Lacrosse at a "DI" UND?

[jimdahl]

Yes, SDSU has added W equstrian, but NDSU has not. Jim's comment flat-out said that both SU's had added "fake" sports.

My mistake. I just assumed NDSU would have added equestrian by now. How have you gone to full football scholarships without stepping out of Title IX compliance? Did you switch from proportionality to the "interests and abilities" measurement?

[Hansel]

My mistake. I just assumed NDSU would have added equestrian by now. How have you gone to full football scholarships without stepping out of Title IX compliance? Did you switch from proportionality to the "interests and abilities" measurement?

I think NDSU has always gone by interests and abilities

[Hammersmith]

I think NDSU has always gone by interests and abilities

Correct. The Carr Report lists this as one of its points. They recommended that NDSU switch to propotionality because it's more easily defended in lawsuits. For now, NDSU is keeping things reasonably close by underfunding baseball, men's track/field/x-country and golf. If they ever want to fully fund those sports, they'll have to add a women's sport or two. The "interests and abilities" measurement allows a little more leeway than proportionality does, but there are limits.

[Shawn-O]

Taylor should ratchet up the baseball funding and add women's wrestling.

[star2city]

Taylor should ratchet up the baseball funding and add women's wrestling.

Amy already coaches that team. They need to add women's basketball.

[MplsBison]

Taylor should ratchet up the baseball funding and add women's wrestling.

Only 14 sports are required to compete at the FCS level.

I'd be all for cutting baseball and men's golf.

That'd leave us with Fball, M/W bball, M/W Xcty, M/W I Track, M/W O Track, W Vball, W Soc, Softball, Wrestling, and W Golf.

[Sal Atticum]

Your aggressive posting style's pre-denigration of anyone who dares disagree with you notwithstanding, I'll take a stab at defending the premise of this discussion.

I'm not sure to which post this comment is directed, but I don't think any of us who are fans of adding lacrosse see it as a revenue stream for hockey. Quite to the contrary, hockey is a high-profile, self-funding sport that doesn't need revenue help from others; we mention it in this thread because it puts UND on the national stage because we're competitive with big-name schools. I view lacrosse as a similar opportunity to add another high-growth sport that could quickly draw local fan interest with UND playing big-name schools and national interest if UND could succeed.

I'm with you, but I don't remember ANY UND fan being a proponent of this. Reality is what it is, but I certainly don't *want* to see us following the 'SUs in adding "fake" sports to meet Title IX.

Reality is that North Dakotans expect their freakin' events centers to run in the black; as silly as I think it is, they're surely going to expect their collegiate athletic departments to run in the black. The move to D-I means the big profile sports, football & bball, are going to suck up more money. The default way to pay for that is cut some non-revenue sports and possibly add some b.s. low-cost sports.

I'm backing an alternative -- a growing sport that I think could be revenue positive and in which UND could possibly even grow into a national niche like we enjoy with hockey. The part that seems to bother you is that few of us think it would be enough to prevent cutting some non-revenue sports.

Yesterday was interesting for me, and I knew when I started that I shouldn't have wandered into this forum.

Thanks for addressing what I said, and not the way I said it. I'm going to think about this and then get back to you (shocking, isn't it? )

[Sal Atticum]

Posts like this often remind me of this *.gif animation:

Have a nice weekend.

That is one of the most hilarious responses I've ever seen.

*mburtonk downloads gif file for later...

[star2city]

Division I men's lacrosse can be a spring-time draw

Can there be a springtime college sport draw in the Midwest? Baseball doesn't fit that profile. With an Alerus Center, video boards, weekend and Friday night games, a band, why wouldn't March and April lacrosse draw reasonably well? The Minnesota Swarm can draw reasonably well for an metro area that is just being introduced to lacrosse.

To the mainstream American sports public -- the millions of people who do not receive this magazine once a month -- a void returns to their favorite Division I university every spring. ...

No, to most major-college alumni, only a tease -- a glorified football practice disguised and hyped as a game -- remains as a welcome draw to the State U campus after the start of daylight savings time.

With a football-type approach to lacrosse in the spring, including the band, video boards, tailgating and required attendance for the brigade at select games, Navy surged to the top in average home attendance in 2005 (5,332) and 2006 (4,321). Although the Mids have never threatened a sellout, they recently have attracted some of the sport's top regular-season crowds ever.

"We certainly build elements of a football gameday into our lacrosse games," said Brett Tillett, director of sports marketing at Maryland. "We want fans to enjoy the atmosphere and say they saw something special, only at Maryland."

Tillett noted that while a member of his staff serves as the point of contact for men's lacrosse, the entire marketing department is involved in everything from building relationships with local lacrosse organizations to drumming up student support to enhancing the gameday atmosphere with fan activities and presentations at Byrd Stadium.

[The Sicatoka]

Interesting ....

http://www.fargoparks.com/yprog_lacrosse.html

[GeauxSioux]

It is coming. Get in front of it.

There are some who say that hockey is a niche sport. Maybe they are right, but it is a niche sport that has brought a lot of success and notoriety to UND. Grand Forks is 70 miles south of Canada, making hockey a natural at UND. Using that same logic, why wouldn't lacrosse, Canada's national pastime, be successful at UND and possibly increase Canadian enrollment at UND?

[The Sicatoka]

... Canada's national pastime ....

" ... pastime ... "?

You scofflaw!

On May 12, 1994, the following Bill C-212 received Royal Assent and became law:

"To recognize Hockey as Canada's National Winter Sport and Lacrosse as Canada's National Summer Sport."

[GeauxSioux]

" ... pastime ... "?

You scofflaw!

Just add that to the long list of mistakes that I've made today.

I haven't heard the word scofflaw in quite a while. Wasn't Newman a scofflaw on Seinfeld for all of his parking tickets?

[GeauxSioux]

Not really about UND playing DI lacrosse, but as The Sicatoka pointed out, it is Canada's "national summer sport".

Most Canadians not tough enough to play lacrosse

A five-pack of Canada Day thoughts and questions:

5. When was the last time you really sang our national anthem? Or are you like me and for some reason are embarrassed to sing it too loudly in a public setting and therefore risk -- heaven forbid -- actually being heard? Weird.

4. I understand being stuck with 'Eh?' as "one of those things that Canadians say." In fact, I like it. But who decided we said 'aboot'? We don't.

3. What is it really about Toronto that people dislike?

2. I think most of us understand the history as to why lacrosse is our national summer sport. I think it's also widely acknowledged that lacrosse is a cool, tough game. At no point, though, did it occur to us that even though we are quick to point out how tough we are as Canadians when it comes to hockey, most of us are not quite tough enough to play our own national sport.

1. What figure would be higher: number of places you've visited in Canada or total number of times you've been to Grand Forks?

Keep coming to Grand Forks

[star2city]

NY TImes: Indians Revive Tradition in Youth Lacrosse

American Indians have played lacrosse for centuries. Missionaries documented their contests as long ago as the 1630s. Such early matches could involve hundreds of men, and last for days in fields spanning miles. Players often used sticks carved from trees and balls fashioned from wood, stone or rawhide. The games were considered a rite of passage for young men, attesting to their strength and power.

Pickup games never disappeared from reservations, where lacrosse was often considered a gift from the Creator and games were played to heal the sick, settle conflicts and even prepare for war. But the organized league has increased participation and led more Indians to play in high school.

John Jiloty, the editor in chief of Inside Lacrosse magazine, predicted that

[star2city]

Finally, one men's addition to the DI lacrosse scene: University of Detroit

Plans are still in place to install the multi-purpose athletic field on the McNichols Campus this summer. During the 2007-08 year we will recruit athletes for lacrosse so that we can field men's and women's teams the following year.

The Detroit Mercy men's team will likely join the Great Western Lacrosse league, giving the conference these teams:

Ohio State

Notre Dame

Bellarmine

Detroit

Denver

Air Force

Quinnipiac

The schools adding lacrosse at the DII and DIII levels are becoming increasingly geographically diverse, including a number of schools from the west, deep south, and midwest:

Arizona (Grand Canyon)

Arkansas (Hendrix)

California (Notre Dame da Namur, Dominican)

Florida (Rollins)

Indiana (Tri-State)

Michigan (Adrian)

Tennessee (Sewanee, Tn Wesleyan)

The number of DII and DIII schools in the South, Midwest, and Far West adding lacrosse is expected to further accelerate, with a larger number of schools expected to announce within the next few years. Supposedly, St. John's in Minnesota has made tentative plans to add men's lacrosse and is waiting on another MIAC school commitment before announcing.

[star2city]

Varsity lacrosse is now within two states, with Carthage (a 2500 student DIII Lutheran college in Kenosha, WI) adding the sport. Their action perhaps opens the door for varsity lacrosse in Minnesota.

Carthage College (Wisconsin) Adding NCAA Intercollegiate Lacrosse

Carthage College (Kenosha, WI) director of athletics Robert Bonn announced that the school will launch NCAA intercollegiate lacrosse programs for the men in the spring of 2009 and for the women in the spring of 2010. David Neff has been hired as the coach for both teams, and he will begin work on Sept. 1, 2007.

As of the 2007-08 academic year, 140 NCAA Division III institution sponsor men

[The Sicatoka]

I know "Doc" was taunting me with this, so, fine, here it is.

[SiouxMD]

I know "Doc" was taunting me with this, so, fine, here it is.

[star2city]

MSU-Mankato is showing some innovation with their Homecoming:

immediately following Mankato's homecoming football game vs the Sioux,

the Mankato club lacrosse team and UND's club lacrosse team

will face off at Blakeslee Stadium so the homecoming crowd can get a taste of lacrosse.

With the NSIC imposes scholarship limitations on Mankato, SCSU, UMD, and Augie, Mankato, having the higher number of scholarships awarded, will actually need to decrease scholarships. With Minnesota high schools sponsoring lacrosse, the timing would have been perfect for Mankato to add LAX, which the DI moratorium now prevents.

[SiouxMD]

The Trials of Starting a Team - CollegeLAX.us

[The Sicatoka]

MSU-Mankato is showing some innovation with their Homecoming:

immediately following Mankato's homecoming football game vs the Sioux,

the Mankato club lacrosse team and UND's club lacrosse team

will face off at Blakeslee Stadium so the homecoming crowd can get a taste of lacrosse.

So who won?

[The Sicatoka]

Seems DU could be a part of a record come springtime.

Men's lacrosse to play at Ohio Stadium

Seems one big football school is interested in lacrosse and causing fan interest in it.

[MplsBison]

The thing is, the new fieldturf in Ohio stadium is permanently colored as a football field.

[The Sicatoka]

Did I say they were moving to the Horseshoe? No ....

I said they're choosing to showcase an actual spring sport before the (made up to appease folks who want to practice 12 months per year) spring football game.