Sierra Lynn
April 22, 2020
Tuscaloosa, Ala. - The University of Alabama has 21 varsity sports in the NCAA and over 600 student-athletes. UA also has 33 competitive club sports. The men’s lacrosse team is just one of them.
For 35 years, the team has been growing and developing its program. The 2020 roster had 48 players and four coaches. Bama plays in the Division I SouthEastern Lacrosse Conference in the Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association. The division contains 76 teams and eight different conferences.
The SELC has 27 Division I teams and 13 Division II teams. There are over 771 players in the D1 SELC. The MCLA holds annual conference tournaments and has a National Championship that is sponsored by New Balance. Over 70 colleges in the nation have D1 men’s lacrosse programs. These schools, however, are mostly located in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast region. The Southeastern Conference does not have one D1 lacrosse program. The Southern Conference only has eight teams.
Since the start of lacrosse, it has always been more popular in the North than the South. There are several factors as to why this situation is the case and why lacrosse is just now starting to become a popular sport. Lacrosse in southern states has just started to grow in the past years, and it is starting to catch up to the experienced northern teams.
Freshman goalkeeper, Landon “Sunshine” Wood said, “I mean it would be massive, I think it would be massive not just like for us here specifically and like us at the ...It would be huge just for the game, you know cause it really would be like our college lacrosse is more of a north [sport]… having like official college teams in the south would, I mean, would just be huge for the growth of the sport. I mean there are just a ton of states that lacrosse really isn’t a big deal, and I think Alabama is uh one of them, you know where there is just not many kids playing high school lacrosse.
Bama lacrosse player Daniel Burgos from Doylestown, Pennsylvania said, “It is definitely different [coming from the northern level to the southern one], but there is like a lot of northern kids here that play on the team. So it is not as different… In the north, everybody has like top 10 [high school lacrosse] teams, and like down here most high schools don’t even have like an actual team.”
Although Burgos is correct that several high schools do not have a lacrosse program in Alabama, he makes a good point about Northern players coming down to the South for college and playing lacrosse. One way lacrosse can and will grow is if the experienced players teach and play alongside the less experienced ones. Another way lacrosse will flourish in America is if kids see college players playing the sport. Kids look up to college athletes, especially ones from schools near them. If lacrosse joined the Southeastern Conference in the NCAA, it would be on a much larger platform, allowing more kids to learn and watch the sport.
So why does Alabama not have a D1 men’s lacrosse program, and how would they convert over?
1. Money
It takes a large amount of money to fund an athletic program. Penn State’s women and men’s Ice Hockey program became a varsity sport in 2013. It cost them $88 million to start the program. This would mean that Alabama lacrosse could not just rely on a piggy bank. The team would have to find donors and sponsorships. The lacrosse team would need a field and facility to practice and play on, and it would need money for season dues and athletic scholarships.
Bama currently practices and plays on UA’s recreational fields. Just recently, the team has paid to play in Hoover, Alabama at the Hoover Metropolitan Complex. Players and coaches drive an hour to play and all of the team’s home games are free. This situation is causing the team to have a deficit, not a surplus. If Alabama lacrosse were to have its own facility, then the team could charge for tickets, have concession stands, and sell Bama lacrosse gear. To have the possibility of transferring from club to Division I, the team needs to find a way to make a profit in money.
2. Legalities
One of the biggest legalities in creating a new varsity sport is maintaining the Title IX rule of having an equal or larger amount of women’s sports to men’s. Therefore, most likely if Alabama men’s lacrosse team were to convert, so would the women’s team. However, this should help with the financial responsibility more than it would hurt it because both teams could share the expenses. It would also give the women’s team a larger platform to inspire girls and young women to play the sport. Another factor is scheduling. According to the NCAA, of the required games Bama would have to play, 100% has to be against other teams in the SEC. This requirement would mean that Alabama could not be the only school to transfer over to D1. Other schools in the SEC would have to make the switch. If not, Alabama would be a team of one and could not play any games. In this case, it would be better for Bama to stay a club sport.
3. Interest
People need to be interested in lacrosse. Coaches, players, and fans have to show a special interest in the sport and be willing to put in the work to make the switch happen. This means for coaches and players, they have to put in the time to become competitive and successful in their current leagues. For fans, this requires them to show up, spread awareness, and do what they do best: spend money on the team. Furthermore, kids and high schoolers need to want to learn the game and grow their skills; after all, they will be the next generation of players. The earlier children learn the game and the more established the sport becomes (especially in the South), players and the sport itself will evolve into a more competitive one. A college is not going to put in the money and time to switch over an athletic program if it cannot compete with the other D1 teams. The person, however, who needs to have the most interest is UA’s Athletic Director, Grey Byrnes. Byrnes has to see the potential in the team and have the desire to turn it into a varsity sport. Without Byrnes’ green-light, Bama lacrosse will never be a NCAA Division I program.
These three factors seem like big hurdles to make for a team to become Division I, but the Bama lacrosse team is willing to take the leap to get over them. Head coach Shane Ryan said it is one of the team's number one priorities.
“It would be huge [to go from club to D1]. I mean that is our main goal. Although it is several years off, I mean that is something that we are always working towards and figuring out, ‘ok what are the steps and how can we get there,’ but obviously first we got to put in the work and you know taking the team to the next level, but it would be awesome. I mean… every SEC school has a club. So seeing that go D1 in a couple of years would be awesome.” Ryan said.
Coaches and players alike agree turning the club lacrosse program into D1 would only be a positive for the team.
“...Say we would turn into a D1 program that would massively boost like our, you know, who we can play, like the quality of teams we could play. You know people would want to come here to play lacrosse. I think that would be huge just for, you know, the quality of our team.” Wood said.
In the last ten years, 18 college lacrosse programs have become varsity teams. The University of Michigan made the switch with its men’s lacrosse team in 2012, and they were able to keep former players. When Alabama makes the switch, these are the teams they should model after:
Jacksonville University- 2010
Mercer University- 2010
University of Michigan- 2012
High Point University- 2013
Marquette University- 2013
Monmouth University- 2013
Quinnipiac University- 2013
Boston University- 2014
Furman University- 2014
University of Richmond- 2014
University of Massachusetts Lowell- 2015
New Jersey Institute of Technology- 2015
Hampton University- 2016
Cleveland State University- 2017
St. Bonaventure University- 2019
University of Utah- 2019
Long Island University- 2020
Merrimack College- 2020
University of Alabama- ????
The Crimson Tide lacrosse team definitely has the work ethic to make it happen. If it were up to the players and coaches they would have already made the switch to Division I. One thing is true, lacrosse as a whole and especially in the SEC has some exciting years ahead of it. The growth of lacrosse is already exponentially growing and making it a divisional sport in the SEC would only help this growth.
Lacrosse, just like other sports, inspires people every day to stay active, be disciplined, communicate, and be competitive. It deserves to be in the spotlight that other sports get to see. Whether Bama lacrosse stays a club sport or transfers to a varsity sport one thing will always be true: the players have the heart and passion of a Division I team, and they represent the sport well.
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