Iona joins the Division 1 ranks

[wgdsr]

thought i'd give them their own thread as they get up and going, and a runway for those that are hype about other expansion.

to that end, iona with an interesting twist:
https://twitter.com/Nickgee111/status/1 ... dsDwg&s=01

adds women's acrobatics and tumbling. is that formerly cheerleading, but thru competition? an avenue for title ix compatibility and schools that carry women's lax already.

[Wheels]

Had this in the MAAC forum.

Smart move for Iona. They've experienced quite a bit of enrollment-related financial duress over the past decade-ish. While their location is great from a traditional lacrosse recruiting perspective, their location is also in a region that is seeing its overall number of high school students decline.

By adding the sports they added (women's acrobatics and tumbling), it allows them to recruit further south into areas of population growth. I doubt they'll fully fund the lacrosse program, so this means that they'll bring in 45-ish additional students at probably no less of a discount rate than they're already offering. It's likely that even most of those 45-ish players won't even get Iona's average discount rate.

So this makes sense from a lot of perspectives, but make no mistake that it's being done to boost enrollment. Iona is essentially acting like a D3 school with these moves.

[OHLaxDad]

adds women's acrobatics and tumbling. is that formerly cheerleading, but thru competition? an avenue for title ix compatibility and schools that carry women's lax already.

Basically, yes. https://fulloutcollegiaterecruiting.com ... 20routines.

A lot of small schools are adding it for enrollment purposes. Lower cost because no equipment or special space needed and large squads.

[PizzaSnake]

thought i'd give them their own thread as they get up and going, and a runway for those that are hype about other expansion.

to that end, iona with an interesting twist:
https://twitter.com/Nickgee111/status/1 ... dsDwg&s=01

adds women's acrobatics and tumbling. is that formerly cheerleading, but thru competition? an avenue for title ix compatibility and schools that carry women's lax already.

Reminds me of a time I saw a group of young ladies "own" some dumb-aszs at the beach. The boys were fronting and doing some lame roundoffs when some young women saw them. They egged them on and then put on a show. Not even close. Kind of fun to watch. Fortunately the boys took it well and didn't resort to violence, which they often do when humiliated by women.

[Matnum PI]

Neat. First season will be '24-'25. https://www.iona.edu/student-life/clubs ... b-lacrosse

[wgdsr]

Neat. First season will be '24-'25. https://www.iona.edu/student-life/clubs ... b-lacrosse

hopefully, they keep the club team.

[Nassaufan]

Interesting development. Iona, a MAAC school, already has 21 DI teams, most notably men's basketball, where Rick Pitino has been head coach since mid-2020.

The Gaels should attract a lot of players from the Hudson Valley, upstate New York, Long Island, New England, and New Jersey. Get a solid goalie and face-off specialist and they should become competitive quickly.

Lacrosse will be played at the former Concordia College, whose campus Iona acquired last year.

https://ionagaels.com/news/2022/8/29/io ... bling.aspx

https://www.iona.edu/news/iona-college- ... nxville-ny

[kramerica.inc]

thought i'd give them their own thread as they get up and going, and a runway for those that are hype about other expansion.

to that end, iona with an interesting twist:
https://twitter.com/Nickgee111/status/1 ... dsDwg&s=01

adds women's acrobatics and tumbling. is that formerly cheerleading, but thru competition? an avenue for title ix compatibility and schools that carry women's lax already.

Reminds me of a time I saw a group of young ladies "own" some dumb-aszs at the beach. The boys were fronting and doing some lame roundoffs when some young women saw them. They egged them on and then put on a show. Not even close. Kind of fun to watch. Fortunately the boys took it well and didn't resort to violence, which they often do when humiliated by women.

Along those lines I saw a funny thing at the pool yesterday evening too. It was a lightly attended night. But a few boys were doing flips off the diving board, "showing off" for the a group of 8-10 ladies. The ladies smiled, waved and laughed. The boys, not getting the attention they thought they deserved, then challenged the ladies to a diving contest.

The ladies agreed. And proceeded to perform perfect kick splits, backflips, forward flips and other WAY more athletic and impressive stunts off the diving board.

The boys got their tails whooped. It turns out the boys unknowingly (?) challenged the local hs cheer squad. It was quite an impressive athletic display by the ladies. The boys lost the challenge by a wide margin. But given the introductions that happened afterwards, it could be categorized as a "good loss."

[Rolldins]

I'm wondering if teams like Iona, Queens and Lindenwood going D1 are going to create the dynamic of a tiered conference system, kind of like what we see in D1 basketball with mid majors vs power 5(ish). Obviously they will compete in the same postseason tournament (could it get expanded? or could a lax NIT be possible if not?), but i'd imagine that they may never be able to keep up with the bigger, established programs outside of the occasional upset.

[OSVAlacrosse]

Interesting development. Iona, a MAAC school, already has 21 DI teams, most notably men's basketball, where Rick Pitino has been head coach since mid-2020.

The Gaels should attract a lot of players from the Hudson Valley, upstate New York, Long Island, New England, and New Jersey. Get a solid goalie and face-off specialist and they should become competitive quickly.

Lacrosse will be played at the former Concordia College, whose campus Iona acquired last year.

https://ionagaels.com/news/2022/8/29/io ... bling.aspx

https://www.iona.edu/news/iona-college- ... nxville-ny

Transfer portal could make this an interesting team.

[Wheels]

I'm wondering if teams like Iona, Queens and Lindenwood going D1 are going to create the dynamic of a tiered conference system, kind of like what we see in D1 basketball with mid majors vs power 5(ish). Obviously they will compete in the same postseason tournament (could it get expanded? or could a lax NIT be possible if not?), but i'd imagine that they may never be able to keep up with the bigger, established programs outside of the occasional upset.

IMO, all of those teams are doing this for enrollment reasons. It's unlikely that any of those teams will receive the full 12.6 scholarship funding, but it opens up opportunities to recruit students that fit specific profiles, whether demographic or geography. Iona needs to not just boost enrollment but also expand its geographic recruiting footprint. After all, they already recruit non-athletes from NY, CT, NJ, and the like. Will you get more 45 more students from those states to fill your lacrosse roster that you otherwise wouldn't have gotten? Not 45. But it allows them to push into high growth souther states like GA, TN, TX, and FL that have also seen lacrosse boom. Mom and dad have been paying a lot of money for Jr to play club lacrosse over the years. It'd sure be great to brag about him playing D1 lacrosse!

US World News and Report only lists their average discount rate at just under $7K, which I highly doubt on a $42K yearly tuition. But if that is true, adding 45 nearly full paying students at Iona would be over $2M a year net revenue (counting room and board).

For Queens and Lindenwood, I suspect it's more about attracting higher academic students. They don't need to push recruiting into the mid-Atlantic or New England to get students. They're in areas where HS graduate numbers are growing. For them, adding a perceived "elite" sport like lacrosse adds to their brand.

Again, I'd be really surprised if any of those schools fully funded their programs, which means they won't be competitive outside of their conferences.

[kramerica.inc]

I'm wondering if teams like Iona, Queens and Lindenwood going D1 are going to create the dynamic of a tiered conference system, kind of like what we see in D1 basketball with mid majors vs power 5(ish). Obviously they will compete in the same postseason tournament (could it get expanded? or could a lax NIT be possible if not?), but i'd imagine that they may never be able to keep up with the bigger, established programs outside of the occasional upset.

It's already happened.

Power 5:
ACC, B1G, Patriot, Big East, Ivy

Mid Major:
CAA, SoCon, America East, Asun, MAAC, NEC

[wgdsr]

I'm wondering if teams like Iona, Queens and Lindenwood going D1 are going to create the dynamic of a tiered conference system, kind of like what we see in D1 basketball with mid majors vs power 5(ish). Obviously they will compete in the same postseason tournament (could it get expanded? or could a lax NIT be possible if not?), but i'd imagine that they may never be able to keep up with the bigger, established programs outside of the occasional upset.

do you believe something's going to markedly change from what we have now based on these 3 additions? has it markedly changed from the last 10?

expansion to 18 or 20 might happen if they get to 80.

[10stone5]

I'm wondering if teams like Iona, Queens and Lindenwood going D1 are going to create the dynamic of a tiered conference system, kind of like what we see in D1 basketball with mid majors vs power 5(ish). Obviously they will compete in the same postseason tournament (could it get expanded? or could a lax NIT be possible if not?), but i'd imagine that they may never be able to keep up with the bigger, established programs outside of the occasional upset.

Tiering doesn’t matter at all in lacrosse.

Wasn’t really all that long ago where DI teams regularly played
DII, DIII teams.