Source: UConn lacrosse to DI in 2018 | Page 8 | The Boneyard

Source: UConn lacrosse to DI in 2018

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New England preps, Long Island, New Jersey. All fertile recruiting ground and all within reach.
 
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The future is in Lax and the BTN knows it...it seems to drain young talent that used to concentrate on FB. I don't like it but it is what it is!! Were gonna have to get used to it.

Lax is killing baseball, not FB. Kids love the action of lax far more than BB. But it's unlikely to ever draw crowds that compare to other majors

MLL attendance figures (compare favorably with minor league hockey)
2006 4,295 11,634 (Denver) 2,202 (Chicago) [15]
2007 4,429 10,592 (Denver) 2,243 (Chicago) [16]
2008 4,515 10,853 (Denver) 1,920 (N. Jersey)1 [17]
2009 5,557 10,127 (Denver) 2,569 (Chicago)2 [18]
2010 5,278 10,778 (Denver) 2,729 (Hamilton) [19]
2011 6,417 12,331 (Denver) 1,214 (Hamilton) [20]
2012 5,609 9,648 (Boston) 1,838 (Hamilton)3 [21]
2013 5,069 9,466 (Denver) 1,991 (Rochester) [22]
2014 4,759 10,383 (Denver) 1,204 (Florida) [23]

Having said all of that, UConn should have a program playin at highest level for all of the reasons mentioned above
 
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The move to D1 lacrosse is a head scratcher. The AD is running a deficit, exit money is being consumed and will not last forever, yet we are expanding our athletic footprint. Jim wants to live in the east and we can bring content. I hope where there is smoke, there is also fire.
 
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The move to D1 lacrosse is a head scratcher. The AD is running a deficit, exit money is being consumed and will not last forever, yet we are expanding our athletic footprint. Jim wants to live in the east and we can bring content. I hope where there is smoke, there is also fire.

I will admit I was a little surprised when I heard the upgrade. I can understand the head scratching. However, if Lacrosse is the itch the B1G is trying to scratch and this makes us more appealing and puts us over the top then it will be money well spent. The additional revenue from the B1G will more than pay for a Lacrosse upgrade. Speaking hypothetically of course.
 
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We have not seen an announcement that the university is in fact adding lacrosse. It is more accurate to say that we have a rumor of smoke with no sign of fire.
 

FfldCntyFan

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The move to D1 lacrosse is a head scratcher. The AD is running a deficit, exit money is being consumed and will not last forever, yet we are expanding our athletic footprint. Jim wants to live in the east and we can bring content. I hope where there is smoke, there is also fire.
I will admit I was a little surprised when I heard the upgrade. I can understand the head scratching. However, if Lacrosse is the itch the B1G is trying to scratch and this makes us more appealing and puts us over the top then it will be money well spent. The additional revenue from the B1G will more than pay for a Lacrosse upgrade. Speaking hypothetically of course.
We have not seen an announcement that the university is in fact adding lacrosse. It is more accurate to say that we have a rumor of smoke with no sign of fire.

I need to be somewhat limited in what I say here (this is from a conversation ~ one month ago with a couple of senior personnel within the school's athletic department and foundation):

A) The lacrosse upgrade, if it does happen will be from private donations, not athletic department dollars.
B) There was quite a bit of momentum early on (in fund raising for this) but it has stalled and the upgrade is a non-starter until funding is in place.
C) Funding will not only need to cover the upgrade of men's lacrosse but also sufficient funds to increase scholarships and participation in women's sports to remain Title IX compliant (this is a bit of an issue as a donation earmarked for men's lacrosse, something many who have donated specified as a requirement, which is fully their right, cannot be used for adding scholarship dollars to women's rowing or track).

The upgrade of lacrosse is viewed as a targeted, strategic move to benefit the university on a few levels including making the school more attractive to a potential (P-5) suitor, increase the visibility of the school in the affluent NYC suburbs (which would be helpful on both an academic level and in terms of increasing our fan presence in a densely populated area) and on an overall prestige level, allowing us to move closer to schools who we want to be viewed with as peers.
 
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The move to D1 lacrosse is a head scratcher. The AD is running a deficit, exit money is being consumed and will not last forever, yet we are expanding our athletic footprint. Jim wants to live in the east and we can bring content. I hope where there is smoke, there is also fire.
My personal belief is the admin's are acting on knowledge that we don't have access too due to secrecy clause...otherwise why expand into expensive sports at this critical time? I hope i'm right and I sincerely sense this. Same thing's were going on at RU before the announcement. I don't think UConn would add more to the deficit willy nilly!! Smoke means their's fire somewhere. Ive had this sense for awhile
 
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I need to be somewhat limited in what I say here (this is from a conversation ~ one month ago with a couple of senior personnel within the school's athletic department and foundation):

A) The lacrosse upgrade, if it does happen will be from private donations, not athletic department dollars.
B) There was quite a bit of momentum early on (in fund raising for this) but it has stalled and the upgrade is a non-starter until funding is in place.
C) Funding will not only need to cover the upgrade of men's lacrosse but also sufficient funds to increase scholarships and participation in women's sports to remain Title IX compliant (this is a bit of an issue as a donation earmarked for men's lacrosse, something many who have donated specified as a requirement, which is fully their right, cannot be used for adding scholarship dollars to women's rowing or track).

The upgrade of lacrosse is viewed as a targeted, strategic move to benefit the university on a few levels including making the school more attractive to a potential (P-5) suitor, increase the visibility of the school in the affluent NYC suburbs (which would be helpful on both an academic level and in terms of increasing our fan presence in a densely populated area) and on an overall prestige level, allowing us to move closer to schools who we want to be viewed with as peers.
Thanks for the clarification, I just assumed that it would be funded by the athletic department without thinking about donations.
 

junglehusky

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I need to be somewhat limited in what I say here (this is from a conversation ~ one month ago with a couple of senior personnel within the school's athletic department and foundation):

A) The lacrosse upgrade, if it does happen will be from private donations, not athletic department dollars.
B) There was quite a bit of momentum early on (in fund raising for this) but it has stalled and the upgrade is a non-starter until funding is in place.
C) Funding will not only need to cover the upgrade of men's lacrosse but also sufficient funds to increase scholarships and participation in women's sports to remain Title IX compliant (this is a bit of an issue as a donation earmarked for men's lacrosse, something many who have donated specified as a requirement, which is fully their right, cannot be used for adding scholarship dollars to women's rowing or track).

The upgrade of lacrosse is viewed as a targeted, strategic move to benefit the university on a few levels including making the school more attractive to a potential (P-5) suitor, increase the visibility of the school in the affluent NYC suburbs (which would be helpful on both an academic level and in terms of increasing our fan presence in a densely populated area) and on an overall prestige level, allowing us to move closer to schools who we want to be viewed with as peers.
That information makes sense / sounds plausible. Women's rowing is adding scholarships, up to 10 now according to this article in UConn magazine, and they compete in the American along with Temple, Tulsa, USF, UCF, SMU, plus affiliates Villanova, Sacramento State and San Diego State (!!!, although maybe not so much since I don't think they have that many meets with conference foes outside of the conference championship.... rowing is weird). Not sure what the max # of additional scholarships would be for rowing + women's track. I can see how despite improved fundraising efforts since Herbst took over, convincing someone to donate specifically to a relatively non-glamor sport in order for another person's donation to establish a men's team, instead of donating to a science building or what have you, could be a hard sell.

On the other hand, donuts argle bargle #firewarde.
 
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rowing is weird

WTF! You're weird. Just kidding.

I rowed at UConn on the men's club team (women were club at the time, too, before they got upgraded to varsity due to football). Crew meets come in two sizes - team v team competition where 2 to 4 schools meat and row against each other and regattas where a whole bunch of schools row against each other such Head of the Charles and Dad Vails. Typically, the fall races are long, head races, i.e. up river if applicable, in the 3,000 to 4,000 meter range (Head of the Charles is 3 miles or 4,800 meters). The spring races are usually sprints of about 2,000 meters (Olympics, Dad Vails, New England Championship, Big East Championship). Regattas often include a range of boats from single scull (1 rower) to the heavy 8's (8 rowers, for men typically +6' & 200 lbs minimum) and different classes - high school, college club, college varsity, private club, national teams (Head of the Charles usually has several Olympic teams), and seniors. Its a fund scene with folks from all over the world and different demographics all willing to kill themselves (hand blisters suck, catching a crab is brutal, most rowers, even elite, puke after finishing the Head of the Charles). At UConn, we got killed by the varsity teams; but, my lightweight 4 did win 1st place at the Big East Regatta on the Potomac one spring just clipping G-Town.
 

junglehusky

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I guess my point there was... are conferences even necessary in a sport like rowing? Looking at UConn's schedule they didn't have home and away meets with all their other rowing conference mates, just a meet for the conference championship. Maybe it's an NCAA bylaw or something.
 

SonsOfNutmeg

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Would the B1G try to add 2 schools though for Men's LAX? Right now they're at 6 (including non-FBS John Hopkins)... Given their strenght in LAX and history I doubt they will drop them to add in UConn.
 
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Would the B1G try to add 2 schools though for Men's LAX? Right now they're at 6 (including non-FBS John Hopkins)... Given their strenght in LAX and history I doubt they will drop them to add in UConn.

If they're looking for television content, going from 6 to 8 schools means that you're going from 15 league games to 28. That's a reason to add teams. If UConn is going D1 in lax, and they bring in, say Virginia, that's a really terrific league that is going to steal eyeballs from ESPN's coverage.
 

WestHartHusk

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Would the B1G try to add 2 schools though for Men's LAX? Right now they're at 6 (including non-FBS John Hopkins)... Given their strenght in LAX and history I doubt they will drop them to add in UConn.

Wait, what? Why does anyone need to be dropped to add a school that plays lax?
 

whaler11

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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.
 
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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.
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
 

whaler11

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Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Instead we should wait for enough donations to endow dozens of scholarships?

If they are going to lose money on athletics it may as well be on a sport that they can compete at the highest level while making themselves more attractive to FFLD Cty.
 
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I wonder what it would be like if some of the black athletes down here in dixie picked up lacrosse?

Currently, the game seems not to draw much interest from our black population.

The big three have been football, basketball, and baseball....with black athletes at the high school/college level becoming fewer and fewer in baseball than the population percentage should indicate.

The black athletes have populated basketball and football pretty heavily at the elite levels....
 
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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.

With players like George Springer, Matt Barnes and Nick Ahmed in the majors, that is simply not happening.
 

whaler11

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With players like George Springer, Matt Barnes and Nick Ahmed in the majors, that is simply not happening.

Who said it was going to happen?

It's a way to move money from something mostly pointless to something that would be more productive for the university.

The number of guys who have come through recently only further highlight how pointless northeast college baseball is.
 

FfldCntyFan

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I'm not so sure that baseball is pointless (at least to UConn), all you need to do is take a look at the roster (we have quite a few players from other New England states). Among the aspirations of the university is to be viewed throughout New England as the local school most want to attend. The idea of dropping any sport will not make us more attractive to a power conference. If we do reach the point where dropping a sport is necessary, there are a few that would go before baseball would be considered.
 

mets1090

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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.
 

CL82

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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.
I hope so. The timing should be about right with the fundraising for the new on campus stadium.
 
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