(04-04-2022 07:04 PM)HatterFan Wrote:  

(04-04-2022 06:16 PM)dbackjon Wrote:  

(04-04-2022 05:54 PM)HatterFan Wrote:  some Division I men's lacrosse realignment news - effective next season.

Southern Conference is closing up shop. Hampton to the CAA as part of their all-sports move, Jacksonville back home to the ASUN and taking Mercer with them. VMI returning to the MAAC, where it played back when the other Keydets teams were in the Big South.

Richmond will be part of the new Atlantic 10 men's lacrosse lineup, along with Saint Joseph's, UMass and St. Bonaventure. The remaining SoCon team, High Point, is expected to be offered A10 affiliate membership. If so the A10 will still need one more team to take ownership of the SoCon's AQ berth. Fairfield and Hobart have been rumored. Even though the AQ minimum is 6, there's no harm having 7 or more for ease of scheduling.

Why does Fairfield play in the CAA for Lacrosse instead of the MAAC?

Hobart leaving the NEC would drop them to 5?

Fairfield was allowed to walk away from MAAC men's lacrosse 20 years ago or thereabouts - they wanted to be full scholarship and at the time the MAAC was a zero scholarship league. The Stags have played in the ECAC, Great Western Lacrosse League and now the CAA.

Over the years the MAAC increased lax investment and it's now at the D1 maximum. The MAAC didn't call Fairfield back home because them leaving the CAA would have dropped that conference under the 6-team threshold and the MAAC thought that wasn't an ethical thing to do to another league.