Wow, what an effort to put all this together. Sorry it was such a tough game, but really appreciate all the work that went into it. Nice to get a win against Canisius but I am anxious to see what happens against better competition that isn't the level of Virginia. Not sure Hobart will be much of a test. Too bad we can't watch since they moved the venue.
Your idea of not all goals but the interesting ones is a good one. And perhaps less work.
Michigan Womens Lax facebook page has the last incredible 30 seconds. Tied at 30 seconds, PSU scores with 26 seconds left. Michigan then scores at 6 seconds and then again at 0 seconds.
Tommy Heidt is a phenomenal goalie. I think he had 15 saves today. What a way to finish your career. They will have a tough job to fill that position with that kind of talent.
But Decaprio and Curran, both juniors, were awesome today. Dicaprio put on a show. Curran with the game winner.
It was depressing to not be able to watch it. It was further depressing to hear they tied it with 1:04 to go in the game only to have the Face Off result in a 30 second penalty for a third face off violation in the half. To hang with Hopkins and lose in that fashion must be incredibly frustrating fo Coach Conry and the team.
They had the goalie this year. Heidt was incredible when he got back on the field. He kept them in the games and gave them the win against Notre Dame. Perhaps they beat Penn if he was playing.
But the B1G is so tough! We need a FOGO that can reliably do better than 50% against other top FOGOs. We now need another Goalie to step up now that Heidt is graduating. We have some awesome young talent at Attack with frosh Buckanavage and Mack. We have another year left with Noseworthy and Curran. Dicaprio is back as well.
Michigan is close to the tipping point. A couple of solid recruiting years and we will start racking up some wins. I hope they put up a solid showing at PSU to end the season well. Not expecting a win, but just hanging with PSU in Happy Valley would be an OK way to end the season. Would love a win but......
That was a hard game to watch. They were getting possessions but couldn't even hit the net. Buckanavage was out for the first half and they got some spark after he got in. Are they that thin? I was looking for more from Noseworthy but he kept missing the net.
I do hope they can shake it off and beat OSU. Looks like that's our best bet to get a B1G win this year. PSU was the other hope and they showed up at home against Maryland.
Agreed on those target games. Unfortunately they are both away. But we all just dreamed of a Notre Dame upset so...... I am making plans to be in Ann Arbor on May 3rd!
When you can get to the red zone all year and then fail to get into the end zone against all levels of teams, it speaks to coaching. What changes from the rest of the field to the red zone? The play calling and coaching. Find an OC the caliber of Don Brown, (kudos to those already suggesting this,) and let him find the rest of the O staff. The best players help. But when those same players get to the red zone and then don't make it in, it's the men in charge.
The dark horse is Conor Ford. I could see Andy Shay getting the job but perhaps everyone is still a little nervous coming into Michigan and not knowing how supportive the program is. I would like to know what the "terms" were that could not be agreed. Salary or other tangibles.
But Conor Ford could have come to Ann Arbor knowing he might get a shot at the job. He is still listed on the staff directory.
Really great thread. Thanks for the write up to get the conversation started. Really thinking it should be a current head coach as opposed to someone that has not been and would need to figure out how to do that as well as build the program.
I was high on Andy Shay but Shawn Nedelen has me swayed. When you look at what he has done at Towson I think it is more impressive than what Shay has done at Yale. Nedelen has the credentials of playing at Hopkins his senior year under Petro and then coaching under Tierney. He has assistant coaches that you just mentioned for head coaching jobs so perhaps he knows how to find the assistants that make a program successful. And why hire one of the assistants if you can get the head coach?
I guess the difference might come down to whether it is harder to get the athletes into Yale than Towson and if that made a difference in their success. And as you mentioned knowing how to recruit the smart kids is a plus. Shay is a Lemoyne grad so I don't think he would head back to his alma mater over the Michigan job. I don't know if Nadelen is waiting for the Hopkins job.
I think you are right about Marr and the recruiting. The first nation kids he has coming might be a challenge to get into Michigan. The other thing is that it doesn't take too much to find the disciplinary action that was taken against him by the NCAA for his behavior at the 1998 NCAA tournament game. Probably doesn't help. But it was a long time ago.
So I think it's between Shay and Nadelen. I wonder who Warde Manuel is listening to for advice?
Damaged only momentarily. Pressler coached the US Men's National Lacrosse team to a World Championship in 2010. Great guy. He will stay at Bryant. How about an Ivy coach?
Perhaps Rutgers is fair game. Ohio State would be a real surprise. While OSU did lose today they lost to Notre Dame which most people would agree is a top Five team. Ohio State schooled Denver. But we have both at home and perhap a few football fans will waltz in early to the spring game to take a look and give the Wolverines a boost. GO BLUE!! is right.
It is a nice schedule. Maybe easy but designed to give the team confidence and then tests before the B1G season. Yes, some early easy wins but they won the ones they were supposed to and then won a game they weren't expected to win. Following that they proved it wasn't a fluke. So the schedule was a great design.
Unfortunately they could still be ranked in the top 20 teams and come in last in the B1G with the strength of the conference this year. Hopefully they can surprise someone. Delaware beat #1 ranked Rutgers today so perhaps.....
After the win at Furman JP told the team, "You won the ones you were supposed to win. Now let's win one we aren't expected to win." And that was Penn. And with no letdown against UMBC, this team has confidence and hopefully it's not finished getting better.
All of you thinking that replacing JP is the answer because he hasn't brought immediate succes should not only look at new programs that have had initial success. Look at Furman University that brought in big name Richie Meade. They are currently 0-7.
More importantly, look at the example of Notre Dame. It took Kevin Corrigan 10 years to gain his first NCAA appearance at Notre Dame and then it took another 10 years to get to a final four. And saying Michigan has a huge name in the Lacrosse hotbeds should look at Notre Dame as an example of a school that also has no problem recruiting on the east coast.
I have no idea whether it is in JP to bring this team to that level. There are not many of those coaches out there. But even the best of them take more than 4 years to make it happen.
Ohio State plays in the indoor football practice buildiung. Detroit plays their early games, (and plays Michigan there on 2/24,) at an indoor facility in Pontiac. They are out there but primarily in the north and where the schools have bigger football programs with indoor practice facilities.
It used to be that teams played mutiple games in a week but as competitive and important as the conference games are now, most teams are playing one game a week which pushes the schedule earlier.
They play the NCAA Basketball championship on a Monday night and travel is not impacted for that. Attendance has been down in the last few years. Many opinons why.
Gerald Logan got pulled after the first half in Chapel Hill against North Carolina. Don't know if it was Oosterbaan or what but apparently he was seeing the ball much better and had a double digit save game. Huge win and nice comeback for the team after the North Carolina loss.
It will be interesting to see if the team travels well against Penn and maybe their experience having two games under their belts will help against Penn as it will be their first game.
Rudock at Iowa going to Michigan is as Granderson at Detroit going to New York. All of a sudden, Granderson could hit LHP. Coaching. I guess it matters.
So Bosa was thrown out for leading with his head into the ND QB chest, ie., spearing. But they called it targeting. I thought targetting was only a high hit. And can you get ejected for spearing?
Really nice post. First round weekend is wrapping up and the Big Ten is looking good. Ohio State knocks off the defending champs, Duke. Hopkins destroys perennial Virginia. And Maryland gets by Yale. So all three B1G teams continue.
I'm fine rooting for Hopkins and Maryland as they are now B1G teams and I have to root for Ohio State for the same reason. I usually root for anyone playing ND and this is a double bonus as Albany is the crowd favorite to watch with Lyle Thompson. Then you add a goalie that scores against Cornell to create a Sportcenter #1 highlight and my field is set.
This is really good to have the B1G teams do well. It cannot hurt and probably will help Michigan recruiting. Just like the other sports, a stronger conference gets you better ranking and thus easier to get a playoff berth.
Next week's games look to be great matchups. Can't wait!
I will always be indebted to Dave Brandon for bringing Varsity Lacrosse to Michigan. By doing so he has helped create the B1G Lacrosse Conference which will be one of the stronger conferences. Too bad it had to end this way....
Losing the Terps means the ACC needs one more but the cynic in me says they will grab the only team without a home, Air Force. But what a crazy place for AFA.
But to be hopeful with you for a moment, maybe Boston College can be shamed by Boston U into creating a team and is already in the ACC. They would have no shortage of talent and probably be decent from the get-go ala BU. Great natural rivalry to go along with the hockey wars.
I would love to see Clemson go. That would almost be as big a deal as Michigan going. But Wake, Va Tech, or NC State would also be great adds. Besides the ACC schedule, they would have close teams to play in Furman, High Point, NC, Richmond, and VMI.
Notre Dame's Sergio Perkovic is from Michigan. The DII and the DIII Champs had kids from Michigan on the roster. And he would have been the MOP if Notre Dame had won. The DII and the DIII Champs had kids from Michigan on the roster. So there is talent here.
I don't root for ND not so much because they are ND but their coach is not what I would want in a college coach. (Much prefer the Danowski type.) But ND is a sign that Lacrosse can flourish west of the Appalachia's. Almost was rooting for a Denver - ND final. That would have been a trip.
U Mass Lowell and New Jersey Tech in 2015. This doesn't really make us happy as it really will not help to spread the sport to the Midwest. Obviously maybe this wonderfully done 3 part series, ( thank you so much L'Carpetron Dookmarriot!) should be thought of as only talking about bringing D1 to non-tradional areas.
Travel costs seem to play much into the costs for the schools. In the southeast the small schools there make all there programs DII because to play in a DIII league they would have to travle much further and it is self promoting.
I do think the first type school profiled for bringing a D1 team to life is the far more likely. Recently announced was a new DII program at the University of Indianapolis. Who??? Right. Already working.
I do have a question about B1G Network. Does the entire B1G share in the revnue from Lacrosse broadcasts or only the Lacrosse schools? If it is only the Lacrosse schools, then perhaps once they revenue starts, (if it starts,) flowing will schools like NW, MSU, and the others jump on board?
Scholarships are part of it but not the whole picture. It's participation as well. The participation opportunities need to be proportional to the student body as well. Football is not just a problem for scholarships but there are so many athletes on the football team it takes about 3 or 4 women's sports to have an equivalent number of athletes.
Schools are adding DII and DIII programs like crazy in the Southeast and Midwest. They can easily do it because the programs fund themselves. That many kids paying tuition to play Lacrosse actually pays for it. So why do they do it. Sure it's another activity for the kids and all that. But they also find that they now have publicity in the best demographics group in the country. Parents that are college educated and have the funds to pay tuition for all of their kids.
Albion College in Michigan now has their name pop up on computer screens in Maryland and New York. They have a great record of getting kids into Med School but if no one ever hears of them it doesn't matter. As these teams spread the other schools will find it even easier to start programs as travel costs go down.
So I think that while the ability to add is a great discussion, another maybe even more important question is why would a D1 school add a varsity program. For Furman it was the publicity. Before they hired Richie Meade and said, "We want to be a player," who had ever heard of them? It's a good school and now their name shows up on the east cost in monied homes. Furman recently tried to cut their storied golf prgram until a benefactor saved it. The school actually said they didn't get much, (read publicity,) out if it. So now you also have High Point, Richmond, Boston U.
So besides who can pull it off, who would benefit from the program's publicity? Michigan felt that they wanted to be in that tier of programs with Duke and Princeton or at least as the sport grew wanted to be a step ahead of the rest of the pack. Which BCS school would bite? Northwestern should be in that pack. Texas should also. Maybe Louisville? Cincinnatti? Xavier? Stanford?
I don't know but certainly the when folks come knocking at the AD's door to add the sport, he is going to ask "Why?"
Thanks for the synopsis. I would agree with pretty much everything except for the quality of one team: Furman
Furman is taking this Lacrosse thing seriously. They hired Richie Meade, the 2014 Men's National Lacrosse team head coach. His name and the school will attract some talent. I know a scrimmage is not necessarily a good judge of things but they did scrimmage perennial DII power Limestone evenly last weekend and lost to preseason #17, Lehigh, 13-6 today. While they are still a good target for a win, they will be tough. They certainly will not stink. I would at least move them up to the fair chance.
I agree that spending time on the phone at a football game seems pretty lame. But when so much time is spent watching the redhat sell refrigerators, I also understand wanting to know what else is going on in the world cuz not much is happening in the stadium. UMich tries to keep things interesting but 4 hours for a football game? C'mon.
Now that it seems there is a six team B1G Lacrosse conference on the horizon, does this add any impetus for other B1G schools to add lacrosse? Now that the conference has a bigger presence, lacrosse wise, on the East Coast, is there more reason for Illinois or Minnesota or hopefully Sparty, to add Lacrosse as a D1 sport?
The unexpected good thing about this event that while really cool thing for the Huskers to do for the kid, this video is winning the Top Video replay ever on ESPN. That means we won't have to watch Clowney knock Vincent Smith's head, (helmet,) off every week.
Gerald Logan is now the starting goalie as Emil Weiss went back east. From person at the game, (one of the stripes,) he said that Logan was great. 6 goals against and 16 saves is pretty decent.
Tim Sullivan does a great job at Great Lax State and I cannot get on his site as well.
They played Marquette which is a first year team, (but supposed to be decent given their rookie status,) and dominated. Not saying a lot but could be a lot worse.
Recent Comments
Wow, what an effort to put all this together. Sorry it was such a tough game, but really appreciate all the work that went into it. Nice to get a win against Canisius but I am anxious to see what happens against better competition that isn't the level of Virginia. Not sure Hobart will be much of a test. Too bad we can't watch since they moved the venue.
Your idea of not all goals but the interesting ones is a good one. And perhaps less work.
Thanks again!
Congrats Ben Flanagan!! Perfect time to Peak. Run your best time at the final. That's how you do it.
Would much rather be underrated. This is kinda nuts.
That would be awesome. I only saw he was a Senior. Next year should be more fun.
Michigan Womens Lax facebook page has the last incredible 30 seconds. Tied at 30 seconds, PSU scores with 26 seconds left. Michigan then scores at 6 seconds and then again at 0 seconds.
https://www.facebook.com/MichiganWomensLacrosse/videos/1732454900148266/
Tommy Heidt is a phenomenal goalie. I think he had 15 saves today. What a way to finish your career. They will have a tough job to fill that position with that kind of talent.
But Decaprio and Curran, both juniors, were awesome today. Dicaprio put on a show. Curran with the game winner.
Looking forward to watching this team get better.
Go Blue!
It was depressing to not be able to watch it. It was further depressing to hear they tied it with 1:04 to go in the game only to have the Face Off result in a 30 second penalty for a third face off violation in the half. To hang with Hopkins and lose in that fashion must be incredibly frustrating fo Coach Conry and the team.
They had the goalie this year. Heidt was incredible when he got back on the field. He kept them in the games and gave them the win against Notre Dame. Perhaps they beat Penn if he was playing.
But the B1G is so tough! We need a FOGO that can reliably do better than 50% against other top FOGOs. We now need another Goalie to step up now that Heidt is graduating. We have some awesome young talent at Attack with frosh Buckanavage and Mack. We have another year left with Noseworthy and Curran. Dicaprio is back as well.
Michigan is close to the tipping point. A couple of solid recruiting years and we will start racking up some wins. I hope they put up a solid showing at PSU to end the season well. Not expecting a win, but just hanging with PSU in Happy Valley would be an OK way to end the season. Would love a win but......
http://thegrowthblog.blogspot.com/p/new-varsity-college-programs-map.ht…
That was a hard game to watch. They were getting possessions but couldn't even hit the net. Buckanavage was out for the first half and they got some spark after he got in. Are they that thin? I was looking for more from Noseworthy but he kept missing the net.
I do hope they can shake it off and beat OSU. Looks like that's our best bet to get a B1G win this year. PSU was the other hope and they showed up at home against Maryland.
Agreed on those target games. Unfortunately they are both away. But we all just dreamed of a Notre Dame upset so...... I am making plans to be in Ann Arbor on May 3rd!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t05cNCqartE&list=RDt05cNCqartE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv5RQyV3OWQ
Heidt had a really good day on Saturday. We need a good game from the keeper as well. I agree a win is not expected but this would be a great upset.
When you can get to the red zone all year and then fail to get into the end zone against all levels of teams, it speaks to coaching. What changes from the rest of the field to the red zone? The play calling and coaching. Find an OC the caliber of Don Brown, (kudos to those already suggesting this,) and let him find the rest of the O staff. The best players help. But when those same players get to the red zone and then don't make it in, it's the men in charge.
Just sold them the day before. Too bad they didn't get this message out a bit sooner.
The dark horse is Conor Ford. I could see Andy Shay getting the job but perhaps everyone is still a little nervous coming into Michigan and not knowing how supportive the program is. I would like to know what the "terms" were that could not be agreed. Salary or other tangibles.
But Conor Ford could have come to Ann Arbor knowing he might get a shot at the job. He is still listed on the staff directory.
Really great thread. Thanks for the write up to get the conversation started. Really thinking it should be a current head coach as opposed to someone that has not been and would need to figure out how to do that as well as build the program.
I was high on Andy Shay but Shawn Nedelen has me swayed. When you look at what he has done at Towson I think it is more impressive than what Shay has done at Yale. Nedelen has the credentials of playing at Hopkins his senior year under Petro and then coaching under Tierney. He has assistant coaches that you just mentioned for head coaching jobs so perhaps he knows how to find the assistants that make a program successful. And why hire one of the assistants if you can get the head coach?
I guess the difference might come down to whether it is harder to get the athletes into Yale than Towson and if that made a difference in their success. And as you mentioned knowing how to recruit the smart kids is a plus. Shay is a Lemoyne grad so I don't think he would head back to his alma mater over the Michigan job. I don't know if Nadelen is waiting for the Hopkins job.
I think you are right about Marr and the recruiting. The first nation kids he has coming might be a challenge to get into Michigan. The other thing is that it doesn't take too much to find the disciplinary action that was taken against him by the NCAA for his behavior at the 1998 NCAA tournament game. Probably doesn't help. But it was a long time ago.
So I think it's between Shay and Nadelen. I wonder who Warde Manuel is listening to for advice?
Any thoughts about Andy Shay, Yale?
Damaged only momentarily. Pressler coached the US Men's National Lacrosse team to a World Championship in 2010. Great guy. He will stay at Bryant. How about an Ivy coach?
Perhaps Rutgers is fair game. Ohio State would be a real surprise. While OSU did lose today they lost to Notre Dame which most people would agree is a top Five team. Ohio State schooled Denver. But we have both at home and perhap a few football fans will waltz in early to the spring game to take a look and give the Wolverines a boost. GO BLUE!! is right.
It is a nice schedule. Maybe easy but designed to give the team confidence and then tests before the B1G season. Yes, some early easy wins but they won the ones they were supposed to and then won a game they weren't expected to win. Following that they proved it wasn't a fluke. So the schedule was a great design.
Unfortunately they could still be ranked in the top 20 teams and come in last in the B1G with the strength of the conference this year. Hopefully they can surprise someone. Delaware beat #1 ranked Rutgers today so perhaps.....
After the win at Furman JP told the team, "You won the ones you were supposed to win. Now let's win one we aren't expected to win." And that was Penn. And with no letdown against UMBC, this team has confidence and hopefully it's not finished getting better.
All of you thinking that replacing JP is the answer because he hasn't brought immediate succes should not only look at new programs that have had initial success. Look at Furman University that brought in big name Richie Meade. They are currently 0-7.
More importantly, look at the example of Notre Dame. It took Kevin Corrigan 10 years to gain his first NCAA appearance at Notre Dame and then it took another 10 years to get to a final four. And saying Michigan has a huge name in the Lacrosse hotbeds should look at Notre Dame as an example of a school that also has no problem recruiting on the east coast.
I have no idea whether it is in JP to bring this team to that level. There are not many of those coaches out there. But even the best of them take more than 4 years to make it happen.
Ohio State plays in the indoor football practice buildiung. Detroit plays their early games, (and plays Michigan there on 2/24,) at an indoor facility in Pontiac. They are out there but primarily in the north and where the schools have bigger football programs with indoor practice facilities.
It used to be that teams played mutiple games in a week but as competitive and important as the conference games are now, most teams are playing one game a week which pushes the schedule earlier.
They play the NCAA Basketball championship on a Monday night and travel is not impacted for that. Attendance has been down in the last few years. Many opinons why.
Gerald Logan got pulled after the first half in Chapel Hill against North Carolina. Don't know if it was Oosterbaan or what but apparently he was seeing the ball much better and had a double digit save game. Huge win and nice comeback for the team after the North Carolina loss.
It will be interesting to see if the team travels well against Penn and maybe their experience having two games under their belts will help against Penn as it will be their first game.
Rudock at Iowa going to Michigan is as Granderson at Detroit going to New York. All of a sudden, Granderson could hit LHP. Coaching. I guess it matters.
Win this. Keeping the NFL prospects. Win the Recruits. The Harbaugh Effect.
Nice Block Jake!
Bo would be proud!
So Bosa was thrown out for leading with his head into the ND QB chest, ie., spearing. But they called it targeting. I thought targetting was only a high hit. And can you get ejected for spearing?
Go Dwayne!!!
Cook got hit in the head pretty hard.
Best game of the night.
Shades of Nebraska
Really nice post. First round weekend is wrapping up and the Big Ten is looking good. Ohio State knocks off the defending champs, Duke. Hopkins destroys perennial Virginia. And Maryland gets by Yale. So all three B1G teams continue.
I'm fine rooting for Hopkins and Maryland as they are now B1G teams and I have to root for Ohio State for the same reason. I usually root for anyone playing ND and this is a double bonus as Albany is the crowd favorite to watch with Lyle Thompson. Then you add a goalie that scores against Cornell to create a Sportcenter #1 highlight and my field is set.
This is really good to have the B1G teams do well. It cannot hurt and probably will help Michigan recruiting. Just like the other sports, a stronger conference gets you better ranking and thus easier to get a playoff berth.
Next week's games look to be great matchups. Can't wait!
I will always be indebted to Dave Brandon for bringing Varsity Lacrosse to Michigan. By doing so he has helped create the B1G Lacrosse Conference which will be one of the stronger conferences. Too bad it had to end this way....
"AQs are for those other teams....."
Losing the Terps means the ACC needs one more but the cynic in me says they will grab the only team without a home, Air Force. But what a crazy place for AFA.
But to be hopeful with you for a moment, maybe Boston College can be shamed by Boston U into creating a team and is already in the ACC. They would have no shortage of talent and probably be decent from the get-go ala BU. Great natural rivalry to go along with the hockey wars.
I would love to see Clemson go. That would almost be as big a deal as Michigan going. But Wake, Va Tech, or NC State would also be great adds. Besides the ACC schedule, they would have close teams to play in Furman, High Point, NC, Richmond, and VMI.
had the feed from the overhead camera they called "spidercam." interesting view. sometimes dizzying as the spun around the play.
Notre Dame's Sergio Perkovic is from Michigan. The DII and the DIII Champs had kids from Michigan on the roster. And he would have been the MOP if Notre Dame had won. The DII and the DIII Champs had kids from Michigan on the roster. So there is talent here.
I don't root for ND not so much because they are ND but their coach is not what I would want in a college coach. (Much prefer the Danowski type.) But ND is a sign that Lacrosse can flourish west of the Appalachia's. Almost was rooting for a Denver - ND final. That would have been a trip.
U Mass Lowell and New Jersey Tech in 2015. This doesn't really make us happy as it really will not help to spread the sport to the Midwest. Obviously maybe this wonderfully done 3 part series, ( thank you so much L'Carpetron Dookmarriot!) should be thought of as only talking about bringing D1 to non-tradional areas.
Travel costs seem to play much into the costs for the schools. In the southeast the small schools there make all there programs DII because to play in a DIII league they would have to travle much further and it is self promoting.
I do think the first type school profiled for bringing a D1 team to life is the far more likely. Recently announced was a new DII program at the University of Indianapolis. Who??? Right. Already working.
I do have a question about B1G Network. Does the entire B1G share in the revnue from Lacrosse broadcasts or only the Lacrosse schools? If it is only the Lacrosse schools, then perhaps once they revenue starts, (if it starts,) flowing will schools like NW, MSU, and the others jump on board?
Scholarships are part of it but not the whole picture. It's participation as well. The participation opportunities need to be proportional to the student body as well. Football is not just a problem for scholarships but there are so many athletes on the football team it takes about 3 or 4 women's sports to have an equivalent number of athletes.
Schools are adding DII and DIII programs like crazy in the Southeast and Midwest. They can easily do it because the programs fund themselves. That many kids paying tuition to play Lacrosse actually pays for it. So why do they do it. Sure it's another activity for the kids and all that. But they also find that they now have publicity in the best demographics group in the country. Parents that are college educated and have the funds to pay tuition for all of their kids.
Albion College in Michigan now has their name pop up on computer screens in Maryland and New York. They have a great record of getting kids into Med School but if no one ever hears of them it doesn't matter. As these teams spread the other schools will find it even easier to start programs as travel costs go down.
So I think that while the ability to add is a great discussion, another maybe even more important question is why would a D1 school add a varsity program. For Furman it was the publicity. Before they hired Richie Meade and said, "We want to be a player," who had ever heard of them? It's a good school and now their name shows up on the east cost in monied homes. Furman recently tried to cut their storied golf prgram until a benefactor saved it. The school actually said they didn't get much, (read publicity,) out if it. So now you also have High Point, Richmond, Boston U.
So besides who can pull it off, who would benefit from the program's publicity? Michigan felt that they wanted to be in that tier of programs with Duke and Princeton or at least as the sport grew wanted to be a step ahead of the rest of the pack. Which BCS school would bite? Northwestern should be in that pack. Texas should also. Maybe Louisville? Cincinnatti? Xavier? Stanford?
I don't know but certainly the when folks come knocking at the AD's door to add the sport, he is going to ask "Why?"
Thanks for the synopsis. I would agree with pretty much everything except for the quality of one team: Furman
Furman is taking this Lacrosse thing seriously. They hired Richie Meade, the 2014 Men's National Lacrosse team head coach. His name and the school will attract some talent. I know a scrimmage is not necessarily a good judge of things but they did scrimmage perennial DII power Limestone evenly last weekend and lost to preseason #17, Lehigh, 13-6 today. While they are still a good target for a win, they will be tough. They certainly will not stink. I would at least move them up to the fair chance.
That is all it would take. Cell service would help as well.
I agree that spending time on the phone at a football game seems pretty lame. But when so much time is spent watching the redhat sell refrigerators, I also understand wanting to know what else is going on in the world cuz not much is happening in the stadium. UMich tries to keep things interesting but 4 hours for a football game? C'mon.
Now that it seems there is a six team B1G Lacrosse conference on the horizon, does this add any impetus for other B1G schools to add lacrosse? Now that the conference has a bigger presence, lacrosse wise, on the East Coast, is there more reason for Illinois or Minnesota or hopefully Sparty, to add Lacrosse as a D1 sport?
The unexpected good thing about this event that while really cool thing for the Huskers to do for the kid, this video is winning the Top Video replay ever on ESPN. That means we won't have to watch Clowney knock Vincent Smith's head, (helmet,) off every week.
This has to be Burke's. He has carried his team further in the Dance than any of the others.
You should get outside the Midwest….
Penn State – You should know this
Bellarmine – Louisville
Johns Hopkins - Baltimore
Army – West Point (That’s in NY)
High Point - High Point, NC
Hobart – Geneva, NY, (think Finger Lakes)
Fairfield – Fairfield, CN
Colgate – Hamilton, NY (think Syracuse)
Loyola - Baltimore
Air Force – Colorado Springs
Delaware – (do we have to pin it down any more?)
Ohio State – ummmm
Detroit – 3 guesses
St. Joseph's - Philadelphia
Denver – see Detroit
Gerald Logan is now the starting goalie as Emil Weiss went back east. From person at the game, (one of the stripes,) he said that Logan was great. 6 goals against and 16 saves is pretty decent.
Tim Sullivan does a great job at Great Lax State and I cannot get on his site as well.
The MGoBlue recap is pretty good.
http://www.mgoblue.com/sports/m-lacros/recaps/020213aaa.html
They played Marquette which is a first year team, (but supposed to be decent given their rookie status,) and dominated. Not saying a lot but could be a lot worse.