Where are the Maryland club teams?

[wakelacrosse]

Wake Forest has 5 from MD. I bet Elon has most of their team from there.

[Nick]

We have 9 of 34. Only 2 from SC.

[Rob Graff]

All but one of UMD's players are from Minnesota. One is from Michigan.

[Lom]

All but one of UMD's players are from Minnesota. One is from Michigan.

Are you sure a bout that? I see 15 from md and 2 from DC which basically counts as MD. Some of the high schools they come out of my team has played, I may have played a few of these guys. In fact Zach Hinton, defensemen played on my rival team Liberty High School.

Our team has 5 out of MD, including me, that's why I'm alittle biased on this whole MD being the best and all.

[Rob Graff]

UMD - University of Minnesota Duluth Not University of Maryland.

I'm sure I'm rigth about Duluth.

[naptownlax]

i guess this is probably a question directed more towards the guys from the selc, but feel that its a pretty fair question in general...
whats the status ofany teams in mdia moving towards varsity programs. I guess specifically, whats the status of particularly ACC schools who have club programs but are still fairly well located for recruiting if the sport ever became varsity. At this point, there are only 4 varsity ACC programs and i didn't know what the situation was with other ACC teams possibly moving to varsity and expanding that conference (which i think would be great - the players are out there, and though they'd get clobbered for a few years, itd be great for the sport and ACC). It would seem that the opportunity (especially geographically) would be there, but didn't know what exactly was all involved. I guess this question would pertain to teams like CSU as well, if anyone from there wants to add some input.

[Sonny]

whats the status ofany teams in mdia moving towards varsity programs. I guess specifically, whats the status of particularly ACC schools who have club programs but are still fairly well located for recruiting if the sport ever became varsity.

Two words:
Title Nine

It won't happen anytime soon.

[naptownlax]

one word:

bummer

[John Paul]

Sonny's right, although there are a few teams that may be moving in that direction.

South Carolina School of Art and Design, in the SELC, will be varsity next year.

Florida State has had a lot of rumors swirling around in the past year, and they are campaigning for a varsity team there. That doesn't mean it will happen, but most MDIA teams are not actively pursuing it like they seem to be. If it's going to happen there, expect it to be at least 4 or 5 years away.

I know there's been talk about Lindenwood.

It's a lot easier to add programs at smaller schools where budgets aren't as much of a factor or where they are looking to sports like lacrosse to help draw certain kinds of students. Remember that the quality of the current club program usually doesn't have any bearing on an athletic department's decision process to add varsity sports. It's all about money.

[Thriller]

Vanderbilt has 9 guys from maryland...and 1 from tennessee...

[OAKS]

Sonny's right, although there are a few teams that may be moving in that direction.

South Carolina School of Art and Design, in the SELC, will be varsity next year.

I'm still miffed about this. They're in the NAIA, so aside from a little extra support from the school, what will this get them? I'm not saying another varsity team is a bad thing, far from it, I'm just curious who they're gonna play and what the other details are.

[Kevin OBrien]

South Carolina School of Art and Design, in the SELC, will be varsity next year.

It's actually, SCAD, the Savannah College of Art and Design. I think (although I'm not certain) they'd compete as at D2 school, which might mean the Deep South Conference.

They're located in Savannah, Georgia, and would be Georgia's first varsity lacrosse program at the college level. Others in the SELC (excluding Virginia and NC) are Limestone and Presbyterian College in South Carolina and St. Leo's in Florida. PC didn't have a club team prior to going varsity, so I'm not sure how much of an affect that has on a school choosing to start up a varsity program.

[Dulax31]

If there is a will, there is a way, there is always a thing called donations, like FSU getting their donation this year, they look as if they are making efforts towards moving to vasity status, if the schools in the north east can find a way, then i would think some others schools might if there were a big enough push for it?

[John Paul]

FSU got a $350,000 donation for a field that is prioritized for the band first, then football and lacrosse. That's obviously a huge donation, but it would take $10 million to $20 million to endow a major Division 1 program, and double that if the school also required endowing the complementary women's programs to offset it. Plus many schools would have to add millions to that tab for new facilities and extra staffing to support the teams (aside from coaches). If a school is willing to do it without endowment money, ie. they have the extra revenue to kick in the extra budget themselves, then you could do it for much less. The problem is there aren't too many big time D1 schools that have extra dollars floating around. They're all desperate to find new revenue streams and/or cut spending. It could be done some places if they cut other men's sports to make room, but that's a political nightmare for them. I'm not intending to be the doom and gloom guy, but that's the unfortunate reality of big time college athletics right now.

[onpoint]

The other point of contetion is this: What's the real motiviation to move to varsity? I know it's hindsight, but I would not trade my years at CSU for any time on a mediocre DI team's roster. And frankly, the vast majority of teams that do go DI will be mediocre at best for a long time. People always talk about location and how FSU (for example) would draw recruits very well, but the bottom line is that the best players in the country are still going to go to the same four or five DI schools that they always have. Syracuse, Princeton, Johns Hopkins etc. are THE destination for a top notch DI prospect.

I don't think that moving to varsity should be the main motivation for the MDIA. We are here to be exactly what we already are: A viable and competitive alternative to varsity lacrosse. I've said this for several years now, but I believe that with our relative lack of restrictions and the growing level of high school talent around the country, you will see the MDIA's top 15 and Div. III's top 15 at very similar levels.