USILA

The United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association is an association of member institutions and organizations with college lacrosse programs at all levels of competition, including the three NCAA divisions and non-NCAA schools, at both the varsity and club levels for men and women. The association traces its history through predecessor organizations back to 1882, although it received its present name and became a governing body with unlimited membership in 1926.

The first intercollegiate game in the United States was played on November 22, 1877 between New York University and Manhattan College. Lacrosse had been introduced in upstate New York in the 1860s. Lacrosse was further introduced to the Baltimore area in the 1890s. An organizing body for the sport, the U. S. National Lacrosse Association, was founded in 1879. The first intercollegiate lacrosse tournament was held in 1881, with Harvard beating Princeton, 3–0, in the championship game. New York University and Columbia University also participated.

In 1882 three colleges formed a league called the Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (ILA), which several others also joined. In most years from this point through 1931, collegiate lacrosse associations selected annual champions based on season records. In 1899, the Inter-University Lacrosse League (IULL) began play using slightly different rules. The two leagues merged in December, 1905, to form the 8-team United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse League with Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Lehigh, Penn, Stevens Tech and Swarthmore. The USILL was a closed-membership league, which excluded several lacrosse powers, such as the U.S. Naval Academy. The national championship was officially bestowed only upon teams that were included in the membership of these organizations.

In 1906, the USILL established Northern and Southern Divisions, and its by-laws encouraged the annual division winners to play a post-season championship game. Only two such games were played, in 1912 and 1921. As Navy was not a member of the USILL, its teams were not eligible for the championship, even though Navy had the best collegiate record in many of those years. Navy was undefeated from 1917 through 1923, a stretch of 40 games with one tie.

...
Wikipedia