Three months of play have culminated in the 2026 DII men’s lacrosse bracket. Eighteen teams are ready to battle for the 2026 national championship. Before the tournament starts on Wednesday, May 6, let’s take a deep dive into the tournament field.
The tournament has continually expanded over the past few seasons, increasing to 18 in 2026: eight teams in the North Region and 10 teams from the South Region. That opened the door for an abundance of new faces, but fear not — the DII men’s lacrosse powerhouses are back, and Adelphi is looking to make men’s lacrosse history.
10 things to know for the 2026 DII men’s lacrosse bracket
1. The Big Three are accounted for. The last three DII men’s lacrosse national champions — Adelphi, Lenoir-Rhyne and Tampa — all made the tournament this year. Adelphi and Tampa are the No. 1 seeds in the North and South Region, respectively. This is the third year in a row the Panthers and Tampa have entered the tournament as the top seeds. Lenoir-Rhyne is the six seed in the South Region, which is the Bears lowest seed in their post-COVID era of tournament dominance.
2. Familiar faces dominate the North Region. There should be plenty of familiarity in the North Region. Six of the eight teams — Tampa, Saint Anselm, Molloy, Pace, Seton Hill and Wilmington (DE) — are all back in the bracket just as they all were a year ago. In fact, we have a chance to see the same quarterfinals (Adelphi, Molloy, Seton Hill and Saint Anselm) and same semifinals (Adelphi vs. Saint Anselm) as we did in 2025 with the way it is seeded.
3. Unfamiliar faces dominate the South Region. While DII men’s lacrosse powerhouses Tampa, Lenoir-Rhyne and Wingate are back in the South Region, five teams are making their tournament debuts. Wednesday, May 6, sees a pair of DII men’s lacrosse championship rookies play all the way out in California, nonetheless. That is where Concordia (CA) hosts Flagler. Both the Golden Eagles and the Saints have 11 wins. Both of these teams also won their conference tournaments for the first time ever, with CUI winning the RMAC and Flagler the Peach Belt. Whichever team wins this one has the dubious honor of playing Tampa in the next round.
Also making their tournament debuts are Florida Tech, Barton and Newberry. Newberry, still a relatively young program, beginning in 2018, is fresh off its first-ever SAC championship and has a program record 13 wins. The Panthers are not only making their tournament debut, but they are hosting their first-ever tournament game as the No. 3 seed. Florida Tech needs one more win to set their single-season win record of lucky 13, but they will have to face tournament heavyweight Lenoir-Rhyne to do so. Barton arrives at 10-7 on the heels of its first-ever Conference Carolinas championship. The Bulldogs don’t have a standout scorer, but instead, they get the job done with five players that have at least 20 goals this year. They’ll need everyone of them against the top scoring offense in DII in Round 1 when they face Anderson (SC).
4. Northern debuts. While there is plenty of commonality in the North bracket this year, two programs are making their DII men’s lacrosse championship debuts. Saint Michael’s, which is 9-5, was the fifth NE10 team to hear its name called during the selection show, the most NE10 teams in DII men’s lacrosse championship history. Joining them was the fourth team from the NE10 to hear their name called: Assumption. Boomer Staunton leads the Greyhounds with 53 goals and 66 points and was named NE10 offensive player of the year for his efforts, making more Greyhounds’ history as the first player to win any player of the year (offensive, defensive or overall) for Assumption.
5. Adelphi’s unbreakable record? The Panthers are going for national championship No. 10. Their nine total are already the all-time record for DII men’s lacrosse. Here’s what’s wild about DII men’s lacrosse: Every national champion between 2002 and 2021 are no longer DII institutions. They have either closed their doors or switched divisions. There is no other current DII program with more than one national championship. This record seems to be as locked up as any before it.
🥍 Meet Adelphi's Kyle Lewis, the only DII men's lacrosse player selected in the PLL draft
6. Three-peat to history? While there have been many repeat champions, no team has ever won three national championships in a row in the 40-plus year history of DII men’s lacrosse. The Panthers went to five-straight championships between 1995-99, winning three over that span, but only winning consecutive titles in 1998-99. It won’t be easy with a top-heavy field, but if any program can pull it off, it is Adelphi.
7. Another Sparty party. Tampa has been a DII men’s lacrosse program for 14 years. Over that tenure, the Spartans have made 11-straight tournaments, have reached the semifinals six times, while finishing with one national runners-up campaign and their first national championship in 2022. They are 222-46, giving them an 82.8 winning percentage, which happens to be the best in DII history.
8. A Bear hunt. Lenoir-Rhyne is a relatively young program in the big DII men’s lacrosse picture, debuting in the 2011 season. The Bears chugged along for the first decade, reaching the tournament a couple times, but in the post-COVID era, they have been one of the most dominant programs in the land. From 2021-2026 (so far), the Bears are 90-19 with six-straight tournament appearances a national championship, and a national runners-up campaign. Should the Bears have to face Tampa again this year, it will be the fifth time since 2021, making this one of the bigger DII rivalries in men’s lacrosse.
9. Goals won’t be at a premium. Four of the top five scoring offenses made the bracket, so there won’t be any shortage of firepower. Anderson (SC) leads the way, tops in DII with scoring average of 19.35. The Trojans’ offense is fueled by a quartet of 30-plus goal scorers, led by Ryan Bitterman, who scored at least four goals in a game eight times this season.
Lenoir-Rhyne is No. 2 in scoring offense with 18.73, with SAC rival Wingate — which is led by Vinny Butrico and his DII-best 4.13 goals per game — close behind at No. 4 and the two-time champs Adelphi in fifth with 16.81, which has an astounding six players with at least 40 points in one of the deepest rosters in the tournament. Missing is Westminster (UT), which had the third-best scoring offense while improving from a 7-7 team to 11-5 in 2026.
10. If defense wins championships… If the old adage holds true, Adelphi is in great shape to win No. 10. The Panthers have the best scoring defense in DII, allowing just 6.12 goals per game. But they aren’t alone in this bracket, as there are a bevy of top 10 defenses here. Seton Hill has the second-best scoring defense (6.28), followed by Tampa (6.89), Wilmington (DE) (7.12), Saint Anselm (8.0) and Molloy at No. 6 (8.06). Also in the top 10 are Florida Tech at No. 8 (8.12) and Saint Michael’s at No. 10 with 8.50 goals allowed per game. Absent from the tournament are No. 7 Chestnut Hill and No. 9 UIndy.
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