Does the Big East play LaCrosse as a "conference" sport? How many scholls have teams etc? Are there divisions like 1A,1AA in Lacrosse?

No, they don't.

Yuleofell Wrote:Does the Big East play LaCrosse as a "conference" sport? How many scholls have teams etc? Are there divisions like 1A,1AA in Lacrosse?

No. Although it has been proposed in the past... supposedly, main reason is that SU doesnt want to lose their independence status and that some schools think there is no reason to form a conference without SU.

Yes, there are divisions... I, II, III

I'm all for Syracuse looking out for their best interest. I think it sucks for the conference's cohesion. I still think the rest of the teams should form a Big Eat LX. How many teams are out there. I think UofL is suppose to add it.

trephin Wrote:

Yuleofell Wrote:Does the Big East play LaCrosse as a "conference" sport? How many  scholls have teams etc? Are there divisions like 1A,1AA in Lacrosse?

No. Although it has been proposed in the past... supposedly, main reason is that SU doesnt want to lose their independence status and that some schools think there is no reason to form a conference without SU.

Yes, there are divisions... I, II, III

Thats pretty much what it is. They like to schedule whoever whenever and the only team that always consists of in terms of the Big East is Rutgers as we've been playing LAX against each other every year "forever". The LAX conference to be worthwhile would need both Powerhouses of RU and SU to make it worth it.

brista21 Wrote:The LAX conference to be worthwhile would need both Powerhouses of RU and SU to make it worth it.

RU?

Anyway, Syracuse is the major block against this, as well as getting Villanova and Providence to play at a more comparable level with Georgetown, ND and Rutgers.

St. John's just added a lacrosse program and should be able to recruit well Long Island in coming years.

I guess I'm at a loss as to why people are ok with Syracuse staying independent in Lacrosse, but are so upset over Norte Dame not joining the conference in football...it's basically the same principle that each school is looking out for its own and there are multiple schools that are not fully committed.
It's gotta be one or the other...either it is ok for certain schools to be indy in certain sports, or it's not. You can't criticize Norte Dame football if you're going to accept Syracuse lacrosse.

UC offers LAX as a club sport. I was hoping that the BE would start a LAX league so UC could promote LAX as a scholarship sport. Do they offer it for the women? My guess is yes for Title IX considerations.

Lacrosse is an odd bird. Considering the sports structure and scale I'm amazed they have not pushed for/allowed for longer schedules then just the 10-13 regular season games played these days. Plus, as mentioned, it's often a Title IX casualty. Until the sport becomes a hotter property this may always be the case.

There are only 57(?) teams in D1, and only the following conferences sponsor league play (BE members):

ECAC (Rutgers, Georgetown, SJU)
Patriot
Colonial
ACC
America East
Great Western (Notre Dame)
Ivy
MAAC (Providence)

SU does have the luxury of taking a ND-like stance because of their pedigree in the sport. Constant presence in the post season and high rankings, etc. They're always playing at least 7 home games and often playing just regional rivals like Albany, Cornell, Army and so forth. I can't see how BE conference play would effect SU that much.

That being said I've not found anything to suggest SU is the only entity holding up the formation of BE lacrosse. The only thing I can think of might be ramifications with NCAA standards such as eligibility for post season play. Without deeper analysis it does appear that the conferences that do exist in lacrosse are pretty compact. Providence, for instance, rarely travels any farther than Philly. I'm unsure how many of the BE members play each other in the sport, plus if the split is to come only two of the 1-A members would field programs, not including Notre Dame.

I think you actually will see a Big East Lacrosse league a few years down the road. Right now 3 legitimate D I teams can be included. Rutgers is a good team. Georgetown is a very good team and has been in the Final 4 in the past. Syracuse is one of the dominate teams in the sport. If 1 or 2 other teams can get to their level they may consider trying to create a league. Right now the ACC only has 4 teams, North Carolina, Duke, Maryland and Virginia and they are thriving. The reason that Syracuse might be inclined to join in the future is that the NCAA is giving out less and less tourney bids to independents and instead awarding bids to conference champs. This might in fact force SU's hand into joining.

Woodycuse Wrote:I think you actually will see a Big East Lacrosse league a few years down the road. Right now 3 legitimate D I teams can be included. Rutgers is a good team. Georgetown is a very good team and has been in the Final 4 in the past. Syracuse is one of the dominate teams in the sport. If 1 or 2 other teams can get to their level they may consider trying to create a league. Right now the ACC only has 4 teams, North Carolina, Duke, Maryland and Virginia and they are thriving. The reason that Syracuse might be inclined to join in the future is that the NCAA is giving out less and less tourney bids to independents and instead awarding bids to conference champs. This might in fact force SU's hand into joining.

oops. I forgot about Notre Dame. That would give the Big East 4 teams playing at a high level.

Crewdogz Wrote:UC offers LAX as a club sport. I was hoping that the BE would start a LAX league so UC could promote LAX as a scholarship sport. Do they offer it for the women? My guess is yes for Title IX considerations.

Yes that is correct Women's Lacrosse is a Big East sport. Men's Lacrosse should be since we have 7 schools that play Lacrosse, 3 in the ECAC, 1 in the MAAC, 1 in the Great Western Lacrosse League, 1 in the CAA, and 1 independent. 6 is what is required for an autobid. If Cincinnati offers it as a club sport now they would probably add it as a scholarship sport if a Big East league was trying to be formed. That would give us 8 teams, Cincy and St. Johns would just be starting out and I don't really know much about the Providence, Notre Dame, and Villanova programs. I do know that SU is awesome, and that Georgetown and Rutgers are usually very good as both usually make the NCAAs on a consistent basis which is much harder to do in a 16 team format regardless of the reduced number of programs in comparison to say Basketball or Baseball. After a split it would be much harder for either side to maintain a league however as of right now only Syracuse and Rutgers would be playing on the D-1A side and the Catholic side Nova, Georgetown, St. John's, Providence, and Notre Dame would all be playing for 5 teams. That might be easier to do since Marquette or DePaul could always step up or maybe one of their newcomers would also be playing. My guess is the D-1A side would be a conference since it would be all-sports and since SU and RU always play each other anyway in LAX, SU would very easily agree to having to be in the conference for LAX. Even if Cincy stepped up to start playing, Syracuse would still have alot of scheduling freedom and could deal with playing 2 conference games a year considering as I've said they play one of those teams every single year anyway for decades.

Brista, thanks for the info! I am excited about the prospect of BE LAX. I think it's a great game.

<a href='http://www.bearcatlacrosse.com/' target='_blank'>Bearcat LAX Website</a>

UC plays in the <a href='http://www.ncllax.com/' target='_blank'>National College LAX League</a>. SI did a great article this year on LAX, it's the fastest growing sport in the US right now. Many high schools in Cincinnati are starting programs.