The Average NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Final Has 22 Combined Goals

The average NCAA Division I men’s lacrosse championship game has produced 22.0 combined goals through 2026. That is 11.0 goals per team if the total is divided evenly. Calculated separately, champions have averaged 12.8 goals and runners-up 9.2.

That answer covers the 55 played Division I men’s finals from 1971 through 2026. It excludes 2020, when the championship was canceled.

The calculation

The NCAA’s Division I men’s championship history lists the final score for every title game. Adding both teams’ scores produces 1,210 goals across 55 completed finals:

1,210 combined goals ÷ 55 games = 22.0 goals per championship game

Measure	Division I men’s average
Combined goals per final	22.0
Goals per team	11.0
Champion’s score	12.8
Runner-up’s score	9.2
Winning margin	3.6

Overtime goals are included because they are part of the final score. The 1990 Syracuse–Loyola Maryland score is also included as a game that was played, although the NCAA’s history page notes that Syracuse’s championship was later vacated.

The range is wide enough that 22 should be treated as a historical baseline, not a prediction. The lowest-scoring Division I men’s final was Duke’s 6–5 overtime win over Notre Dame in 2010. The highest combined total is 33 goals, reached in Maryland’s 20–13 win in 1975, Syracuse’s 17–16 win in 1983 and Virginia’s 17–16 win in 2021.

“Points” and “goals” are not interchangeable

On a lacrosse scoreboard, each goal adds one to a team’s score. In player statistics, however, a point means a goal or an assist. Adding every player’s points would therefore count an assisted goal twice—once for the scorer and once for the assisting player.

So the clean measure for a championship game’s total score is combined goals, even when a results table labels the score column “points.” For the statistical distinction, see how lacrosse scoring stats are counted.

There is no single average for every NCAA bracket

“NCAA championship game” can also mean women’s lacrosse or a Division II or III final. Those competitions have separate histories and should not be pooled without labeling the bracket.

For comparison, the NCAA’s Division I women’s championship series averaged 19.6 combined goals from 1982 through 2026: 863 goals in 44 played finals, again excluding the canceled 2020 event. The NCAA’s women’s Division I history notes that the competition was a national collegiate championship before 2001.

Championship series	Played finals	Combined goals	Average per final
Men’s Division I, 1971–2026	55	1,210	22.0
Women’s Division I history, 1982–2026	44	863	19.6

For the common lacrosse interpretation—the NCAA Division I men’s title game—the answer is therefore 22 combined goals per game. A complete year-by-year view across all six division-and-gender brackets is available in the NCAA lacrosse champions table.