Source: UConn lacrosse to DI in 2018 | Page 9 | The Boneyard

Source: UConn lacrosse to DI in 2018

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This is just a random thought and have nothing on it; but, any chance that U Delaware will upgrade to one of the P5 conferences in the future? The are not AAU; but, US News has them #76, which is just behind V Tech and tied with Indiana & UMass and ahead of Michigan St, U Colorado, Alabama, etc. I think the school is some odd public/private hybrid, like Rutgers used to be. They have 17,000 undergrads on a really nice campus in a fun college town. Looks like the only facility upgrade they would need is a larger football stadium (and maybe new uniforms as either they copied Michigan or vice versa). They even have good lax and are one of the top 'club' hockey teams like Penn St used to be. Throw in that they are smack in between Philly and Baltimore, which counters the fact that the are in the smallest state in then nation. I had work in Wilmington the other day and had dinner in Newark and then went for a walk though campus after. Thus, my query.
 
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This is just a random thought and have nothing on it; but, any chance that U Delaware will upgrade to one of the P5 conferences in the future? The are not AAU; but, US News has them #76, which is just behind V Tech and tied with Indiana & UMass and ahead of Michigan St, U Colorado, Alabama, etc. I think the school is some odd public/private hybrid, like Rutgers used to be. They have 17,000 undergrads on a really nice campus in a fun college town. Looks like the only facility upgrade they would need is a larger football stadium (and maybe new uniforms as either they copied Michigan or vice versa). They even have good lax and are one of the top 'club' hockey teams like Penn St used to be. Throw in that they are smack in between Philly and Baltimore, which counters the fact that the are in the smallest state in then nation. I had work in Wilmington the other day and had dinner in Newark and then went for a walk though campus after. Thus, my query.

I've been thinking the same thing. It has well-respected academics that is becoming more a more popular college destination for recent high school graduates in my southern CT community. If P5 is too big a jump, I could see them in the AAC one day (hopefully as a replacement for us :) )

Also, Coach David Nelson is responsible for Delaware's helmet design. He was inspired by 1930s Princeton. BTW, so was Michigan. From David M. Nelson's Wikipedia entry:

...Nelson also brought a unique football helmet design to Delaware. In the 1930s, Nelson's future college coach, (Fritz) Crisler, was the coach at Princeton University and was looking for a way to allow his quarterback to easily locate pass receivers running downfield. At the time, there were no rules requiring schools to wear jerseys of contrasting colors, and helmets were dark leather, so distinguishing teammates from opponents at a glance was difficult. Crisler hit upon the idea of a helmet with a winged pattern on it and had the leather dyed in Princeton's black and orange colors. When Crisler moved to Michigan in 1938—the same year Nelson arrived (as a player)—he used the same design with Michigan's school colors. Nelson brought the same design, in the appropriate school colors, to Hillsdale (1946-1947), Maine (1949-1950), and Delaware (starting in 1951). Delaware continues to use the "Michigan" helmet design to this day.[4][5]..

Fun fact: Princeton went back to the winged helmet design in 1998. If people tell you they are copying Michigan, tell them they are wrong. It is the other way around.
 
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This is just a random thought and have nothing on it; but, any chance that U Delaware will upgrade to one of the P5 conferences in the future? The are not AAU; but, US News has them #76, which is just behind V Tech and tied with Indiana & UMass and ahead of Michigan St, U Colorado, Alabama, etc. I think the school is some odd public/private hybrid, like Rutgers used to be. They have 17,000 undergrads on a really nice campus in a fun college town. Looks like the only facility upgrade they would need is a larger football stadium (and maybe new uniforms as either they copied Michigan or vice versa). They even have good lax and are one of the top 'club' hockey teams like Penn St used to be. Throw in that they are smack in between Philly and Baltimore, which counters the fact that the are in the smallest state in then nation. I had work in Wilmington the other day and had dinner in Newark and then went for a walk though campus after. Thus, my query.

I spent a lot of time in the First State growing up and have family that went to UDel. I can tell you that this is something that comes up every every couple of year.

Simply put I don't think it's ever going to happen. The fans, alumni and state in general take a great amount of pride in being one of the premier 1AA programs in the nation year in and year out. It's weird it's like being a small state and having the biggest baddest 1AA program in the country makes them feel really good about themselves.

I don't think they would trade that to be a basement dweller in the American or even a P5 conference.
 
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Delaney is on ESPN2 right now talking about B1G Lacrosse's future....looking to expand the sport, quote on quote "east."

UCONN needs to get with the times (the state is a lax hotbed), and start building a program like we are with hockey. Give it 5 years and we will be competitive as anyone.

Just some numbers that show the importance of lacrosse in Fairfield County. First, a slight disclaimer.

(I'm not going back to find this stuff. It's from memory. Also from memory are the last national High School Polls I looked at, from last year and, week 11, this year. So, something might be slightly off, but not much)

What seems like a couple of weeks ago, there was a short article in a local paper that noted the number of Fairfield County kids whose names appeared on the rosters of the 16 Lacrosse teams in the NCAA Division I tournament. I lost count, close to the end, in the mid-thirties. By the way, there was a kid from Litchfield, County and one from New Haven, as well. Significant, I think.

In a late last season, all-inclusive (Public/Private schools), Under Armour poll, there were six (maybe seven) CT schools in the top-25. For sure, I remember Darien, Greenwich, New Canaan, Ridgefield, Brunswick and either, or maybe both, Avon Old Farms and/or Suffield. I normally don't give much credence to national HS polls, but many of the schools in the three recruiting hot beds, (Fairfield County, Long Island, Maryland/Virginia Beltway) play each other.

This year's week 11 poll showed Greenwich and New Canaan ranked in the top twenty. Both teams lost the following week, in the FCIAC semis; Greenwich to Ridgefield, New Canaan to Darien. As I remember, some CT Preps/Privates were ranked as well.

The point? We, us, little Connecticut is one of the recruiting hot spots for another "buzz" producing sport. We produce some of the best players in the nation for some of lacrosse's premier programs. While UCONN would still lose players to Duke, Virginia and the Ivies, there would still be good players available. If financially feasible, it's a no-brainer.

By the way, the other "buzz" producing sport CT equips with players is hockey. Five recent Olympians played youth hockey in Fairfield County.
 

FfldCntyFan

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Fairtides, you nailed a one significant factor (of a few) in the reasoning for this. The school sees quality students leaving the state to play lacrosse in college. Having a varsity program can help keep (at first some, in time most of) these kids in state and in the process make UConn a more attractive choice throughout the student bodies of the schools down here.
 

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There is no reason to drop baseball. The 2011 team had 12 players who would eventually be drafted (plus one undrafted player that signed a pro contract afterwards). 12 of those 13 players were from the northeast including both first round picks. Next year Anthony Kay (also from the northeast) figures to be drafted in the first 2 rounds with a strong possibility that he goes in the first. We are the only program that matters in New England and it makes no sense to drop it in order to fund Lacrosse.

p.s. Hopefully when Springer signs a contract for $100+ million in a few years, he'll be generous enough to throw a million or two back to UConn.

Well something has to give at some point. They don't have a printing press to cover infinite losses.

The number of players drafted is half the point of why baseball is the obvious sport to go first. Even the most talented team you could assemble here still wasn't really close to being good enough.
 
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I'm sure this is covered somewhere amongst the 7 pages in this thread, but how many scholarships is a DI Men's Lacrosse program allowed?
 

UConn Dan

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I'm sure this is covered somewhere amongst the 7 pages in this thread, but how many scholarships is a DI Men's Lacrosse program allowed?
Not sure, but per the video @CallMeBruce posted it sounded like they only need 3 scholarships to upgrade to D1 - not sure if they would need more to be part of a conference though and not sure the max.
 
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The max is, I believe, 13.9, though that may have changed in recent years. Not every team goes to the max, though. I remember a conversation I had with Jack McGetrick back in the day when he said that he only got a handful of scholarships at UHart.
 

Fishy

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I can find the money for lacrosse by the end of this post...

Drop baseball, it's an absolute waste of resources for schools in the Northeast.

Somebody needs to just punch you in the face - baseball is what separates us from the savages. (e.g. Syracuse)

I have no idea if UConn is planning to upgrade in lacrosse and I really don't even know anything about lacrosse.

But I like the idea -

1) I'm guessing that it would catch on with students.

2) It seems like a sports that pays off big with alumni donations.

If we're in a real conference, it's probably a no-brainer. But with our revenue sliding in Aresco's Folly, not sure how we get some of these things done.
 
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If we're in a real conference, it's probably a no-brainer. But with our revenue sliding in Aresco's Folly, not sure how we get some of these things done.

As we are an associate member of the Big East for Woman's Lax, I would think the men's team would end up there.

Cue 'football should go independent' crew .... ;)
 

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NYT:
As Lacrosse Rises, Its Final Four Falls Fast

Steve Stenersen, the executive director of US Lacrosse — the national governing body that has invested more than $170 million in the sport since 1998 — spoke bullishly about lacrosse’s health during a telephone interview this week, noting that the number of people participating has tripled since 2000 to more than 770,000. According to statistics released this month by the Sports and Fitness Industry Association, lacrosse and gymnastics are the only team sports to show growth among participants between ages 6 and 17 over the last five years.

“We’re certainly pleased that our sport continues to buck a bit of that trend,” Stenersen said. “We’re still small, relatively speaking. But we’re thrilled.”

The rate of growth in total participation has slowed considerably, from a peak of 16.7 percent in 2004 to 3.5 percent in 2014, but Stenersen said that was the byproduct of a larger base. Lacrosse continues to spread across the country, rapidly gaining popularity in states like California, Oregon, Washington and Florida.

Yet the shrinking buzz for the national title weekend has become the elephant in the room for the N.C.A.A. After packing more than 123,000 fans over three days in Baltimore in 2007, when the games returned to M&T Bank Stadium last year, a total of 78,234 fans passed through the turnstiles, a drop of more than 36 percent.

“The trend is disappointing,” said Terence Foy, editor in chief of Inside Lacrosse magazine. “Because, for so long, attendance at the Final Four was seen as such a symbol of growth and progress, as well as validation.”

Now, Foy said, there are other signs that validate lacrosse’s growth, but the attendance numbers keep sliding.
 
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We're going to need gymnastics, wrestling, etc, to keep up with Big Ten schools. Looooooong way to go.
 
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The NCAA got greedy just as it did with soccer in the early 2000's when UConn won the men's title in front of a 1/4 full stadium in Charlotte. If the lax title was held down the river at PPL Park (18,000) instead of Lincoln Field (68,500) this year, it would have made sense.

Its a basic infrastructure problem.

They want the lax FF to be at a neutral site, but there aren't a whole lot of 20-30k stadiums in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic that are truly neutral (ie not associated with a DI university, lax playing or not) sites.

They have the same problem finding regional sites for ice hockey in the Midwest that aren't campus sites in the 10k range; they're either too far isolate from the schools that end up getting sent there, or non-neutral.
 
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...but there aren't a whole lot of 20-30k stadiums in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic that are truly neutral (ie not associated with a DI university, lax playing or not) sites...

There are a lot of MLS stadiums in the northeast now that would be the perfect size. Also, the Rent is in an emerging hotbed. I think that would be a perfect venue too.
 
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There are a lot of MLS stadiums in the northeast now that would be the perfect size. Also, the Rent is in an emerging hotbed. I think that would be a perfect venue too.


PPL is in Chester PA, just south of Philly, and is the home pitch for the MLS Philadelphia Union. On the small size as its just 18K; but, with some temp seating (if feasible), 22K would work well for a NCAA Lax final. Red Bulls arena would not be a bad choice either as it holds 25K and is NYC metro. Navy's stadium holds 35K and I think that has been used before by the NCAA. Should DC United (MLS) ever get a stadium built, that would also be an option as it projected to be in the 20K to 30K range in DC or possibly Virginia. I agree that the Rent would make sense, too; and should UConn ever go to D1 lacrosse, I can see that. Is there enough hotel rooms in the immediate area to accommodate a major 3 day event like that?
 
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They did have some great games this year in the final four. But the games would have looked much better on TV at Red Bull Arena than at the Linc.
 

IMind

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We're going to need gymnastics, wrestling, etc, to keep up with Big Ten schools. Looooooong way to go.

Nah they're already really good at those things.. they don't need us... but the B1G only has 6 Lacrosse schools.
 
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Nah they're already really good at those things.. they don't need us... but the B1G only has 6 Lacrosse schools.
And 6 men's ice hockey teams.
 
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