thebin
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 3,866
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Post by thebin on May 23, 2011 16:36:57 GMT -5
So....Swarthmore huh?
I rest my case.
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vcjack
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 3,875
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Post by vcjack on May 31, 2011 8:38:02 GMT -5
Lacrosse is a fast-growing sport. Small private schools continue to be able to compete as bigger and more powerful schools continue to add teams. It is reasonable to assume that Georgetown has the potential to compete at the sport's highest level for the foreseeable future - and "compete" includes the ability to compete for the sole national championship offered in Divison I. This year included a variety of losses to highly successful schools, including quarterfinal participants, and ended in a mediocre record. After two years of this, lots of Hoyas want to fire the coach to get back in the playoffs. Georgetown football, by contrast, plays in the sport's second division, for a championship that was won last year, not by Syracuse or Virginia or Maryland, but by Eastern Washington. Their last winning season was in 1999. Their current schedule continues to emphasize the sport's lemmings to give the team the best potential chance for success, and yet they are one year away from a winless season. The team never draws, despite football having few activities competing for its attention (half of the lacrosse team's schedule conflicts with men's basketball. DFW has smacked me enough that I don't favor cutting the team, but it's annoying to lash out at another sport that hasn't done anything to hurt football. Football needs to get its own house in order rather than complain about how other programs with better records and better prospects don't get treated with the same kid gloves. Lacrosse could grow at current rates for a hundred years and still not be remotely as important in the culture of college (or high school) athletics as football is and always will be. Football is not like any other sport, it is indispensible in my opinion. I'm not without respect for lacrosse, a sport I grew up liking. But try as I might, I find it almost unwatchable on tv, whereas I have no problem watching IAA football on YES or fox sports regional. The capacity for Gtown football to grow exponentially with the right support and even modest results is very real. I'm not talking about competing for the IAA national title but playing and regularly winning games in a real college stadium against real schools. Gtown lacrosse on the other hand was on the cusp of being a national power for several years and still it couldn't attract much support- not enough to make even the effort to build a stadium that the anemic football program has made. Gtown lax had seemingly made it already- and got what for its success before plumetting down out of the ludicrous top 25 in a sport with 60 programs? Nothing. Give football the chance that Gtown lax got with schollies and a hot coach hire and see if they can't get something in return for a few good years. A real damn stadium for one...that it could share with the lax team that might have been expected to push for a permanent home itself when it was in the national final four. People in 1911 would have been dismissive of the chances of an east coast "college-boy" sport becoming very popular in mainstream culture too. And if someone claimed that one day this sport would be more popular than boxing, horse racing and even baseball, they probably would have been stabbed. And I realize as I write this that I could be talking about basketball too.
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whatmaroon
Silver Hoya (over 500 posts)
Posts: 819
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Post by whatmaroon on May 31, 2011 11:28:32 GMT -5
People in 1911 would have been dismissive of the chances of an east coast "college-boy" sport becoming very popular in mainstream culture too. And if someone claimed that one day this sport would be more popular than boxing, horse racing and even baseball, they probably would have been stabbed. And I realize as I write this that I could be talking about basketball too. By 1911, football was neither regional nor unpopular. The first Rose Bowl had already been played, many current BCS teams had had a football team for 15+ years, and big games drew large crowds. Was it a foregone conclusion it'd become the most popular sport? No, absolutely not, but I'd say it was both less regional and more popular than lacrosse is today. Lacrosse is probably where football was at some point in the 1880's, but I don't see the potential for explosive growth that football enjoyed. Basketball's history I don't really know.
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Post by HometownHoya on May 31, 2011 12:48:05 GMT -5
30 or so D-I lax programs have been around for 15+ years. Many programs west of the rockies have recently started teams or plans to start teams soon. The Final Four this year drew over 40k to M&T Bank in Baltimore. The first NCAA Lacrosse game was 1973/2?.
Idk I see quite a few comparisons. Also, not saying that Lacrosse will become the most popular sport, but compare it to Soccer in the US and only are they equal on the pro level.
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theexorcist
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 3,506
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Post by theexorcist on May 31, 2011 13:06:30 GMT -5
Cites below are Wikipedia.
The first NCAA championship was held in 1971. It replaced the Wingate Memorial Trophy, which dates to 1936 (!!!). The first intercollegiate lacrosse tournament was held in 1881 (!!!!!).
On college football - President Teddy Roosevelt actually intervened to keep football - which was remarkably popular - to tone down its violence (thus leading to the formation of the NCAA's predecessor in 1906). It also standardized rules, thus differentiating rugby from football.
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vcjack
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 3,875
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Post by vcjack on May 31, 2011 13:35:14 GMT -5
People in 1911 would have been dismissive of the chances of an east coast "college-boy" sport becoming very popular in mainstream culture too. And if someone claimed that one day this sport would be more popular than boxing, horse racing and even baseball, they probably would have been stabbed. And I realize as I write this that I could be talking about basketball too. By 1911, football was neither regional nor unpopular. The first Rose Bowl had already been played, many current BCS teams had had a football team for 15+ years, and big games drew large crowds. Was it a foregone conclusion it'd become the most popular sport? No, absolutely not, but I'd say it was both less regional and more popular than lacrosse is today. Lacrosse is probably where football was at some point in the 1880's, but I don't see the potential for explosive growth that football enjoyed. Basketball's history I don't really know. Very fair, I don't know enough of football's history to have been confident what was going on in 1911. But we can move the date back to 1880 as you said and my point still works, I think, because the supremacy of football occurred within the 100 year window between 1880 and 1980. Its basically pure star gazing to guess what the sports preferences of Americans will be in a generation, much less 3 or 4 down the line
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whatmaroon
Silver Hoya (over 500 posts)
Posts: 819
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Post by whatmaroon on May 31, 2011 14:24:21 GMT -5
Very fair, I don't know enough of football's history to have been confident what was going on in 1911. But we can move the date back to 1880 as you said and my point still works, I think, because the supremacy of football occurred within the 100 year window between 1880 and 1980. Its basically pure star gazing to guess what the sports preferences of Americans will be in a generation, much less 3 or 4 down the line One of the remarkable things about football is how quickly it spread. The "first" game was in 1869 and it sort of spread from there. After the 1881 or '82 rules changes, it spread extraordinarily quickly. I haven't seen good numbers, but I'd guess 100+ schools, large and small, added programs by the turn of the century. I don't doubt at all that lax is growing (I see kids practicing and playing games while driving around here, which I didn't see 15 years ago), but the sports landscape is significantly more crowded than it was 125 or so years ago and I don't see the potential for explosive growth.
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Ro
Century (over 100 posts)
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Post by Ro on May 31, 2011 15:33:55 GMT -5
Did someone actually post that pro soccer and lacrosse are equal at the pro level here in the US? Is it the same person who sold Jack his Beanstalk Beans? Equal how, exactly? While they are the extreme outliers, I would be shocked if anyone were to tell me that all of the professional lacrosse players in the US combined earned more than Thierry Henry and David Beckham did from their MLS clubs this past season ($12.1mm if you are wondering). How many pro lacrosse teams have their own, state of the art 25,000 person capacity stadium that they sell out for every home game like the Red Bulls do?
Yes, lacrosse is a great sport and is growing...but let's pump the brakes here and have a little reality check. The NCAA playoffs are very exciting and a great draw, but there is very little in terms of a next step after college. It would make for a great spectator sport at the pro level, but it is nowhere near professional soccer at this time.
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