Lacrosse

[WaitingPatiently]

One of the biggest misstatements of college sports is the saying the cost of the scholarships is a big expense. Scholarships cost the school next to nothing. On paper the scholarship has a cost, but until a school gets to a point of turning away a student willing to pay to make room for an athlete on scholarship that isn't really accurate. That scholarship does not cost them the paper cost. The costs for the university to have classes is the same with or without the athletes in the classes. Very few schools are turning away students with a tuition check because athletes filled limited spaces.

Travel, coaching, equipment, etc are the 'true' costs of sports. Paper costs are not the same as actual expenses.

[trephin]

Lacrosse conference stability is my concern. We have 7 for this year, however Rutgers is leaving next year which brings us to 6 (minimum for an auto bid). Should Denver ever find a better situation for them (not saying it will happen, but it could) they have shown they have no problem leaving even if it screws the conference they are in. I would like to be protected from the possibility, however remote it may be.

In regards to the full members, stability should not be a problem. For the most part the BCS conferences seem to only want football schools. None of us play football, and we are the best non-BCS basketball conference (and better than some of the BCS conferences).

I see your concern, but the minimum of 6 has been the comfortable norm for conferences for a long time (minus the ACC which had/has no need). I think you are being a little harsh on DU. Their only prior D1 conference (GWLL) dissolved when ND left for the Big East. The ECAC was always a revolving door for schools. DU wasn't the first to leave this round and the conference still had an AQ with 6 schools. The JHU to B10 rumblings (with then the effect of B10 sponsorship of men's lacrosse and the loss of 2 schools) may have helped DU to look elsewhere but you would expect any school to listen to any offer as due diligence.

So, getting back to the OP, would you want AFA specifically as the 7th school?

[BillEsq]

Little Chance Denver leaves to screw... the BE. The only potential conference to join for them is the B10. The BE Lacrosse is likely to expand to the midwest giving them more local schools. There is no other lacrosse team west of the Mississippi that I am aware of. By the time Denver would relocate one of the BE schools could easily form a lacrosse team, an associate could be added, or the league could expand to 12 and make sure that one of those teams has a lacrosse team. Very little impact would be made by lacrosse leaving.

[redmen9194]

I would take Air Force to give Denver another reason to stick around. If they have a partner out there it will help in terms of scheduling and travel. That would take us to 7 when Rutgers goes and maybe if we can get one of our own to pick up the program as well we can get to 8 with a buffer in case the Colorado schools were to leave.

[ChelseaFriar]

Johns Hopkins is joining the Big 10 in lax. That would have been a great lacrosse addition for the BE.

[MUSeashells&Balloons]

Johns Hopkins is joining the Big 10 in lax. That would have been a great lacrosse addition for the BE.

Yeah Denver and Johns Hopkins announced their intention to move combined with the announcement of the B1G lacrosse league and the collapse of the ECAC with Denver Lacrosse realignment reached its height earlier this summer.

I have a feeling that Johns Hopkins wasn't ever going to come our way as awesome as it would have been. But we have a great conference and Denver is a really great add.

As far as potential adds(maybe when Rutgers leaves at the end of the season) the only two potentials I see at this point are Air Force(still hasn't found a league post ECAC, may go independent) and Bellarmine who cant be happy in the Atlantic Sun for very long.

[ChelseaFriar]

Denver was definitely a great addition.

Bellarmine is a crazy story. I think they have only had a program for about 9 years. Came out of nowhere. When I first started seeing their name pop up in lacrosse circles I had to google it to figure out who they were and where they were located.

Did the BE ever consider Hobart?

[MUSeashells&Balloons]

Hobart jumped to the NEC very quickly I would be game to add Hobart, but it seems like they were looking for a conference with less travel something with a smaller footprint.

I just considered Hobart a long shot because they seemed content in the NEC.

Hobart has only been competing D1 a few years longer than Bellarmine.

I think any of these 3 teams would mostly be for security and to make Denver feel secure. We have a great league but once Rutgers leaves we will be right on the AQ number I think it would be nice to have the security of 7 or 8 teams also would be nice to have more teams than both the ACC or B1G. IMO.

[ChelseaFriar]

Hobart has only been competing D1 a few years longer than Hobart.

What program were you referring to above in comparison to Hobart?

Hobart went D1 in 1995. However, in the early 90s and 80s as a DIII team they likely would have been a very solid D1 team (the gap was smaller back then with less teams and a talent pool really only coming from the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions). I had couple of HS teammates who played at Hobart in the early 90s and they won a DIII national championship one of those years.

[MUSeashells&Balloons]

Sorry I meant Bellarmine. But Hobart has a great DIII history I think the best in DIII history i think they won 13 championships or something close. Its weird how much better DIII lacrosse is than DII.