So I was looking through some old thread and came across one about
Johns Hopkins , Big Ten Lacrosse and the future . I did a quick internet search to see if anything new had popped up but nothing had. I did find an interesting article by
College Crosse (an SB Nation affiliate). It talks about the difficulty of scheduling with both Hopkins and Navy in conferences and the loss of playing a long time rival (they've met 90 times).
They speculate about more schools adding lacrosse and the implications of that.
"As more schools add D1 lacrosse, things like Hopkins not playing Navy this year will continue to happen more frequently, so it doesn’t make sense to get all worked up about the inevitable. Indeed, I don’t think it is crazy to think schools like American, George Washington, George Mason, LaSalle, all get a men’s lacrosse program in the next 5-7 years, which would cause a major shake-up in college lacrosse. You may think its far-fetched, but all four schools have the right ingredients to add a men’s lacrosse program: they are all in talent rich areas, they each already have a women’s lacrosse program, they each sponsor more women’s sports than men’s sports, & none of them have a football program."
You could certainly see the creation and/or expansion of conference. The trickle down effect on some of the smaller conferences could be devistating.
"You could very well see an Atlantic 10 conference in men’s lacrosse in the next 5-10 years, if George Washington, George Mason, or LaSalle added a men’s lacrosse program. There are already four natural Atlantic 10 teams with D1 men’s lacrosse programs Richmond, UMass, St. Joe’s, & (in 2019) St. Bonaventure; the addition of one more A-10 team plus an associate member (maybe Cleveland St.) would give the Atlantic 10 six teams, and an automatic qualifier. The impact of the A-10 adding a conference would be significant, as conferences like the NEC, CAA, & SoCon would be affected if St. Joe’s, UMass, & or Richmond, respectively, left to form an A-10.
One of the most interesting parts of this article discussed how it made "financial sense" to add a lacrosse program. With schools tuition continuing to increase, less aid from their respective states and decreasing enrollment, St. Bonaventure athletic director Tim Kenney wanted to add the program.
""“Yeah, there are start-up costs and there’s some scholarship money, but it’s not a lot and its distributed among the team. “But, in exchange, we get 40 to 50 new students that we might not normally have and if they stay four years that’s a significant financial influx.”"
Overall, I just thought this was an interesting article about a quickly growing NCAA sport. I suggest you read the article, it's a good read.