It’s About Time: Men’s Lacrosse Is Going Fluorescent

The NCAA is changing the ball color for men’s lacrosse.

It took them long enough.

Women have been using yellow balls for as long as I can remember, and I’m pretty old. Softball and tennis figured this out years ago. The PLL has used an optic yellow game ball, too. And even Swax Lax has been selling a high-visibility training ball for several years.

Here’s the quick version:

• For the 2026–27 academic year, NCAA men’s lacrosse game balls are recommended to be fluorescent green or yellow.
• Beginning with the 2027–28 academic year, fluorescent green or yellow will be required.
• The reason for the change is simple: visibility.
• At the high school level, NFHS is following suit. Beginning in 2029, boys lacrosse game balls must be fluorescent green or yellow.

This is great for the game, and especially great for goalies.

The key is visibility. With late-January starts, NCAA lacrosse is basically a winter sport in a lot of the country. Play in New England — or anywhere else it snows — and there’s a good chance those first few games are played on plowed turf with snowbanks ringing the field.

Try tracking a white ball against that background.

Good luck.

The same issue can come up indoors, where lighting and backgrounds can make a fast-moving ball hard to pick up.

And for goalies, who have to find and react to that ball in a fraction of a second, better visibility matters.

The rule change also raises a good training question: if fluorescent balls are becoming the game standard, when should teams start practicing with them?

At Swax Lax, our Optic Yellow training ball lets players practice with the kind of fluorescent-yellow visual environment the game is moving toward. Swax Lax balls are ideal for early-season training, indoors or out, and are the same size and weight as a regulation lacrosse ball with the softer, low-bounce construction Swax Lax is known for.

Coaches don’t need to change everything overnight. But now is a pretty good time to start working high-visibility balls into practices — especially for goalies, shooting drills, face-offs, and indoor training.

It’s about time.

Now, if the NCAA could just fix the Transfer Portal...

About the author: Kevin Meany has a multi-decade career leading programs at high school and collegiate levels. He is well known for his extensive coaching footprint in the New Jersey lacrosse community and currently coaches at Livingston High School.