New Programs

[MolonLaxe]

Looks like Austin Peay is the newest program announced—coming in 2026. They will join the ASUN.

https://letsgopeay.com/news/2024/3/11/a ... -team.aspx

[Relax77]

Looks like Austin Peay is the newest program announced—coming in 2026. They will join the ASUN.

https://letsgopeay.com/news/2024/3/11/a ... -team.aspx

I honestly never heard of that school.

[MolonLaxe]

Looks like Austin Peay is the newest program announced—coming in 2026. They will join the ASUN.

https://letsgopeay.com/news/2024/3/11/a ... -team.aspx

I honestly never heard of that school.

No surprise there if you aren’t from TN. This is a good sign for women’s lacrosse. Seeing more schools add lacrosse in the non-hotbeds is a great sign for the sport.

[Relax77]

Looks like Austin Peay is the newest program announced—coming in 2026. They will join the ASUN.

https://letsgopeay.com/news/2024/3/11/a ... -team.aspx

I honestly never heard of that school.

No surprise there if you aren’t from TN. This is a good sign for women’s lacrosse. Seeing more schools add lacrosse in the non-hotbeds is a great sign for the sport.

[Brownlax]

Looks like Austin Peay is the newest program announced—coming in 2026. They will join the ASUN.

https://letsgopeay.com/news/2024/3/11/a ... -team.aspx

I honestly never heard of that school.

They have had some decent hoops teams in the past.

[Kleizaster]

Looks like Austin Peay is the newest program announced—coming in 2026. They will join the ASUN.

https://letsgopeay.com/news/2024/3/11/a ... -team.aspx

I honestly never heard of that school.

They have had some decent hoops teams in the past.

It's funny because if you're an avid college basketball fan, chances are high that you've heard of at least 90% of division 1 schools in existence. Random schools make the NCAA tournament in different years and by the default of you filling out brackets, you run into these names. Heck i had no idea Fairleigh Dickinson was a school until they somehow won the championship in the NCAA 2005 video game i played religiously as a teen..good times.

As for Austin Peay..it's interesting. Feels a bit random. Which makes me wonder, what is the determining factor for these smaller schools when deciding if they want to add women's lacrosse? It's not cheap adding a whole new athletic program. What goes into this decision? Is it just by default because everyone else is doing it due to growth kind of like women's soccer in the 90s? or is it a play to comply with title 9 standards? or is it just for fun because there is genuine interest? no idea

[spidey44]

Looks like Austin Peay is the newest program announced—coming in 2026. They will join the ASUN.

https://letsgopeay.com/news/2024/3/11/a ... -team.aspx

I honestly never heard of that school.

If I recall correctly, at one time they had the longest losing streak going in football, so they've got some claim to fame.

[MolonLaxe]

Kleizer and Spidey -- you're both correct. My assumption was Relax probably doesn't watch basketball or much football outside of the P5.

Austin Peay is one of those potential March Madness teams you pick just because they are a crazy seed and they have a good mascot, which may win you a few points on a fun upset. We will not see them this year since they lost a close one to Stetson for the ASUN championship.

[laxdadpat]

The mascot game is the only reason I have heard of many schools.
Here is a list of possible schools for new womens' programs.

1. NJIT (Highlanders) - oh wait, that is coming soon. AE
2. FAU (Owls) American
3. Wichita State (Shockers) American
4. Wake Forest (Deamon Deacons) still waiting ACC
5. Bellarmine (Knights) ASUN
6. Dayton (Flyers) A10
7. Creighton (Blue Jays) Big East
8. Portland state (Vikings) Big Sky
9. USC Upstate (Spartans) Big South
10. Stony Brook (Seawolves) CAA hahahahaha

That was all done for the punch line at 10. Worth it even though I may be putting my daughters college careers in jeopardy.
That list could go up to 30

[spidey44]

Ok...who gets a head coach first? Florida State or Austin Peay???

[laxfan9999]

Waiting for the “Austin Peay hired a top ten coach but they won’t be announced until after next season.”

[spidey44]

Waiting for the “Austin Peay hired a top ten coach but they won’t be announced until after next season.”

[MolonLaxe]

"Austin Peay hired a top ten coach but they won’t be announced until after next season" wins the day.

LaxDadPat -
Coming in strong upholding the LaxDad mantle with that joke.

[Relax77]

Kleizer and Spidey -- you're both correct. My assumption was Relax probably doesn't watch basketball or much football outside of the P5.

Austin Peay is one of those potential March Madness teams you pick just because they are a crazy seed and they have a good mascot, which may win you a few points on a fun upset. We will not see them this year since they lost a close one to Stetson for the ASUN championship.

I wasn’t being facetious. I really never heard of them.
And you are correct, I do not watch college sports (except wlax) outside the Power 5.

[Relax77]

The mascot game is the only reason I have heard of many schools.
Here is a list of possible schools for new womens' programs.

1. NJIT (Highlanders) - oh wait, that is coming soon. AE
2. FAU (Owls) American
3. Wichita State (Shockers) American
4. Wake Forest (Deamon Deacons) still waiting ACC
5. Bellarmine (Knights) ASUN
6. Dayton (Flyers) A10
7. Creighton (Blue Jays) Big East
8. Portland state (Vikings) Big Sky
9. USC Upstate (Spartans) Big South
10. Stony Brook (Seawolves) CAA hahahahaha

That was all done for the punch line at 10. Worth it even though I may be putting my daughters college careers in jeopardy.
That list could go up to 30

LMAO. Be careful.

[TNLAX]

I just can't go by the thought that "more is better".

Are there enough quality individuals who are lacrosse coaches currently out there to fill the existing rolls? There are all sorts of posts on FanLax suggesting that a number of current coaches and assistant coaches are not very strong. Where is Austin Pey going to find a good coach? Is a mediocre coach and coaching staff going to make the game better for fans? Will they have a positive impact on the players?

Do schools add new curriculum/majors if they can't find good professors?

Will there be an extra 35 girls coming out of high school to fill the roster spots who are legit division one level players? I mean, a number of D1 programs are very thin on talent currently.

Maybe Duke is behind this new addition, someone else they can schedule for a "W" (I know this is mean, but couldn't resist).

I say all this as a Vanderbilt supporter who has been disappointed that they haven't had a stronger program the past 10 years. Maybe I am afraid that AP will become the best team in TN.

[Relax77]

I just can't go by the thought that "more is better".

Are there enough quality individuals who are lacrosse coaches currently out there to fill the existing rolls? There are all sorts of posts on FanLax suggesting that a number of current coaches and assistant coaches are not very strong. Where is Austin Pey going to find a good coach? Is a mediocre coach and coaching staff going to make the game better for fans? Will they have a positive impact on the players?

Do schools add new curriculum/majors if they can't find good professors?

Will there be an extra 35 girls coming out of high school to fill the roster spots who are legit division one level players? I mean, a number of D1 programs are very thin on talent currently.

Maybe Duke is behind this new addition, someone else they can schedule for a "W" (I know this is mean, but couldn't resist).

I say all this as a Vanderbilt supporter who has been disappointed that they haven't had a stronger program the past 10 years. Maybe I am afraid that AP will become the best team in TN.

This discussion has been had here and the large majority on this board disagree with you. But I don’t. I have watched enough club the last few years to see you are correct. I don’t think “grow the game” has to mean let’s have more teams at the D1 level. You can grow the game and have D3 teams. I think there should be a place for all kids to play college sports, but not necessarily at the watering down the highest level in college. It’s the same reason why the NFL doesn’t add five more teams. It would make money, but water down the product. Plus less teams would mean more parity.

There is 75 D1 men teams and I think that’s a great number. I understand title nine is great. I have two daughters, but do we need 140 D1 teams? We know that a lot of the kids that are on those D1 teams would be better off playing D2 and mostly three D3. A friend of
Mine told me his daughter started her first d3 game yesterday. He was ecstatic. There’s nothing wrong with D3.

For a lot of sports, D1 is the peak of its level. There really isn’t a professional league in sports such as lacrosse. Yeah they have the AU and all that jazz, but that’s just for a few select women and it’s not the same game.

It’s in danger of becoming “travel sports like.” Years ago if you played travel sports you were the better players in any sport. It became a business and now there’s 300 travel teams in every sport. Go watch the 150th against the 179th ranked club team. You would turn away from that game in five minutes to go watch a YJ vs M&D game. Yet there were probably 5 -7 kids that are now d1 recruits in that game.

Like I said. Most people disagree here and that’s fine. This is just my opinion.

[MolonLaxe]

I just can't go by the thought that "more is better".

Are there enough quality individuals who are lacrosse coaches currently out there to fill the existing rolls? There are all sorts of posts on FanLax suggesting that a number of current coaches and assistant coaches are not very strong. Where is Austin Pey going to find a good coach? Is a mediocre coach and coaching staff going to make the game better for fans? Will they have a positive impact on the players?

Do schools add new curriculum/majors if they can't find good professors?

Will there be an extra 35 girls coming out of high school to fill the roster spots who are legit division one level players? I mean, a number of D1 programs are very thin on talent currently.

Maybe Duke is behind this new addition, someone else they can schedule for a "W" (I know this is mean, but couldn't resist).

I say all this as a Vanderbilt supporter who has been disappointed that they haven't had a stronger program the past 10 years. Maybe I am afraid that AP will become the best team in TN.

Lacrosse isn't so unique that we haven't seen growing pains with other sports. The same holds true with your comments about quality college coaches, or players (we've seen this in other sports when certain regions are unseated by others). Soccer in the US has previously done a tremendous job of grassroots growth into an international powerhouse that is waning a bit.

Are all of the best athletes at the HS or college level playing lacrosse? No. The sport isn't as ubiquitous as football for the boys. You always seem to find football at every high school, but you won't always find soccer or other women's sports. In schools with strong sports programs, you find a ton of girls interested in playing soccer and many have an interest in playing in college. The college soccer scene is exploding with teams that have access to so much talent, they routinely state they don't care if an athlete comes to their school because there are so many girls, they are 100% replaceable.

I don't wish to get to that level of impersonal or potentially immoral actions, it's terrible. My point is, there are athletes, but they aren't all playing lacrosse. Grow the sport, you'll get more of those athletes.

Most coaches at the college level aren't losing because of their knowledge of X's and O's, it's usually other reasons.

[LaxDadMax]

I j

Will there be an extra 35 girls coming out of high school to fill the roster spots who are legit division one-level players? I mean, a number of D1 programs are very thin on talent currently.

Not a new problem. Are a majority of girls in these programs Legit D1 players? Could say the same things about lots of other sports.

 Xavier (OH)
 Marist (NY)
 Wagner (NY)
 Winthrop (SC)
 Radford (VA)
 Detroit Mercy (MI)
 Merrimack (MA)
 Youngstown State (OH)
 Central Connecticut (CT)
 Gardner Webb (NC)
 Delaware State (DE)
 Presbyterian (SC)
 Fairleigh Dickinson (NJ)
 Howard (DC) (DC)

No idea if Austin Peay will be a fully funded program. Similar to other sports, I think you will start to see a big divide between power 5 and everyone else. Only difference is that Ivy will have power 5 talent levels.

Personally, I'd rather see a new small D1 program start-up in an area like this than a hotbed because it could potentally help jumpstart youth participation.

[Relax77]

Not a new problem. Are a majority of girls in these programs Legit D1 players? Could say the same things about lots of other sports.

Fair point. But 140-75 is crazy.