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Could the SEC start its own lacrosse league??
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AllTideUp Offline
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Post: #21
RE: Could the SEC start its own lacrosse league??
(02-09-2018 08:21 PM)NoDak Wrote:  
(02-09-2018 10:02 AM)AllTideUp Wrote:  
(02-09-2018 08:51 AM)NoDak Wrote:  An SEC hockey league is far fetched, but there are some SEC schools that may give it a go. Alabama may talk too much, but their club team officials say a rink for a varsity team is coming and upgraded their club team to the highest level. UGA is making noise about upgrading to a higher level of club. Tennesesee and Kentucky have rinks in their cities that host minor league teams. UAH is the only current southern DI hockey team.

I wouldn't say it's that far fetched. It won't happen next year or anything, but if the league can find about 6 willing participants then it could happen.

Bama may very well be moving in that direction. I know there have been discussions in the AD about benchmarks that need to be met. A lot of good work has already been done by the guys that run the club organization. They essentially approach recruiting like a D1 program as it stands. They can't offer scholarships, but UA's new enrollment strategies have made it a lot easier to attract kids from other regions of the country. That and they get decent crowds at their home games.

One thing to consider, if Bama adds hockey then you can bet that Auburn will at least take a long hard look at it.

An interesting wrinkle in this could be what happens with the next wave of realignment. Oklahoma is also in ACHA D1...if they join the SEC then that's potentially another member. Arkansas has also made that move so there's another prospect.

Knoxville still has a minor league team although I think the one in Lexington is defunct. Nonetheless, let's also remember that Vandy plays in what is now a pretty solid hockey market. It might be a smart investment for them.

All in all, hockey will never be as popular in the South as it is in other regions, but it's still one of the more profitable professional sports. College hockey has subsequently grown to where it's not unusual to see it on TV. That means there could be an opportunity to market our schools to people across the country. I'm not sure the folks at the SEC office are planning to capitalize on this, but if they're smart then they're at least considering it.
Would love to see it happen, but five or six schools adding it at the same time would amost be a miracle. Iowa State has not even added a varsity program and they have had a top club program for more than 20 years.

It would take some degree of coordination from the conference office to really put it together.

I wouldn't say it required a miracle, but it's certainly not a top priority at this time.
02-09-2018 10:31 PM
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AllTideUp Offline
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Post: #22
RE: Could the SEC start its own lacrosse league??
(02-09-2018 08:15 PM)JRsec Wrote:  The only time we ever played soccer was at P.E. and it was played on the football field with the two posts of the football goal serving as the open space you had to kick it through to score. As you might well imagine the football field was crowned for drainage so getting a soccer ball to just stay on the field was a chore. But mostly we played a homemade variation. It was a game that would be surely banned today. It was full contact tackle without pads and it too involved a soccer ball. The biggest difference is that you could run with, pass, or kick the ball through the goal and it was continuous action except for out of bounds kicks. It was like scrumless rugby defended like football and extremely oriented toward contact, but it was crazy fun!

Sounds a lot like Aussie rules football.
02-09-2018 10:33 PM
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Post: #23
RE: Could the SEC start its own lacrosse league??
(02-09-2018 07:22 PM)ColKurtz Wrote:  
(02-09-2018 06:10 PM)JRsec Wrote:  
(02-09-2018 04:12 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  
(02-09-2018 03:17 PM)ColKurtz Wrote:  
(02-09-2018 10:16 AM)AllTideUp Wrote:  Men's soccer would be an interesting prospect. We've already got Women's soccer at every school, I believe, so the basic facilities already exist.

I had no idea the SEC did not have a men's soccer program. The ACC has one more men's sport than the SEC, more if you count sports that the majority of the league does not play (wrestling:6, lacrosse:5, fencing:4). This despite the SEC having much more massive athletic revenues vs. ACC top to bottom. More women's programs than the SEC, too, so it's not all title IX.

Any idea why the SEC doesn't field more programs like men's soccer or wrestling since it seems they could well afford to?

My opinion? It's more a matter of return on investment.

I know the other major conferences sponsor more sports than we do, but for the most part I'm not sure why some of these leagues really go all out to field large numbers of programs that can't generate revenue. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but I'm just not what there is to gain.

Most SEC schools have pretty much the same sports profile with a just a few exceptions here and there. On this list you'll see what we sponsor as well as which sports the individual schools offer that the conference does not.

Breakdown of sports that the SEC sponsors

From what I've read, Roy Kramer(former SEC commish) basically sat everyone down in the old days and laid out a philosophy for how the SEC would go about deciding which sports to sponsor. He basically said that we should be able to compete for national championships in everything we dip our hand into. And thus if we feel that we wouldn't be competitive at the highest levels of a particular sport then we would put that on the back burner.

Of course, a lot has changed in the last 30 years and today the SEC could probably compete at a high level in several other sports that we don't sponsor, but the question then becomes return on investment. What do you gain by investing millions in a particular sport and does it help promote the school or the league?

These days, I think it's all about television. If you can turn something into a decent TV sport then you can promote the school or at least have content for a conference network. If not then perhaps any new sports would simply siphon off resources from things that could pay dividends. The equation is probably a little different for every school and so that's probably why you see some schools offer sports that the league does not sponsor.

The only thing the league has added in recent years is Equestrian which ironically enough is not something that a lot of schools compete in nationally. I don't think the NCAA even sponsors it actually.

An ACC fan groaning about the SEC not offering Men's Soccer, Fencing, or Lacrosse is a lot like the Polish claiming to have the best horse soldiers and biplanes in WWII. When you are up against what counts (mechanized armor and ME109's & YAKs what difference does it make? What counts in the SEC are Football, Basketball (men's), Baseball, and women's Softball. Those are the sports that pay the bills for Track & Field (indoor and outdoor), women's Basketball, Swimming and Diving (men's and women's), Tennis & Golf (mens and womens) and Equestrian, Crew, Bass Fishing, etc, depending upon the school.

BTW: Can you imagine how fast Lacrosse would come to a screeching halt if Alabama and Auburn encouraged their third string football players to pick up the game. Jim Brown for Syracuse was just as much a stud on the Lacrosse Field as he was on the Gridiron. The children of the wine & cheese crowds would run and hide if the SEC decided to crash the Lacrosse party for the upwardly mobile upper middle class.

Who was groaning? I was genuinely curious. Soccer is the 2nd most popular youth sport and the 5th most popular college sport. Twice as many soccer players in college vs cross country, 3x the players of golf and tennis. Surely there are a lot of youth soccer players who grow up wanting to go to an SEC school but go elsewhere because soccer isn't offered.

cant really compare a team sport like soccer to tennis golf and XC. Those sports don't need nearly the same amount of players as soccer does
02-10-2018 02:05 PM
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Post: #24
RE: Could the SEC start its own lacrosse league??
This reminds me. The University of Georgia in 1960-61, began fielding intercollegiate wrestling and men gymnastics teams. The wrestling team disbanded in 1980 though they had success including winning the Mat Town tournament the year before in Lock Haven, PA. The reasons cited for dropping the sport was due to a lack of enough other competitive programs in the region, and a move toward more equity for funding women's sports. The gymnastics team was discontinued in 1986.
02-10-2018 02:45 PM
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Post: #25
RE: Could the SEC start its own lacrosse league??
(02-10-2018 02:45 PM)OdinFrigg Wrote:  This reminds me. The University of Georgia in 1960-61, began fielding intercollegiate wrestling and men gymnastics teams. The wrestling team disbanded in 1980 though they had success including winning the Mat Town tournament the year before in Lock Haven, PA. The reasons cited for dropping the sport was due to a lack of enough other competitive programs in the region, and a move toward more equity for funding women's sports. The gymnastics team was discontinued in 1986.

Yeah, I think Auburn lost men's wrestling to Title IX in '76 or '77. I would think that would have left the Dawgs precious little to work with.
02-10-2018 04:27 PM
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Post: #26
RE: Could the SEC start its own lacrosse league??
(02-10-2018 04:27 PM)JRsec Wrote:  
(02-10-2018 02:45 PM)OdinFrigg Wrote:  This reminds me. The University of Georgia in 1960-61, began fielding intercollegiate wrestling and men gymnastics teams. The wrestling team disbanded in 1980 though they had success including winning the Mat Town tournament the year before in Lock Haven, PA. The reasons cited for dropping the sport was due to a lack of enough other competitive programs in the region, and a move toward more equity for funding women's sports. The gymnastics team was discontinued in 1986.

Yeah, I think Auburn lost men's wrestling to Title IX in '76 or '77. I would think that would have left the Dawgs precious little to work with.
Wrestling is a big deal at Mizzou. I think they had to join the MAC for wrestling. We have had some national champs.
02-10-2018 07:58 PM
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Post: #27
RE: Could the SEC start its own lacrosse league??
As more P5 programs turn their football into the black, it really shines a spotlight on the Title IX challenges, imo. That making things equal forces departments to swell in participation and costs, when, really, football expenses alone drive operational costs through the ceiling. Football has always been expensive to field, and it has taken so much media funding to turn it profitable. Title IX added some challenges, but don't fog the obvious. Football is finally paying for itself in places, but, man, when it wasn't...

It doesn't surprise me that a lot of SEC programs slashed certain sports back in the day. Football wasn't bringing in the millions it does today, though it still cost schools a heck of a lot to run.

It used to be that basketball as a revenue-producing certainty. However, as that content has been de-emphasized in media contracts while coaching salaries and staffs increase, we're starting to see the creep of costs there.

Should be interesting if more major programs can turn profits over time in football, and then watching what happens to basketball programs.
(This post was last modified: 02-11-2018 07:25 AM by The Cutter of Bish.)
02-11-2018 07:23 AM
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Post: #28
RE: Could the SEC start its own lacrosse league??
JR...SEC 3rd string FB guys would get crushed in lacrosse. You can't be serious these guys could pick up the game and dominate?

However, the SEC could do well to sponsor a 6 team league: UF, UGA, SC, TN, Vandy and Bama. Enough northern kids would want to come down and the moneyed areas of the larger Southern Cities have enough players to field competitive teams. Lacrosse games actually have advantages: most games are exactly 2 hours long (TV Friendly vs Baseball), the sport is conducive to tailgating and many of those Lacrosse players become rich after graduation.
02-11-2018 05:16 PM
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Post: #29
RE: Could the SEC start its own lacrosse league??
I actually think LSU would be in the mix - even the Sugar Bowl sponsors lacrosse tournaments in the New Orleans area, so it’s not like there isn’t local talent. The eighth team would probably be Auburn, Texas A&M, or Kentucky.
02-11-2018 05:51 PM
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Post: #30
RE: Could the SEC start its own lacrosse league??
(02-09-2018 08:15 PM)JRsec Wrote:  
(02-09-2018 07:22 PM)ColKurtz Wrote:  
(02-09-2018 06:10 PM)JRsec Wrote:  
(02-09-2018 04:12 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  
(02-09-2018 03:17 PM)ColKurtz Wrote:  I had no idea the SEC did not have a men's soccer program. The ACC has one more men's sport than the SEC, more if you count sports that the majority of the league does not play (wrestling:6, lacrosse:5, fencing:4). This despite the SEC having much more massive athletic revenues vs. ACC top to bottom. More women's programs than the SEC, too, so it's not all title IX.

Any idea why the SEC doesn't field more programs like men's soccer or wrestling since it seems they could well afford to?

My opinion? It's more a matter of return on investment.

I know the other major conferences sponsor more sports than we do, but for the most part I'm not sure why some of these leagues really go all out to field large numbers of programs that can't generate revenue. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but I'm just not what there is to gain.

Most SEC schools have pretty much the same sports profile with a just a few exceptions here and there. On this list you'll see what we sponsor as well as which sports the individual schools offer that the conference does not.

Breakdown of sports that the SEC sponsors

From what I've read, Roy Kramer(former SEC commish) basically sat everyone down in the old days and laid out a philosophy for how the SEC would go about deciding which sports to sponsor. He basically said that we should be able to compete for national championships in everything we dip our hand into. And thus if we feel that we wouldn't be competitive at the highest levels of a particular sport then we would put that on the back burner.

Of course, a lot has changed in the last 30 years and today the SEC could probably compete at a high level in several other sports that we don't sponsor, but the question then becomes return on investment. What do you gain by investing millions in a particular sport and does it help promote the school or the league?

These days, I think it's all about television. If you can turn something into a decent TV sport then you can promote the school or at least have content for a conference network. If not then perhaps any new sports would simply siphon off resources from things that could pay dividends. The equation is probably a little different for every school and so that's probably why you see some schools offer sports that the league does not sponsor.

The only thing the league has added in recent years is Equestrian which ironically enough is not something that a lot of schools compete in nationally. I don't think the NCAA even sponsors it actually.

An ACC fan groaning about the SEC not offering Men's Soccer, Fencing, or Lacrosse is a lot like the Polish claiming to have the best horse soldiers and biplanes in WWII. When you are up against what counts (mechanized armor and ME109's & YAKs what difference does it make? What counts in the SEC are Football, Basketball (men's), Baseball, and women's Softball. Those are the sports that pay the bills for Track & Field (indoor and outdoor), women's Basketball, Swimming and Diving (men's and women's), Tennis & Golf (mens and womens) and Equestrian, Crew, Bass Fishing, etc, depending upon the school.

BTW: Can you imagine how fast Lacrosse would come to a screeching halt if Alabama and Auburn encouraged their third string football players to pick up the game. Jim Brown for Syracuse was just as much a stud on the Lacrosse Field as he was on the Gridiron. The children of the wine & cheese crowds would run and hide if the SEC decided to crash the Lacrosse party for the upwardly mobile upper middle class.

Who was groaning? I was genuinely curious. Soccer is the 2nd most popular youth sport and the 5th most popular college sport. Twice as many soccer players in college vs cross country, 3x the players of golf and tennis. Surely there are a lot of youth soccer players who grow up wanting to go to an SEC school but go elsewhere because soccer isn't offered.

Quite possibly. But the women who play at the high school level are bountiful. I can't recall a single article about boy's soccer programs in most of the Southern towns in Georgia and Alabama outside of places like Atlanta and some upscale private schools.

I have nothing against men's soccer. I'm just not sure we have a supply of high school players to draw from. But you are right that more municipalities are going toward soccer if for no other reason than equipping it is much cheaper than equipping youth football. In the deep South in high school the sports are Football then baseball and basketball is what you do in between them. Baseball dominates the Summer and late Spring. I played basketball back in the day because the football coach made me. I played baseball because I loved it!

The only time we ever played soccer was at P.E. and it was played on the football field with the two posts of the football goal serving as the open space you had to kick it through to score. As you might well imagine the football field was crowned for drainage so getting a soccer ball to just stay on the field was a chore. But mostly we played a homemade variation. It was a game that would be surely banned today. It was full contact tackle without pads and it too involved a soccer ball. The biggest difference is that you could run with, pass, or kick the ball through the goal and it was continuous action except for out of bounds kicks. It was like scrumless rugby defended like football and extremely oriented toward contact, but it was crazy fun!

We used to play something similar to that during 5 am spring football workouts. Except we'd play it indoors on the basketball court, and we'd play with a medicine ball (sort of like a kickball but 15-20 lbs). The goal was marked by tape on the concrete wall on each end of the court. Bloody hell, it was awesome! Of course, some days we'd just play full-contact, dribbling-optional basketball instead. I graduated in 2001 so it's not that long ago.
(This post was last modified: 02-12-2018 02:03 AM by Captain Bearcat.)
02-12-2018 02:01 AM
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Post: #31
RE: Could the SEC start its own lacrosse league??
It seems odd to think that male soccer players from traditional hotbeds wouldn't immediately elevate SEC soccer (or hell, any sport) to national prominence.

Would you rather play soccer at Akron, or Alabama?
Would you rather play lacrosse at Towson, or Tennessee?
Would you rather wrestle at Montana, or Mississippi State?

Don't know the answer. But if the SEC wanted a national championship in wrestling it could have one in a decade.
02-12-2018 01:32 PM
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Post: #32
RE: Could the SEC start its own lacrosse league??
Eleven SEC teams have men’s lacrosse teams in the MCLA: Georgia, Auburn, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Arkansas, LSU, Ole Miss, Tennessee, and Texas A&M.

I wonder why Mizzou, Kentucky, and Mississippi State don’t have teams.
(This post was last modified: 02-13-2018 04:55 AM by DawgNBama.)
02-13-2018 04:47 AM
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Post: #33
RE: Could the SEC start its own lacrosse league??
(02-09-2018 08:15 PM)JRsec Wrote:  
(02-09-2018 07:22 PM)ColKurtz Wrote:  
(02-09-2018 06:10 PM)JRsec Wrote:  
(02-09-2018 04:12 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  
(02-09-2018 03:17 PM)ColKurtz Wrote:  I had no idea the SEC did not have a men's soccer program. The ACC has one more men's sport than the SEC, more if you count sports that the majority of the league does not play (wrestling:6, lacrosse:5, fencing:4). This despite the SEC having much more massive athletic revenues vs. ACC top to bottom. More women's programs than the SEC, too, so it's not all title IX.

Any idea why the SEC doesn't field more programs like men's soccer or wrestling since it seems they could well afford to?

My opinion? It's more a matter of return on investment.

I know the other major conferences sponsor more sports than we do, but for the most part I'm not sure why some of these leagues really go all out to field large numbers of programs that can't generate revenue. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but I'm just not what there is to gain.

Most SEC schools have pretty much the same sports profile with a just a few exceptions here and there. On this list you'll see what we sponsor as well as which sports the individual schools offer that the conference does not.

Breakdown of sports that the SEC sponsors

From what I've read, Roy Kramer(former SEC commish) basically sat everyone down in the old days and laid out a philosophy for how the SEC would go about deciding which sports to sponsor. He basically said that we should be able to compete for national championships in everything we dip our hand into. And thus if we feel that we wouldn't be competitive at the highest levels of a particular sport then we would put that on the back burner.

Of course, a lot has changed in the last 30 years and today the SEC could probably compete at a high level in several other sports that we don't sponsor, but the question then becomes return on investment. What do you gain by investing millions in a particular sport and does it help promote the school or the league?

These days, I think it's all about television. If you can turn something into a decent TV sport then you can promote the school or at least have content for a conference network. If not then perhaps any new sports would simply siphon off resources from things that could pay dividends. The equation is probably a little different for every school and so that's probably why you see some schools offer sports that the league does not sponsor.

The only thing the league has added in recent years is Equestrian which ironically enough is not something that a lot of schools compete in nationally. I don't think the NCAA even sponsors it actually.

An ACC fan groaning about the SEC not offering Men's Soccer, Fencing, or Lacrosse is a lot like the Polish claiming to have the best horse soldiers and biplanes in WWII. When you are up against what counts (mechanized armor and ME109's & YAKs what difference does it make? What counts in the SEC are Football, Basketball (men's), Baseball, and women's Softball. Those are the sports that pay the bills for Track & Field (indoor and outdoor), women's Basketball, Swimming and Diving (men's and women's), Tennis & Golf (mens and womens) and Equestrian, Crew, Bass Fishing, etc, depending upon the school.

BTW: Can you imagine how fast Lacrosse would come to a screeching halt if Alabama and Auburn encouraged their third string football players to pick up the game. Jim Brown for Syracuse was just as much a stud on the Lacrosse Field as he was on the Gridiron. The children of the wine & cheese crowds would run and hide if the SEC decided to crash the Lacrosse party for the upwardly mobile upper middle class.

Who was groaning? I was genuinely curious. Soccer is the 2nd most popular youth sport and the 5th most popular college sport. Twice as many soccer players in college vs cross country, 3x the players of golf and tennis. Surely there are a lot of youth soccer players who grow up wanting to go to an SEC school but go elsewhere because soccer isn't offered.

Quite possibly. But the women who play at the high school level are bountiful. I can't recall a single article about boy's soccer programs in most of the Southern towns in Georgia and Alabama outside of places like Atlanta and some upscale private schools.

I have nothing against men's soccer. I'm just not sure we have a supply of high school players to draw from. But you are right that more municipalities are going toward soccer if for no other reason than equipping it is much cheaper than equipping youth football. In the deep South in high school the sports are Football then baseball and basketball is what you do in between them. Baseball dominates the Summer and late Spring. I played basketball back in the day because the football coach made me. I played baseball because I loved it!

The only time we ever played soccer was at P.E. and it was played on the football field with the two posts of the football goal serving as the open space you had to kick it through to score. As you might well imagine the football field was crowned for drainage so getting a soccer ball to just stay on the field was a chore. But mostly we played a homemade variation. It was a game that would be surely banned today. It was full contact tackle without pads and it too involved a soccer ball. The biggest difference is that you could run with, pass, or kick the ball through the goal and it was continuous action except for out of bounds kicks. It was like scrumless rugby defended like football and extremely oriented toward contact, but it was crazy fun!

Can't really speak to other states, but soccer is quite popular at the high school level in South Carolina and has been for a few decades at least.

In the SEC, South Carolina and Kentucky have soccer programs that compete in CUSA. Hard to imagine Missouri, Vandy, and possible A&M and Florida couldn't all be convinced to start men's programs.
02-14-2018 11:52 AM
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Post: #34
RE: Could the SEC start its own lacrosse league??
Even though I am an UGA fan, I can tell you from having lived in the state of Alabama for a very long time that soccer is very popular in Alabama. It is real mystery as to why Auburn & Alabama don’t have both men’s & women’s soccer teams. HA soccer is very popular in the state of Georgia, but there is a reason why both the Dawgs & the ‘Jackets don’t have soccer teams: Title IX & the fact that not enough wealthy alumni are willing to help to field a team according to an article I read. http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/sports/co...32786.html Could be why Auburn & Alabama don’t have soccer teams too. This also applies to lacrosse, I read. Hmm.
(This post was last modified: 02-14-2018 01:40 PM by DawgNBama.)
02-14-2018 01:26 PM
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Post: #35
RE: Could the SEC start its own lacrosse league??
(02-14-2018 01:26 PM)DawgNBama Wrote:  Even though I am an UGA fan, I can tell you from having lived in the state of Alabama for a very long time that soccer is very popular in Alabama. It is real mystery as to why Auburn & Alabama don’t have both men’s & women’s soccer teams. I’ll google hs soccer in Georgia too & see how popular it is over there.

Yeah, soccer is ubiquitous nationwide at this point for both men and women. Its participation rate across both genders is significantly higher than pretty much any sport outside of basketball and you'd definitely find enough high level talent to fill up men's and women's soccer teams at every Division I school and then some if they actually all had programs. Still, a lot of P5 schools outside of the SEC don't have men's soccer (such as my alma mater of Illinois) even though they would have no trouble finding the talent. It's not so much of a lack of talent issue as much as it is a funding and Title IX issue. (Interestingly enough, every Big East school has a men's soccer program, which means that their men's soccer league is straight up larger than the Big Ten and Pac-12 on top of the non-existent SEC and Big 12 leagues.)
(This post was last modified: 02-14-2018 01:49 PM by Frank the Tank.)
02-14-2018 01:42 PM
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Post: #36
RE: Could the SEC start its own lacrosse league??
I know South Alabama dropped their men’s soccer program due to Title IX years ago, although at the time USA did not sponsor softball. Vanderbilt was actually a member of the Sun Belt for soccer.

The sport that the SEC and Sun Belt need to get behind is Field Hockey, as it has a similar participation and scholarship load to soccer and lacrosse. That will allow those schools to quit using soccer or lacrosse as their offset to football and make room for another men’s sport.
02-14-2018 08:45 PM
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Post: #37
RE: Could the SEC start its own lacrosse league??
(02-14-2018 08:45 PM)chargeradio Wrote:  I know South Alabama dropped their men’s soccer program due to Title IX years ago, although at the time USA did not sponsor softball. Vanderbilt was actually a member of the Sun Belt for soccer.

The sport that the SEC and Sun Belt need to get behind is Field Hockey, as it has a similar participation and scholarship load to soccer and lacrosse. That will allow those schools to quit using soccer or lacrosse as their offset to football and make room for another men’s sport.

Vanderbilt does not even have softball, as space is not available on their campus. Would think that a softball field is nearby, and that would be Vandy's first add. Vandy and Florida and Georgia should have men's lax too, but seems there are other priorities.
(This post was last modified: 02-14-2018 09:16 PM by NoDak.)
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Post: #38
RE: Could the SEC start its own lacrosse league??
(02-14-2018 09:15 PM)NoDak Wrote:  
(02-14-2018 08:45 PM)chargeradio Wrote:  I know South Alabama dropped their men’s soccer program due to Title IX years ago, although at the time USA did not sponsor softball. Vanderbilt was actually a member of the Sun Belt for soccer.

The sport that the SEC and Sun Belt need to get behind is Field Hockey, as it has a similar participation and scholarship load to soccer and lacrosse. That will allow those schools to quit using soccer or lacrosse as their offset to football and make room for another men’s sport.

Vanderbilt does not even have softball, as space is not available on their campus. Would think that a softball field is nearby, and that would be Vandy's first add. Vandy and Florida and Georgia should have men's lax too, but seems there are other priorities.

Why not lacrosse? they can use the Football Stadium...no need to build a softball field.
02-14-2018 09:30 PM
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chargeradio Offline
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Post: #39
RE: Could the SEC start its own lacrosse league??
Vanderbilt already has women’s lacrosse (Big East, moving to AAC), but not softball or women’s volleyball (the only school in the SEC not to sponsor either sport).

Everyone else is going to have go further into boutique sport territory to add men’s lacrosse.

The shortest path might be for four schools to add rowing programs to rescue Alabama and Tennessee from the Big 12 - it doesn’t help those schools with men’s soccer or men’s lacrosse, but if four of LSU, Florida, Texas A&M, Arkansas, Missouri, Georgia, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State, all added rowing and men’s soccer it would get SEC men’s soccer off the ground (joining South Carolina and Kentucky).

Alabama and Tennessee would need to add Rifle or Triathlon as a women’s sport (Kentucky has a mixed rifle program) and then add men’s soccer. Florida would need to do the same to add men’s lacrosse.

This would allow everyone else to add men’s and women’s lacrosse as a pair.
02-14-2018 10:03 PM
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JRsec Offline
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Post: #40
RE: Could the SEC start its own lacrosse league??
(02-14-2018 09:30 PM)TexanMark Wrote:  
(02-14-2018 09:15 PM)NoDak Wrote:  
(02-14-2018 08:45 PM)chargeradio Wrote:  I know South Alabama dropped their men’s soccer program due to Title IX years ago, although at the time USA did not sponsor softball. Vanderbilt was actually a member of the Sun Belt for soccer.

The sport that the SEC and Sun Belt need to get behind is Field Hockey, as it has a similar participation and scholarship load to soccer and lacrosse. That will allow those schools to quit using soccer or lacrosse as their offset to football and make room for another men’s sport.

Vanderbilt does not even have softball, as space is not available on their campus. Would think that a softball field is nearby, and that would be Vandy's first add. Vandy and Florida and Georgia should have men's lax too, but seems there are other priorities.

Why not lacrosse? they can use the Football Stadium...no need to build a softball field.

Well Vandy does have a women's bowling team. You would think lacrosse, but bowling? At Vandy? That is the only national championship they can claim, women's bowling. Just thinking about it makes me chuckle. A wealthy well educated socialite sipping a suds, sucking on her Virginia Slims and peering through that blue-brown haze of cigarette smoke while checking her spots for delivery on split while needing a spare and all of that with the grease pencil stuck in her hair over the right ear. Now that's a vision of Vanderbilt you won't see in a national campaign!
(This post was last modified: 02-14-2018 10:05 PM by JRsec.)
02-14-2018 10:04 PM
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