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Will Millsaps ever add Men's Lacrosse again?

Maybe Dallas brings back Mens and Women's lacrosse and comes along as well with Southwestern

The budgets in the SAA have to be bloated due to travel. Travel partners help ease the pain in sports like Basketball. For lacrosse and soccer playing 2 games in 3 days is tough , especially if you can't field a team with at least 25 guys for lacrosse

It would be great if both these schools added lacrosse, but in the current climate, I don't see that happening. I can't image what the SW trip is going to cost half the teams in the league......... to travel that far for 1 game.

The SAA reached a milestone with 4 All-Americans: Caldwell, Marino, LaMendola, and Perun!

Caldwell, Attack (Centre): 42 goals, 23 assists, and 25 Gbs. He was a catalyst for the Centre Offense this season leading them to another conference title. His senior campaign will be entertaining to watch as the rising senior looks to 3-peat as conference champion.

Marino, Defense (BSC): 52 ground balls and 38 CTO. In a rollercoaster season for BSC he stood tall for and was their premier lock down defender. With all the outside adversity that BSC faced in the last few months, Marino looked calm and collected on the field. Hats of to him and this BSC squad for giving it their all this past season.

LaMendola, Midfield (Hendrix): 42 goals, 21 assists, and 18 Ground balls. LaMendola was a super star for Hendrix the last 4 years racking up 196 points. It will be interesting to see who fills the massive shoes for this Hendrix squad next spring.

Perun, Fogo (Sewanee): 67.4 FO win % and 133 Gbs this season. Overall, Perun had a very solid season at the X for the tigers. He only had one game below 50% (against Croft from Centre on 4/13) and was crucial for some 4th quarter comebacks. The Senior struggled to find consistency his sophomore and a little bit into his junior year due to injury but once he was healthy he was almost unbeatable.

Overall, congratulations to these 4 tremendous athletes and their coaches. I truly think this is just the beginning for the SAA as the competition and skill level is only going to get better and we will see more kids honored.

Any word on Rhodes and who is interested? It's mid June and still nothing.......maybe coaches are concerned with all the travel and how stable the SAA really is or isn't. The addition of Southwestern only increase the cost to budgets that are already heavy on travel. Does Centre, Berry and Sewanee really want to travel 12 to 16 hours to play one game? What about a school like Oglethorpe who is struggling to field a team and now is looking for a new coach, can they stay in the SAA? We still haven't found out what really happened at Rhodes with the founder of the program just leaving without any notice. Does Rhodes have a new AD?

I heard Rhodes was doing Zooms this week and then inviting 2-3 candidates to campus next week. Sounds like there was a ton of interest.

that is awesome!!!! ...hopefully its not a fools gold situation...is getting back to the top a the conference doable?? ....... with all the questions surrounding this program and the college"s low admission #'s.

Hendrix leaving the SAA after the 2024-25 season to join SCAC.......... makes you wonder who's next???????

Old&InTheWay wrote: ↑Fri Jun 14, 2024 3:58 pm Hendrix leaving the SAA after the 2024-25 season to join SCAC.......... makes you wonder who's next???????

Definitely could be a domino effect. No BSC, so maybe a few USA South institutions look to make the jump to the SAA

Old&InTheWay wrote: ↑Fri Jun 14, 2024 3:58 pm Hendrix leaving the SAA after the 2024-25 season to join SCAC.......... makes you wonder who's next???????

My understanding is that the Hendrix lacrosse teams will continue to compete in the SAA because the conference they are joining, the SCAC, does not sponsor lacrosse. So, as best I can tell the net result will be no change in the number of lacrosse teams in the short-run.

d3maxlax wrote: ↑Mon Jul 01, 2024 10:57 am

Old&InTheWay wrote: ↑Fri Jun 14, 2024 3:58 pm Hendrix leaving the SAA after the 2024-25 season to join SCAC.......... makes you wonder who's next???????

My understanding is that the Hendrix lacrosse teams will continue to compete in the SAA because the conference they are joining, the SCAC, does not sponsor lacrosse. So, as best I can tell the net result will be no change in the number of lacrosse teams in the short-run.

SCAC has lacrosse, Southwestern and Colorado College are in it as well.

Now if Oglethorpe leaves to join the USA South...the SAA might have a problem.

River Donkey wrote: ↑Mon Jul 01, 2024 11:36 am

d3maxlax wrote: ↑Mon Jul 01, 2024 10:57 am

Old&InTheWay wrote: ↑Fri Jun 14, 2024 3:58 pm Hendrix leaving the SAA after the 2024-25 season to join SCAC.......... makes you wonder who's next???????

My understanding is that the Hendrix lacrosse teams will continue to compete in the SAA because the conference they are joining, the SCAC, does not sponsor lacrosse. So, as best I can tell the net result will be no change in the number of lacrosse teams in the short-run.

SCAC has lacrosse, Southwestern and Colorado College are in it as well.

The SCAC does not sponsor lacrosse. Lacrosse is not listed as a sport on their website: https://www.scacsports.com/landing/index. If you go to Colorado College's team schedule you will see their conference record for 2024 is 0-0 because the SCAC does not sponsor lacrosse and CC has not joined separate conference as a lacrosse only member. Southwestern is moving to the SAA in 2025.

I wouldn't be surprised if Hendrix drops lacrosse. Yes they could still play in the SAA but budgets are tight and their new conference does not have lacrosse so why keep M/W lacrosse around. They are very heavy on recruiting Texas kids for all sports. Lacrosse doesn't seem to be something they are interested in.

Oglethorpe leaving for the USA South would spell bad news for not just lacrosse but the SAA as a whole. Millsaps has been struggling for years. If they decided to follow Oglethorpe and Hendrix the SAA is done.

Berry and Sewanne could join the schools in the Carolinas, Centre could easily bump to a midwest conference but Rhodes would be on an island having to join the Texas schools.

Hopefully the conference is looking to reload with some new schools that are stable.

MajorMacLax18 wrote: ↑Mon Jul 01, 2024 11:45 am Now if Oglethorpe leaves to join the USA South...the SAA might have a problem.

USA South has 9 teams right now and the conference as a whole split into 2 conferences recently forming the CCS.
USA South won’t be adding any teams at this time. The more plausible possibility is USA South or CCS teams go to SAA to fill their vacancies. Should be interesting to see what comes of this.

SU to SAA is official, the SAA survives another year, Rhodes looks primed to compete again with new coach Billy Cameron. Will Southwestern be able to compete with the top 3-4 teams in the conference? How are the majority of SAA schools going to afford traveling to Southwestern every other year? god forbid they win the conference.

Things are looking up for Rhodes and conference

bluelax41 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 12, 2024 7:54 pm SU to SAA is official, the SAA survives another year, Rhodes looks primed to compete again with new coach Billy Cameron. Will Southwestern be able to compete with the top 3-4 teams in the conference? How are the majority of SAA schools going to afford traveling to Southwestern every other year? god forbid they win the conference.

Southwestern getting a jump a year earlier than the rest of the sports there is a good thing. I am not sure they will be in the top 3-4 teams. Their record over the past 3 years has gotten progressively worse. Hendrix and Oglethorpe will more than likely be wins but it may stop there

Maryville College (TN) will join the SAA in 2026...but Maryville College does not sponsor lacrosse (as of now).
https://saa-sports.com/news/2024/7/17/g ... rship.aspx