Next Big D1

[Surfs_Up]

Any guesses on next big university to go D1? Or who should?

Seems to me Oregon could afford it with all the NIKE money.

Stanford

Colorado

SMU

[Homer]

Any guesses on next big university to go D1? Or who should?

Seems to me Oregon could afford it with all the NIKE money.

I think this way of framing the question fundamentally misunderstands the dynamic involved. In both cases where a Power 5 athletic dept has added mlax in recent times, there was a strong impetus from individual donors privately organizing funding. In the case of Utah, this went to the point of assembling a coaching staff before the school had even signed off on the program, like an independent Hollywood producer packaging a picture to sell to a studio. In general, I think for now this is the model for adding a niche men's sport at a P5 school. The institution okays something essentially devised and funded by outside donors.

The more the impetus is coming from within the institution itself, the more likely said institution is to be small, cash-strapped, obscure, or all three.

But there have been occasionally some interesting exceptions, where a relatively well-known school (but not P5) that doesn't really need lacrosse as an enrollment strategy nonetheless decides to invest in it out of sheer exuberance and/or very specific branding reasons.

I've actually thought from time to time that SMU for various reasons could be the right fit for that mold. I won't go into all of why right now, but I do think it's an interesting suggestion.

[Wheels]

Minnesota
Florida State
Or one of the D2 Florida programs (Rollins, U Tampa, FL Southern

[Surfs_Up]

How does a D2 move to D1? What’s the criteria and difference?

[Wheels]

How does a D2 move to D1? What’s the criteria and difference?

Fully funded D1 lacrosse programs offer up to 12.6 scholarships while fully funded D2 programs offer up to 10.8 scholarships.

There's an application process to elevate a sport from a division to another. Often, there is a probationary period where a recently elevated team is ineligible for post-season play (LIU will be immediately eligible as the merger of the LIU campus included athletic programs already at the D1 level, LIU-Post had the D2 programs).

Conference membership isn't a requirement to elevate the program, although it sure is helpful to have from a recruiting, scheduling, exposure perspective.

There might be more to it, but I can't recall off hand!

[Drcthru]

Any guesses on next big university to go D1? Or who should?

Seems to me Oregon could afford it with all the NIKE money.

Stanford

Colorado

SMU

Oregon and, eventually, a PAC12 conference would be awesome.

[youthathletics]

Salisbury should be. Always in the top 5, enrollment over 8k.

[OCanada]

I believe you can’t elevate in only one sport. I believe you have to go D-1 across the board.

A number of years ago there was an effort to get rid of the one D-1 sport programs which would have included Hopkins. Had that happened the school was considering going D-1A across the Board. The grandfathers programs survived though. I think Middlebury was pushing the effort.

One school that had gone D-111 when a choice was required wanted to go back to D-1 in lax but failed

[Wheels]

I believe you can’t elevate in only one sport. I believe you have to go D-1 across the board.

A number of years ago there was an effort to get rid of the one D-1 sport programs which would have included Hopkins. Had that happened the school was considering going D-1A across the Board. The grandfathers programs survived though. I think Middlebury was pushing the effort.

One school that had gone D-111 when a choice was required wanted to go back to D-1 in lax but failed

http://www.ncaa.org/about/who-we-are/me ... sification

I think waivers are permitted still.

[admin]

http://fanlax.com/fanlax/2019/07/31/who ... -men-team/

[Laxcoach55]

I’m curious to know why UCONN does not have a varsity program. I’m not familiar with their club program but lots of HS talent in that area. Seems like a perfect match.

[Cooter]

One of the coaches of Minnesota's club team didn't sound real positive in this recent article:
https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-sp ... mpionships

Limpert, who is one of seven volunteer coaches on the staff, also explained why the men's lacrosse team isn't part of the NCAA/U of M Athletics.
"There's not a whole lot of lacrosse (NCAA level) in this area, especially at the Division I level. You look at Marquette and Notre Dame and Denver – those are the main Division I schools around here that they'd have to play, so you're looking at plane rides everywhere. Even if you're playing inside of a Big Ten schedule, there's only six Division I Big Ten teams. It's expensive," said Limpert.

"I can see where the U is at."

[oldjayfan]

RIT? Huge enrollment, hockey is D1 already..
FSU has been rumored for years. Expansion at schools that are D1 already is more likely, though.
Schools must elevate every program to D1 if they are currently D2 or D3...therefore cost precludes many from even thinking about it.

[Homer]

I believe you can’t elevate in only one sport. I believe you have to go D-1 across the board.

A number of years ago there was an effort to get rid of the one D-1 sport programs which would have included Hopkins. Had that happened the school was considering going D-1A across the Board. The grandfathers programs survived though. I think Middlebury was pushing the effort.

One school that had gone D-111 when a choice was required wanted to go back to D-1 in lax but failed

http://www.ncaa.org/about/who-we-are/me ... sification

I think waivers are permitted still.

What I've read is that to be eligible the school has to have been "playing up" already in the sport before 2011. So for all intents and purposes, no new waivers since that time.

[cuseman4133]

I doubt a Power 5 school gets a men's lax team next.

Scratch any D2 or D3 school unless they take their entire athletics program up to that level (see Merrimack).

I've heard Stanford, Oregon, and Wofford recently.

[Wheels]

I believe you can’t elevate in only one sport. I believe you have to go D-1 across the board.

A number of years ago there was an effort to get rid of the one D-1 sport programs which would have included Hopkins. Had that happened the school was considering going D-1A across the Board. The grandfathers programs survived though. I think Middlebury was pushing the effort.

One school that had gone D-111 when a choice was required wanted to go back to D-1 in lax but failed

http://www.ncaa.org/about/who-we-are/me ... sification

I think waivers are permitted still.

What I've read is that to be eligible the school has to have been "playing up" already in the sport before 2011. So for all intents and purposes, no new waivers since that time.

So expansion would have to come from a D1 program because how many D2 or D3 schools could afford to elevate all of the sports? And the ones that could (big endowment schools) wouldn't see D1 sports as fitting their academic mission.

In the Pac12, too many of their programs struggle with funding as it is (awful Pac12 Network distribution, lowest conference payouts of any P5 conference). Unless Phil Knight loves lacrosse, you have to wonder where Oregon could get the $ to launch a program. USC and Stanford have the donor base to launch new sports.

Given location, if I'm the AD at George Mason or George Washington, I'd dig into the feasibility of launching programs. There's so much money in the DC-area that it's not out of the realm of possibility for a non-alumni donor to step up to help fund a program.

But I'm sticking with Minnesota and FSU are the next to elevate. If Louisville's athletic department wasn't such a mess and Papa John wasn't such a racist (bye, bye $$$), Louisville's success in the women's game would make it a good bet to launch a men's program.

[HooDat]

I would think it would be a school that is already in a lacrosse conference, has a manageable Title IX situation (or is willing to sacrifice another men's sport for demographic reasons) is the best bet.

Some schools that come to mind:

Georgia Tech
Boston College
Columbia
Minnesota (not so sure about title IX there....)
Mich St. (title IX?)
Fordham
MIT

[Homer]

So expansion would have to come from a D1 program because how many D2 or D3 schools could afford to elevate all of the sports? And the ones that could (big endowment schools) wouldn't see D1 sports as fitting their academic mission.

Also, you aren't even allowed to go directly from D3 to D1 anymore. A school has to join D2 and go through the whole probationary period there before even starting the process of applying to join D1.

Given location, if I'm the AD at George Mason or George Washington, I'd dig into the feasibility of launching programs. There's so much money in the DC-area that it's not out of the realm of possibility for a non-alumni donor to step up to help fund a program.

You'd start digging and hit Title 9 a couple inches down. It's not just adding one program, it's one plus however many women's programs need to be added at the same time to get back to proportionality.

But I'm sticking with Minnesota and FSU are the next to elevate. If Louisville's athletic department wasn't such a mess and Papa John wasn't such a racist (bye, bye $$$), Louisville's success in the women's game would make it a good bet to launch a men's program.

There was a brief flurry of interest around FSU a couple years back where somebody got ahold of internal emails from the ad's office supposedly discussing adding men's lacrosse. Only if you read the emails what was really going on was they had a booster who wanted to help start mlax, and they were discussing politely slow-walking him into paying for something else that they actually wanted to do. It was obvious (to me at least) that they had no intention or expectation of adding mlax whatsoever. Maybe things have changed since then, and maybe those emails weren't giving the whole picture, but I became a lot more skeptical about the FSU buzz at that point.

[Typical Lax Dad]

What about a place like Miami University in Ohio? Or Xavier?

[youthathletics]

Ideally, American University would be perfect. They are already a Patriot League school, the girls programs (8) out number the boys (6) by two, and the girls already compete in the PL with lacrosse. Should be quite easy to get going.

Plus it would help bust up the 9 team Mens Patriot League Log jam and handcuffing them with so many conference games, it limits their OOC opportunities. Another PL team would make 10 and they could break it into a North/South bracket with some x-overs on a rolling schedule.