Yea, but if you want to talk how close the divisions in lacrosse are, it works both ways, take NJIT for example. Drop them in the NESCAC, they’re immediately in the top grouping, and in 2-3 years of learning the landscape, it’s their conference to lose.Laxxal22 wrote: ↑Sun Jan 28, 2024 2:25 pmIn the spirit of "How many Duke players..."Laxattackjack wrote: ↑Sun Jan 28, 2024 9:20 am Tufts on the other hand, seems to be going in the other direction. They had an undergrad enrollment of 5200 in 2016 and for 2021, it says 6800.
2016 had an acceptance rate of 40%, 2021 is 10%
If it's announced this week that Tufts is joining the Patriot League beginning the 2025/26 academic year, where do you think they are by 2030 when they'd first be eligible for postseason play?
In my opinion they'd get on track pretty fast. The majority of current players/commits cool with moving to a D1 athlete's lifestyle could still contribute, so there wouldn't be the need to reset the program's identity with 30 freshmen + transfers. And the school's draws give it a higher ceiling than most of the D2/D3 teams that have moved up, which would put them in play for pretty high level recruits by year 2-3 of the transition as postseason play would be possible for at least half of their careers.
It might be aggressive, but I think they'd be PL tournament-worthy by the first year of eligibility and pretty quickly move into the BU, Villanova, Richmond tier of teams. To me this highlights how unique Tufts is within the NESCAC, as I think every other team in the league would be a poor man's Hobart at best if they transitioned. The strength of those schools is in being a strong alternative to D1—Tufts actually has the bones to grow into a D1 program.
Tufts
NJIT / Bowdoin / Amherst
Williams
Weslyan
….