Lax and asun

[Ute2]

@philidelphiaute!

you are the onlyu of Utah lacrosse.  Care to share your thoughts on Utah’s new conference affiliation?

I know there were whispering about possible membership in acc or big 10 or big east.  

is this a good fit?

and is it an autobid league?

[dystopiamembrane]

As I understand it, the ASUN received AQ status for the 2022 NCAA Tournament. insidelacrosse.com article

[dystopiamembrane]

a comment on the article

jbeneduci — It’s great to see Men’s Lax either expand or independents like Utah and Cleveland State find conference affiliation… but one more 2nd tier conference AQ without expanding the # of NCAA bids to 18 or 20, will significantly diminish the quality of the tournament. The program #s still won’t fall within the NCAA’s preferred 20-25% threshold.

[Ute2]

Dystopianmembrane!!!

you are the onlyu of Utah lacrosse!!!

[dystopiamembrane]

Don’t you dare.

[Trailgoat]

Silly East Coast commentary. Fact is, LAX is blowing up out West more than any other college sport has done in such a short time. I have friends with kids playing at top college programs connected to the H.S. club scene, etc on the East coast.

They’re fully aware of what is going on out West. In their terms, the MCLA league/program set up is a sleeping giant and has a lot of respect giving kids out West great opportunity to play LAX in college without all the demands/stress of an athletic scholarship.

MCLA gives kids opportunity to play LAX in a well organized/structured format with financial support through other means (academics), sponsorship, etc. Kids can major in Engineering without being strapped by the school demands and pressure from the athletic dept. and coaches. At some point the P12, MWC will make the leap. Utah is the West Coast pioneer for the sport. Utah competing with UD is crazy. Utah has something like the 2nd most highest crowd attendance in the nation. Watch out…here it comes! Go Utes!

[PhiladelphiaUte]

I wouldn’t call us the “West Coast pioneer” for lacrosse.  Air Force had been fielding a varsity program since 1967, and Denver had been playing D-1 since 1999.  At best, we’re the “Pac-12 pioneer” for the sport.

[PhiladelphiaUte]

If given a choice for a LAX league, I’d take the BigTen first, the ACC as a very, very, VERY close 2nd, and the Big East as a distant 3rd.  But my 4th choice would have been the SoCon — because of Air Force.  And that’s pretty much where we are with the ASUN, as AFA will be leaving the SoCon to join the ASUN next year.

Putting into a “football” perspective…

…joining the BigTen, ACC, or Big East is like joining a P5 league.  Or at least it is from a SOS perspective.  Those are the elite teams.

…joining the Ivy, Colonial, or Patriot league is like joining the old Big East, before they’d lost their “BCS” status.

…joining the SoCon or ASUN would be like joining the MWC — after Utah and TCU had already left.  So it’s not particularly “prestigious”.  But it IS better than independence.  Because as an indy, our only shot at the NCAA tournament would be as an at-large team, and those bids always go to the BigTen, ACC, and Big East.  However, in the ASUN, Utah would be perennial conference contender (AFA and Robert Morris would be our primary challengers).  So in that sense, I’d say that while it isn’t “ideal” — aka, BigTen, ACC, Big East — it IS an improvement.  And for what it’s worth, our chances of making the tournament in the ASUN is far more likely than in any of the aforementioned big 3.  So at least in the short-term, we’re probably better off in the ASUN. 

[PhiladelphiaUte]

I also probably should have mentioned that out of all the existing lacrosse conferences in Div-1, the ASUN makes the most sense from a geographic/travel perspective.

Now if only we could poach Denver and Marquette from the Big East….

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