Big East mens lacrosse expansion

[pirateguy80]

Should Seton Hall take it on? or add affiliate member, or should the league stay put?

[NJRedman]

I think all member schools should start sponsoring LAX!

[notkirkcameron]

The current membership is, of course...Marquette, Georgetown, Villanova, Providence, St. John's, and affiliate member Denver.

So that leaves Butler, DePaul, Xavier, Seton Hall, and Creighton. However, most of these schools' blessing and their curse is that there is no one around them. There are only 8 D1 Lacrosse schools in the whole country west of Cleveland*, and 2 of them (Marquette, Denver) are already in the Big East for Lacrosse. That makes travel very expensive for a nonrevenue sport with, no offense to the East Coast school fans on here, about as much cache in the Midwest as NCAA bowling, makes it harder to draw what attendance you can get, but in theory, Creighton could have the pick of the litter of lacrosse players in say, Missouri or Kansas. There just won't be many of them.

DePaul is probably out for adding lacrosse because there is literally nowhere for them to play. They can't use the same field as their soccer team because the softball team uses the same field during lacrosse season. They would be changing it over literally every week, and DePaul is not going to build a new facility for a nonrevenue sport. Even DePaul's club lacrosse team doesn't play on campus, playing in essentially, an open field between the Diversey Driving Range and Lake Shore Drive. At that point you're going around to high schools, which, in theory can be done, but it's not ideal.

Geographically, Seton Hall would appear to make sense, and while they would face some date challenges with the baseball team (assuming they play on Seton Hall's soccer field), it looks like they wouldn't have any taking down of walls or changeovers like DePaul. Creighton, Butler (Butler Bowl), and Xavier appear to be in a similar boat.

Creighton would be one of only three men's D1 Lacrosse programs west of Milwaukee (Denver, Air Force).


*= Ohio State, Michigan, Notre Dame, Marquette, Denver, Bellarmine, Air Force, Detroit Mercy

[flyerlax06]

Butler had a D1 program but discontinued it after some off the field issues. I think they make the most sense if they are willing to revisit having lax but not sure that's in the cards at this point. There are a lot more good players coming out of Michigan and California so there are kids that might be looking to play in a league like the Big East without having to go all the way across the country for school.

[CPJays]

I would love to see CU adopt lacrosse, it would give Morrison Stadium a great spring use!

[senditinjerome]

Butler had a D1 program but discontinued it after some off the field issues.

definitely a party-hard culture...even with the girls.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/Penn_ ... _Fado.html

[Jet915]

I would love to see CU adopt lacrosse, it would give Morrison Stadium a great spring use!

I agree, we have a great venue to host it in but I don't know how much demand there would be and if it wasn't revenue neutral or atleast close to it, I doubt Creighton would opt to start lacrosse. Also, this would mean we would have to have a title IX equivalent (field hockey?) and then you will lose alot of money.

[gosports1]

has there been any update in regards to air force? have they found a conference to call home yet?

[trephin]

Nothing on AFA yet

From Inside Lacrosse, April 9

"That said, Air Force lacrosse does not yet have a conference for 2015 or beyond. The picture is expected to become clearer in May."

also, an interesting article about the end of D1 Butler Lacrosse from College Crosse. From the recounting, the program seemed more a victim of performance and budget rather than anything untoward.

[pirateguy80]

With Rutgers departing for the BIG, adding AF to replace them would make a lot of sense and significantly improve the top half of the league. Is there any news out there if an invitation has been made?