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UR getting D1 mens lacrosse?

We can't (won't?) even fund our current minor sports adequately...
 
This is the type of stuff you get 2 weeks before O'Connor does on our Premium Board.
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I think this would be great and I hope it happens.
 
The only reason it would make sense to me, is that this is a sport which resonates with our target audience of college age men, New England and Mid-Atlantic, middle to upper middle class, etc... It is also a sport where we could conceivable have a lot of success, if we hired the right coach (look how quickly Tierney had Denver in the Final 4).
 
One other thing to keep in mind - we may have a significant (group of) donor(s) who want Lax.
 
I followed Denver this year, as their faceoff guy went to my HS and was the first kid from KY to take a D-I scholarship for LAX. Only a sophomore, he was named MVP of his conference tourney.
 
OK, so who would we play? I pretty sure Umass and St. Joes are the only A-10 schools that play lacrosse. I think Umass plays in the CAA for LAX.

I still think we should adequately support the sports we already have before we promote another club sport to varsity.

http://www.conquestgraphics.com
 
My guess is we would join the CAA with the two schools you mention, Delaware, Towson, Hofstra, Penn State, Drexel. I may be forgetting a team or two. A very good conference.

We would play non-conference games against the ACC schools, among others.
 
^^^Why not? Our women's program regularly plays 3-4 ACC teams in the non-conference schedule. They usually get shellacked, but they do it.
 
I don't think there's any denying that we'd get bloodied pretty badly by the Virginia's and Dook's of the world in the first couple of years.

I suspect we could get a team or two like that to come up here and play each year. It would be a big draw locally.
 
I have to wonder how much of a draw LAX will be to our target demographic if the program isn't fully funded, we don't have a "natural" conference affiliation, and we have to fill up our schedule with ACC juggernauts who will likely mop the floor with us for several years, if not perpetually.

I say this as someone who grew up playing LAX in the Baltimore area, and played for a state championship high school program. I just don't see the attraction.

http://www.conquestgraphics.com
 
I think this will happen eventually, probably within 5 years. I'm not sure what the other posters want as far as additional funding for other Olympic sports...people choose to donate where they want and may times funds are earmarked, plus if these preliminary moves have already been made then obviously those donors want lacrosse. You want additional money for other sports that you cite are lacking, donate to them and get big pocket donors to do the same, its always about the money.

As far as a reciprocal move on the women's side for Title IX purposes I could see us adding women's rowing (already club) or women's volleyball. Either that or additional funding in the existing women's sports.
 
I suspect there will be some taking from one side as well as additions on the other. Can anyone confirm the baseball field lights story?
 
I don't know but Pitt Field needs lights. Attendance would go through the roof if they installed lights, among other things.
 
It really would be awesome if they had lights out there at Pitt Field for Friday and Saturday night games.

Keef, you might be right about Men's Lax, but I'd like to see it get a chance and it seems clear that we're probably 2-3 years away from it happening, barring something unforeseen.

Women's Crew is the Title 9 offset.
 
The rumor that I am hoping someone could confirm or deny would be good also, was that there were two or more donors offering to pay for the lights but due to Title IX imbalance (the money would be used for a mens sport only) it could not be accepted.
 
^^^^Spiderfan, to answer your question about what some posters want for the other Olympic sports, giving the men's and women's soccer teams a decent place to play on-campus would seem like a reasonable expectation to me. Plus, you don't run afoul of any Title IX issues.

I understand it's all about $$$$. But if the University doesn't provide space for a facility, all the money we could raise to build something won't matter.

http://www.conquestgraphics.com
 
The rumor a few years ago (may be like 10 now) was that Sean Casey wanted to donate $$$ to put them in but it was a Title IX funding issue supposedly. I had thought that Title IX was principally scholarship/team-related expenses balance of money, no? How much do lights at the stadium possibly cost--couldn't they offset them with the same $$$ for another women's scholarship or some funding since its a 1-time expense?
 
I agree that it would be wonderful to have lights so that we could watch night games, and I think attendance would be huge. I have also heard that it is a Title IX issue, but do not believe it. I think it has more to do with the fact that we have night lights at Robins Stadium and need to see the neighbor reaction before considering lights at Pitt Field. This is just my guess, but there are so many workarounds for the Title IX issue that it just doesn't make sense.
 
Based on various articles I have read from other programs similar to ours, the average for baseball lights at D1 runs between $400-500k, plus any additional funds needed for utilities to set up and run the lights. Of course, that is not a hard number so take it for what its worth. I would rather see baseball lights before men's lax so if we have to dump a half million into lights, then dump another half million into a women's program to meet Title IX.
 
Can't we do some funny math with the fact that we spent a whole bunch of money on lights at The Rob and women's lax plays there?
 
sure, the tressle school of accounting and fudging...lol. am sure every school plays the shell game the best they can knowing you do not want the govt down on top of you, much less the ncaa. ashame that in a free country we have to be so careful about everything we do, fearful that the irs, dol, doe, etc, etc. is ready to pounce to make sure we are not hurting anyone's feelings or god forbid, keepin an extra nickle that we earned.
 
I can't remember where I saw this (perhaps another board).

Irregardless (since I'm pretty sure I'm the guilty party that iSpider pointed out last week), this is a very interesting read about how USF is playing the IX "shell" game. Some girls on the XC roster listed online didn't know they were even on the team.

NY Times on USF's IX Games
 
came across interesting article about growth of lacrosse in mid-atlantic states

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304392704576376023954172808.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_sports
This post was edited on 6/10 5:24 PM by cobweb
 
Let's keep UPGRADING all of our existing programs to keep them on the highest level possible before bringing in brand new programs.
 
I think there are very few sports in which UR would have the ability to win a national title, or at least compete for one. Obviously Football, and it looks like Men's Basketball could maybe reach that point. I think it is hard to think that either of our soccer teams, baseball, tennis, swimming, track field hockey or even women's lax could win a title. But, with the right hire, (Pressler @ Bryant), I think UR has the right mix of academics, stadium, location, and desirablility to be a lacrosse powerhouse. As I said before, look at Denver after hiring Tierney.
 
RCSGA, I agree with your comments about Lax. The sport is mostly an east coast sport at the NCAA level. But I disagree with some of the things you say about the other sports. The right hire could work with soccer, look at Akron.

The final men's top 25 soccer poll (Soccer Times) included the following teams:
1 Akron
7 SMU
10 Bill & Gary
13 Brown
17 Butler
18 Creighton
19 Dartmouth
20 UCSB
23 Princeton
23 Tulsa
25 Providence

Others receiving votes:
UC-Irvine, Charlotte, UPenn, Loyola Marymount, Monmouth, Old Dominion, Florida Gulf Coast, College of Charleston, Maryland-Baltimore County, and Xavier

Not sure why we can't and shouldn't expect the same with Soccer.

Also, not too many years ago UR was one inning away from the College World Series in Baseball. Who is Dallas Baptist? Until I saw them playing in the Super Regional yesterday I had never even heard of the school.
 
I agree. With the right coaching hires and properly allocated resources, there is no reason why any of our athletics programs cannot reach the upper echelon in their sport...and stay there. We need to stop handicapping ourselves with this "we are a small private school" talk. We've got the cash and fortunately have an administration that supports the athletics program.
 
IMHO, we have great hires in place with men's and women's soccer. Coach Peay is in a similar position to where CM was with men's b-ball a few years ago. He is nearing the point where he has his own recruits, and I expect the program to start getting some results.

If you look at the list of schools above, there really is no reason why we can't be a top 25 program in soccer. The big disadvantages we have today are facilities, community support, and the relative newness of our programs.

The missing pieces with soccer are facilities and community/campus support. Put a facility on campus, and you will pretty much take care of both.

We could hire Sir Alex Ferguson to coach the team, but without the facility, I wouldn't like his chances of success.

http://www.conquestgraphics.com
 
Washington and Lee at one time was a D-1 powerhouse in men's lacrosse but now plays at a lower level. Johns Hopkins as an independent plays Division 1 lacrosse and not Division 1 in other sports. Men's lacrosse according to Wikipedia has 61 Division 1 teams which makes it one of the smaller D-1 sports in terms of number of participants. Having children play lacrosse and watching UVA it is easy to see the attraction and excitement. It would be great if the Spiders could field a D-1 men's lacrosse team. Presbyterian College with an approximate enrollment of 1400 plays D-1 men's lacrosse.

College Lacrosse
 
Keefusb, my list wasn't necessary small school. Otherwise, I would have put schools like Duke, Wake, and Stanford on the list. Which are smaller, private schools with high academic standards.

My list was more about schools from smaller conferences, ala not BCS. Akron may be a big school and might have some recruiting advantages. But the Mid-American conference is no power-house in any sport (perhaps bowling).
 
Akron is a big school (from an enrollment perspective) with a significant number of international students, and lower academic standards versus many of the private schools. Sound familiar? Can you say "VCU"?

I would expect the new coach at VCU, who came from Akron and was involved in Akon's recruitment efforts, will do well based on the similarities between VCU and what he experienced at Akron. I say give VCU 2-3 years, and they will be a top 20 men's soccer program again.

http://www.conquestgraphics.com
 
Originally posted by SpiderVol:
But the Mid-American conference is no power-house in any sport (perhaps bowling).
Click to expand...
Everyone knows Bowling Green has a dominate Bowling Team. Ironically the team's nickname is "the Green"...otherwise known as Bowling Green Green Bowling.
 
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