No matter what happens next Sunday in Happy Valley, history will be made.

Either Penn State will end its forever streak of NCAA tournament futility, or it will be the biggest upset in college men’s lacrosse history.

The Big Ten champion Nittany Lions, as expected, earned the No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, the bracket for which was revealed on ESPNU Sunday night. Penn State has not won a game in any of its previous four NCAA tournament appearances.

The Nittany Lions (14-1) will meet the winner of a play-in game Wednesday between Marist and UMBC. A top overall seed has never fallen in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Two teams each from the ACC and Ivy League comprise the next four seeds in second-seeded Duke (11-4), third-seeded Virginia (13-3, ACC champion), fourth-seeded Penn (11-3, Ivy champion) and fifth-seeded Yale (12-3).

CAA champion Towson (11-4), whose blistering start to the season included wins over Johns Hopkins and Loyola, is the sixth seed. Notre Dame (8-6) and Loyola (11-4) earned the last two seeded entries and therefore first-round home games.

First-round matchups, including dates and times (Eastern), appear below. All games will be broadcast live on ESPNU.

SATURDAY

(8) Loyola (11-4) vs. Syracuse (9-4) – 12 p.m.
(5) Yale (12-3) vs. Georgetown (13-4) – 2:30 p.m.
(4) Penn (11-3) vs. Army (13-4) – 5 p.m.
(3) Virginia (13-3) vs. Robert Morris (9-7) – 7:30 p.m.

SUNDAY

(1) Penn State (14-1) vs. Marist (10-6)/UMBC (6-8) – 12 p.m.
(6) Towson (11-4) vs. Maryland (11-4) – 2:30 p.m.
(2) Duke (11-4) vs. Richmond (10-6) – 5 p.m.
(7) Notre Dame (8-6) vs. Johns Hopkins (8-7) – 7:30 p.m.

HERE IT IS. The 2019 @NCAALAX Men's Division I tournament bracket. @TerpsMLax and @jhumenslacrosse get the final spots, while Cornell and High Point are the first out. pic.twitter.com/gupF9j7jny

— US Lacrosse Magazine (@USLacrosseMag) May 6, 2019

BRACKET

East Hartford, Conn.

(1) Penn State vs. Marist/UMBC
(8) Loyola vs. Syracuse

East Hartford, Conn.

(5) Yale vs. Georgetown
(4) IVY/Penn vs. Army

Hempstead, N.Y.

(3) Virginia vs. Robert Morris
(6) Towson vs. Maryland

Hempstead, N.Y.

(7) Notre Dame vs. Johns Hopkins
(2) Duke vs. Richmond

Georgetown (Big East), Army (Patriot League), Robert Morris (Northeast), Marist (MAAC), UMBC (America East) and Richmond (Southern) all punched their tickets by winning their conference titles and automatic qualifiers.

When questioned on the broadcast, NCAA men’s lacrosse committee chair Jack Hayes said it came down to four schools for the last three at-large spots, which went to Syracuse, Johns Hopkins and Maryland.

The Terps, who presumably made the field over Cornell despite the Big Red’s two top-10 RPI wins (Towson and Notre Dame) compared to Maryland’s one (Penn), will visit Towson in one of the more highly-anticipated first-round matchups. The in-state foes played each other every year from 1981-2011, but the Terps dropped the Tigers from their schedule starting in 2012.

Maryland, a perennial final four contender, is unseeded for the first time since 2012. The Terps backed into the tournament after ending thei season with back-to-back losses to Johns Hopkins.

Also as expected, Hayes was ready to field questions about High Point, which owned top-five RPI wins over Duke and Virginia but stumbled against St. John’s, Jacksonville, and ultimately Richmond in the Southern Conference final.

“High Point’s case was very interesting, given the wins that they had,” Hayes admitted on the selection show, saying the Panthers came up in conversations with the regional advisory committee in recent weeks. “We discussed with other coaches how to balance their wins versus their strength of schedule versus their RPI. There were other teams in the group that took those at-large bids that also had quality wins, they just didn’t have some of the losses that High Point had, and they had a stronger strength of schedule.”

Check back to uslaxmagazine.com for more bracket analysis Monday morning.

Division II
Bracket

Le Moyne and Limestone earned the No. 1 seeds in the North and South regions, respectively, in the newly expanded 12-team NCAA Division II men’s lacrosse tournament. First-round games will be played Wednesday.

North Region

(1) Le Moyne (15-2) (Bye)
(4) Mercy (17-1) vs. (5) Seton Hill (12-4)
(2) Adelphi (16-2) (Bye)
(3) Meryhurst (13-3) vs. (6) Merrimack (13-3)

South Region

(1) Limestone (18-0) (Bye)
(4) Tampa (14-5) vs. (5) Wingate (13-3)
(2) Belmont Abbey (14-3) (Bye)
(3) UIndy (14-2) vs. (6) Queens (13-4) 

Division III
Bracket

Twenty-seven teams punched their ticket to the NCAA Division III men’s lacrosse tournament by winning their conference titles and automatic qualifiers, leaving the selection committee to parse out eight at-large bids in Pool C (teams from AQ conferences) and one in Pool B (independent).

Five of the eight Pool C bids went to teams from the NESCAC (Amherst, Wesleyan and Williams) and Centennial (Franklin & Marshall and Gettysburg). Lynchburg, Union and York soaked up the remaining spots.

Cabrini earned the lone Pool B bid.

CAC foes Salisbury and York anchor the South region of the bracket, opposite Tufts and RIT in the North, respectively.