108,977), Grove City (N/A), RIT (N/A)

» Women’s Programs 11-25. 11-Colorado College ($338,790), 12-Christopher Newport ($336,546), 13-Western New England ($306,445), 14-Rowan ($301,307), 15-Stevens ($301,307), 16-Swarthmore ($297,501), 17-Bowdoin ($279,143), 18-Sewanee ($271,237), 19-Vassar, ($265,065), 20-Trinity CT ($263,539), 21-Williams ($251,205), 22-Scranton ($250,548), 23-Gettysburg ($249,202), 24-Ithaca ($239,835), 25-Berry ($239,691).

» Other 2024 NCAA Qualifiers. Babson ($236,707), Springfield ($231,545), Washington and Lee ($217,546), St. John Fisher ($211,701), Roanoke ($202,427), Pomona-Pitzer ($195,107), Haverford ($189,025), Aurora ($187,974), TCNJ ($184,795), Catholic ($180,752), St. Mary’s, Md. ($178,160), Cortland ($178,034), Salisbury ($168,897), Rhodes ($168,638), York, Pa. ($165,488), SUNY Canton ($163,308), Shenandoah ($161,550), Plymouth State ($157,633), George Fox ($154,433), Lake Forest ($140,072), Johnson & Wales-Providence ($140,054), Transylvania ($129,369), Capital ($125,656), Hope ($123,101), Endicott ($121,701), MIT ($115,659), Farmingdale State ($97,661), Westfield State ($92,460), Meredith (N/A), Grove City (N/A).

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3. IWLCA: NCAA Moving Toward Combined Women's Lacrosse Championships in 2027

“The NCAA “has taken public meaningful steps” toward unifying the Division I, II and III women’s lacrosse championships in 2027, the IWLCA stated in a press release Thursday.

Championship equity was a key focus of the watershed white paper released in advance of the women’s lacrosse coaches association’s annual convention last month in Florida. The issue drew national attention in May, when Tufts women’s lacrosse coach Courtney Shute pointed out a stark contrast: Her team played for a Division III national title in front of 721 fans at Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia, while Tufts’ men’s team competed for its championship at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts—home of the NFL’s New England Patriots — before a combined Division II/Division III crowd of 25,228.”

» History Lesson. “The Division I and Division III women’s championships split in 2002, with the NCAA sporadically coupling the Division II and Division III events as it did this year at Roanoke. Coaches have grown weary of the fractured approach.”

» Worth Noting. “While some hoped for a unified NCAA women’s lacrosse championship weekend in 2026, the FIFA World Cup had already displaced the Division I games from Gillette Stadium. Instead, they’ll be played at Northwestern’s Martin Stadium in Evanston, Ill.. The Division II and III championships are in Rochester, N.Y.”

» Quotable. “This combined championship format will provide Division II and Division III student-athletes with access to premier venues and professional facilities, elevate the profile of all divisions, create enhanced media opportunities across the board and showcase the depth and breadth of women’s lacrosse talent to a national audience,” IWLCA executive director Liz Robertshaw said. “The IWLCA’s sustained focus on this issue is exactly the kind of forward movement we need to grow the game at every level.”

4. Previous Conference Champions

Part 4 in our series looking back at the history of NCAA Division III lacrosse. Today, we continue with men’s conference champions.

5. Lightning Round

» Commissioner. “The Conference of New England (CNE) announced Interim Commissioner Julie Beer has been appointed as the league’s Commissioner, effective Monday, January 5. Beer has held the post with an interim title since September 15, and will become the league’s third full-time Commissioner since the position was created in 2007.

» Salute. “The Farmingdale State College women's lacrosse team traveled to nearby Long Island National Cemetery on Saturday (Dec. 13) and participated in the annual Wreaths Across America initiative, where it placed wreaths on grave sites of numerous United States military veterans.”

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