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Will Big 10 Lax expand?

DJ Spanky

The Lunatic is in my Head
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Jul 25, 2001
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I'm curious if any other Big 10 schools are looking to start up a men's lacrosse program. It'd be nice to see an 8 or 10 team league.
 
Not much chatter about this. MSU used to have a D1 program and NW has a great women's program, so maybe those would be two to keep an eye on, but Title 9 is always the issue.
 
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Still can't believe Big Ten Hockey has only seven schools. I know we don't have the money yet,but I thought some other school would have announced they were joining by now . Only new addition since it was formed is Notre Dame.
 
Still can't believe Big Ten Hockey has only seven schools. I know we don't have the money yet,but I thought some other school would have announced they were joining by now . Only new addition since it was formed is Notre Dame.

Pretty simple: it's NOT a cheap addition and Title IX.
 
Maybe when we get the full B1G payout we can fund hockey and a women's sport. Maybe we can make a deal with the Devils.
 
No. We need to fully fund the sports we have and build suitable facilities before we even consider adding sports. We are no where close to even considering doing that now.

People REALLY need to drop the hockey stuff for now - and maybe for a good decade - it just isn't happening. I mean I'd LOVE to have D1 hockey but it simply isn't/can't happen right now.
 
Don't see it ever happening. Think of what it took to start Penn St.'s program. I believe a $100MM donation.

Only field sports we can fully fund, provide competitive facilities and support, and that is it. Not one more.
 
Take care of what we have already (although to be honest I wouldn't mind thinning the herd) and then bring back Men's Swimming and Diving first before adding anything else.
 
Don't see it ever happening. Think of what it took to start Penn St.'s program. I believe a $100MM donation.

Only field sports we can fully fund, provide competitive facilities and support, and that is it. Not one more.
There was a question the other day about how Denver became so good so quickly in lax, and this is the answer. When they decided to start a D1 lax program they went at from the perspective of what it would take to compete for national championships. The way they landed Tierney was they hired him as a "consultant" to help find their head coach, which was really about getting him on campus to show off their facilities, their commitment to building a winning program and to find out what it would take for him to take the job and then made it happen.
 
Smart.

I always think back to a quote that I heard from USC's AD when they started their women's program. It was something along the lines of them fielding teams to win national championships, and the school providing the resources to do just that. It isn't as suprise to see them ranked in the top five after starting a team 7 years ago.

We need more of this mindset. Fielding teams to field teams is small time thinking.

AD Hobbs gets it though.
 
I think there are some grumblings starting to be heard coming from Lincoln on Lax. They have the area where they can have all new facilities built beside the new women's(don't have men's) soccer and the new tennis stuff. There is room for a field and an indoor facility as well as locker and training rooms and could seat around 5000.

We have a brand new hockey facility that seats 4000 with training and locker room areas by the hoops arena. The problem is we don't have a hockey program. I guess the intramural hockey teams have some really nice facilities now.
 
I think there are some grumblings starting to be heard coming from Lincoln on Lax. They have the area where they can have all new facilities built beside the new women's(don't have men's) soccer and the new tennis stuff. There is room for a field and an indoor facility as well as locker and training rooms and could seat around 5000.

We have a brand new hockey facility that seats 4000 with training and locker room areas by the hoops arena. The problem is we don't have a hockey program. I guess the intramural hockey teams have some really nice facilities now.

You guys know how to do it out there. The facilities you have in NJ would cost 10x the amount and probably a few Goodfella's in the process.
 
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Lax isn't an inexpensive sport, and even the best programs draw 3-5k fans per game...when you factor in minimum revenue and fairly high costs for a team with a large roster size, it isn't an inexpensive proposition.
 
one big thing lacrosse has going for it is it's growing in the rich suburban areas with parents who pay full freight for tuition.

Boston University just shut down their wrestling program so they could add lax. Cleveland State was about to do the same until the students voted to increase student fees to keep the wrestling team.

don't know enough about the other B1G schools to predict if they'll try and figure out a way to add teams but it is one of the few (only?) men's sports that is growing at the D1 level.
 
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And it's growing at a far greater pace at the youth and high school level. And not just in wealthy areas. With some regularity I drive through Compton. It's bad. 7 years ago I started seeing a few kids with lacrosse sticks. Now I see them almost all the time. This isn't a unique story.
 
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And it's growing at a far greater pace at the youth and high school level. And not just in wealthy areas. With some regularity I drive through Compton. It's bad. 7 years ago I started seeing a few kids with lacrosse sticks. Now I see them almost all the time. This isn't a unique story.

Mentioned this before: the # of kids playing in Hoboken, and not just "rich white kids," in the new rec leagues starting at 7-8 years old, is amazing and GREAT to see!
 
The only downside of lax for less monied areas/kids is the cost. Equipment isn't cheap. But when the kids see it, they want to play. I remember playing a game out here once near a baseball field and the kids stopped playing baseball to watch the lax game. I am sure we converted a few kids that day. Standing around in pajamas when you can run and hit in terminator equipment is a no brainer for any kid with athletic skill.

Heading to a benefit this Thursday actually for City Lacrosse, which is raising funds for this very issue. Coaching and equipment. It's all the kids need.
 
Maybe when we get the full B1G payout we can fund hockey and a women's sport. Maybe we can make a deal with the Devils.

No. We need to fully fund the sports we have and build suitable facilities before we even consider adding sports. We are no where close to even considering doing that now.

I would rather see us try to reinstate some of the sports which were cut. There is no reason to not have a men's swimming/diving team, as we already have the facilities built for those sports. Of course, now, along with adding them back we'd then have to fund comparative women's sports. So that would be an additional cost.
 
I would rather see us try to reinstate some of the sports which were cut. There is no reason to not have a men's swimming/diving team, as we already have the facilities built for those sports. Of course, now, along with adding them back we'd then have to fund comparative women's sports. So that would be an additional cost.
Yea I agree...men's swimming/diving and men's tennis should be reinstated first when that time comes. Both are traditional B1G sports with a lot of history. Men's crew after that due to our history in crew.
 
This was always the problem with Title 9. For every women provided an opportunity, a male was denied one, outside of the rare circumstances. Net net, there was no gain. Maybe even a loss.
 
The only downside of lax for less monied areas/kids is the cost. Equipment isn't cheap. But when the kids see it, they want to play. I remember playing a game out here once near a baseball field and the kids stopped playing baseball to watch the lax game. I am sure we converted a few kids that day. Standing around in pajamas when you can run and hit in terminator equipment is a no brainer for any kid with athletic skill.

Heading to a benefit this Thursday actually for City Lacrosse, which is raising funds for this very issue. Coaching and equipment. It's all the kids need.

Kids love it but you are right that the costs are high. High school programs can supply full equipment but then there are 3 seasons the kids do not have gear. I have run a introduction to lacrosse every year at a school I used to teach at in Newark. The kids love it. I have one young man who ended up leaving Newark to go to a prep school (NMH) and is now playing college lacrosse. Really cool to see.
 
The only downside of lax for less monied areas/kids is the cost. Equipment isn't cheap. But when the kids see it, they want to play. I remember playing a game out here once near a baseball field and the kids stopped playing baseball to watch the lax game. I am sure we converted a few kids that day. Standing around in pajamas when you can run and hit in terminator equipment is a no brainer for any kid with athletic skill.

Heading to a benefit this Thursday actually for City Lacrosse, which is raising funds for this very issue. Coaching and equipment. It's all the kids need.

Or being an average basketball player when you can be a standout lacrosse player is another selling point for families who have limited/no exposure or access to lacrosse. We use the following video to sell lacrosse to such folks:

 
This was always the problem with Title 9. For every women provided an opportunity, a male was denied one, outside of the rare circumstances. Net net, there was no gain. Maybe even a loss.
So you are saying women shouldn't be afforded opportunities? I remember when my girls first started playing softball. They boys had all the fields and the girls only got access when the boys weren't using them. And if a boys game was rained out and needed to be rescheduled, they bumped the girls. Are you suggesting we go back to those days?
 
So you are saying women shouldn't be afforded opportunities? I remember when my girls first started playing softball. They boys had all the fields and the girls only got access when the boys weren't using them. And if a boys game was rained out and needed to be rescheduled, they bumped the girls. Are you suggesting we go back to those days?
Where there that many more boys teams compared to amount of girls teams playing softball? That was the case for my boy's league when they still played Little League. It wasn't anti-girl, it was more of a re-scheduling problem than anything else.

I don't want to speak for @Caliknight but I would really like to see Football and Wrestling left out of the mix when doing a Tile IX calculation.
 
Where there that many more boys teams compared to amount of girls teams playing softball? That was the case for my boy's league when they still played Little League. It wasn't anti-girl, it was more of a re-scheduling problem than anything else.

I don't want to speak for @Caliknight but I would really like to see Football and Wrestling left out of the mix when doing a Tile IX calculation.
The boys should have gotten more fields because there were 2X boys vs girls. What had to change was the second class citizen approach and the bumping when the boys needed another field. No longer the case in town, things are equitable.
 
The boys should have gotten more fields because there were 2X boys vs girls. What had to change was the second class citizen approach and the bumping when the boys needed another field. No longer the case in town, things are equitable.
Because they all went to lacrosse. Lol

Happened in my town. Baseball has to consolidate with other towns.
 
Or being an average basketball player when you can be a standout lacrosse player is another selling point for families who have limited/no exposure or access to lacrosse. We use the following video to sell lacrosse to such folks:


I see Jim Brown, or at least used to, regularly at the driving range. Dude can barely swing the club but somehow gets the club head on the ball every time and it goes straight. Athletic ability even now.

I asked him once, as is legend in the lax community, if he really liked lacrosse more than football. His answer was yes. If there was a pro lacrosse league that he could have played in making the same money, he would have done that instead of playing football.
 
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Where there that many more boys teams compared to amount of girls teams playing softball? That was the case for my boy's league when they still played Little League. It wasn't anti-girl, it was more of a re-scheduling problem than anything else.

I don't want to speak for @Caliknight but I would really like to see Football and Wrestling left out of the mix when doing a Tile IX calculation.

Those two sports should absolutely be excluded from Title 9 calculations.
 
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Because they all went to lacrosse. Lol

Happened in my town. Baseball has to consolidate with other towns.
There is truth to that. Baseball softball is significantly down in our town for a number of reasons. Soccer has held steady, but lacrosse has significantly increased. Additionally our high school is graduating roughly 325 students per year (down from 350 a couple years ago). Incoming kindergarten classes are in the 225 range so significant decline in the pool of potential players to support all sports.
 
There is truth to that. Baseball softball is significantly down in our town for a number of reasons. Soccer has held steady, but lacrosse has significantly increased. Additionally our high school is graduating roughly 325 students per year (down from 350 a couple years ago). Incoming kindergarten classes are in the 225 range so significant decline in the pool of potential players to support all sports.
Yes, we have seen that too.

Families are smaller so not enough kids to fill those spots on the field or classroom.
 
Huskeralways,
So let me get this straight, Nebraska-Lincoln has this new small arena on campus for club hockey,down the street there is a small arena for the Lincoln Stars of the United States Hockey League,you have a brand new 16,000 seat basketball arena,you have the 8,000 seat Devaney Center for other sports and then one hour away in Omaha,you have the newish 19,000 seat Century Center which can also be used for hockey and then Nebraska-Omaha which is NCAA Division 1 in hockey has a BRAND NEW almost 8,000 seat hockey arena.Out of the 27 players on Omaha's roster, only one is from Nebraska.Lincoln has a population of roughly 270,000 and Omaha is about 435,000. Most of our counties in New Jersey have more than that.We have about FIFTY New Jersey kids playing NCAA Division 1 hockey, and we are HOPING we go Division 1 in 15 years or so. By then,every kid in New Jersey will have grown up with Penn State being their local Division 1 hockey team which they will see plenty of times on TV,not to mention their games that they schedule in Philadelphia,New York City, and probably once in a while in Newark.Only in New Jersey !!! Ugh !!!
 
Without some angel investor dropping $150MM to start a program, I hope Rutgers never fields a hockey team. We've played enough sports for too long with one hand tied behind our backs. Adding another to see it get it's @ss kicked on the reg is not of an interest.
 
one big thing lacrosse has going for it is it's growing in the rich suburban areas with parents who pay full freight for tuition.

Boston University just shut down their wrestling program so they could add lax. Cleveland State was about to do the same until the students voted to increase student fees to keep the wrestling team.

don't know enough about the other B1G schools to predict if they'll try and figure out a way to add teams but it is one of the few (only?) men's sports that is growing at the D1 level.
For now we need to concentrate on core sports like FB,M and WBB ,LAX and keep the wrestling thing going..of course Soccer M@W and Baseball....Track and Field etc...then think Hockey...
 
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I see Jim Brown, or at least used to, regularly at the driving range. Dude can barely swing the club but somehow gets the club head on the ball every time and it goes straight. Athletic ability even now.

I asked him once, as is legend in the lax community, if he really liked lacrosse more than football. His answer was yes. If there was a pro lacrosse league that he could have played in making the same money, he would have done that instead of playing football.
Of course...who wants to be a target?? But I still love the ultimate mans game...so do fans...moms? Not so much...
 
Cali,
I am writing the check as we speak. As you know, I own Kohls,Rutgersshop,Walmart,Boscovs,Lids,Amazon, and so many other companies,that this is like pocket change to me.

Must be nice to be one of the wealthiest men in America. I don't know why you don't fund the whole department. It's a rounding error for you.
 
Huskeralways,
So let me get this straight, Nebraska-Lincoln has this new small arena on campus for club hockey,down the street there is a small arena for the Lincoln Stars of the United States Hockey League,you have a brand new 16,000 seat basketball arena,you have the 8,000 seat Devaney Center for other sports and then one hour away in Omaha,you have the newish 19,000 seat Century Center which can also be used for hockey and then Nebraska-Omaha which is NCAA Division 1 in hockey has a BRAND NEW almost 8,000 seat hockey arena.Out of the 27 players on Omaha's roster, only one is from Nebraska.Lincoln has a population of roughly 270,000 and Omaha is about 435,000. Most of our counties in New Jersey have more than that.We have about FIFTY New Jersey kids playing NCAA Division 1 hockey, and we are HOPING we go Division 1 in 15 years or so. By then,every kid in New Jersey will have grown up with Penn State being their local Division 1 hockey team which they will see plenty of times on TV,not to mention their games that they schedule in Philadelphia,New York City, and probably once in a while in Newark.Only in New Jersey !!! Ugh !!!

I will see if I can follow this and answer you.

The new hockey arena is for NU's club hockey team and NU is leasing it to use for the Stars because the place where their arena was NU purchased(along with another 200 acres) and tore it down for the new Buffett Business School and the new Innovation Campus. The land also has the new woman's soccer setup and the tennis. That is where the lacrosse setup would/will be along with the new track and field complex that is still on the drawing board and the debate is whether to include a new indoor facility with it. They are planning a new aquatic center there as well but not sure that will happen.

Pinnacle Bank Arena is the new hoops arena. It seats 13,000 not 16,000. It is used for basketball only and is a joint ownership with the City of Lincoln. They use it for a lot of concerts ect as well. I'm going to Billy Joel there in a couple weeks.

The Devaney Center seats about 8500. It is Volleyball only except for a yearly wrestling dual and gymnastics meet held at the same time. It's actually kind of cool. Other than that it is just for the volleyball girls and has been custom remodeled for volleyball. It used to seat 12,500 when the hoops teams played there but gave it a makeover for volleyball.

The wrestling and gymnastics teams use The Colosseum.It seats 4500 and used to be the home for the volleyball team but didn't seat enough people for it. When Pinnacle Bank Arena was completed then they did the remodel of The Devaney Center and redid the Colosseum to work better for wrestling and gymnastics.

Omaha, as you stated has the CenturyLink Center. It seats about 20,000 for hoops and is the home for Creighton men's hoops.Their woman play at Sokol Arena which was built in 2009 for their hoops and volleyball. They used to play(men's and woman's) in the Civic Center. It was demolished about 6 months ago. It's claim to fame is I think it is where Elvis played his last concert before he went to peanut butter banana sandwich's land. Yes, the "Link" as they call it is also used for hockey some and it hosts the US Olympic swimming trails for the last 2 Olympics. They have a lot of concerts there as well. I got baited into going to Neil Diamond there next month....

Baxter Arena is new and is UNO's hockey home. They also have a new on campus hoops arena(within 5 yrs) but I don't know how many it seats.

The Omaha/Lincoln "area" population is just over 1mil. The towns like Bellevue, Papillion, Millard, Elkhorn, Gretna, and a few others are all connected to Omaha and you don't know when you leave one and enter the others.

That's most of the arena's facilities for the bigger sports at the schools. NU also has their own bowling alley and indoor rifle facilities for them teams. All of the sports at NU have their own things and don't share except for the wrestling/gymnastics sharing where meets are held.
 
Not too many schools have what Nebraska does from a facilities stand point.
 
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