Seems like an enrollment play more than anything. Which is good, if La Salle has extra cash lying around they need to put it into basketball.

Excellent news

In an era where more programs are cutting sports, seeing a well known university add athletic opportunities is greatly reassuring. I hope these sports become successful for the school.

All three of the women's sports are emerging sports - no official NCAA championship yet, but counts to Title IX

Didn’t Temple cut baseball?

How many Big 5 play?


Yeah, I can use a search engine but I’d rather discuss

(04-17-2024 04:52 PM)esayem Wrote:  Didn’t Temple cut baseball?

How many Big 5 play?


Yeah, I can use a search engine but I’d rather discuss

there are currently three DIVISION I baseball teams in the Philly area

This is the difference between small private schools who do have some value add (Christian/Catholic in this case) to try and lure new students, as opposed to a public school where enrollment is dictated by the state budget for the number of classes, and thus athletics makes no net difference.

(04-17-2024 03:43 PM)PeteTheChop Wrote:  Excellent news

What is acrobatics?

It will keep the A10 at 12 in baseball, replacing UMASS.

(04-17-2024 05:39 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(04-17-2024 03:43 PM)PeteTheChop Wrote:  Excellent news

What is acrobatics?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN2l0_OzCmQ

LaSalle doesn’t sponsor softball, volleyball, or women’s tennis. Those are all conference sports, why not start those up?

(04-17-2024 07:33 PM)AssKickingChicken Wrote:  LaSalle doesn’t sponsor softball, volleyball, or women’s tennis. Those are all conference sports, why not start those up?

Maybe they feel the interest from students would be more, and getting in on the ground floor of the emerging sports would allow for greater success, nationally.

(04-17-2024 07:33 PM)AssKickingChicken Wrote:  LaSalle doesn’t sponsor softball, volleyball, or women’s tennis. Those are all conference sports, why not start those up?

I believe the financial reason is the amount of full scholarships needed, and the travel required in the A10. To be competitive in, well, competitive sports that virtually everyone else already offers, the deciding factor in how good you are largely relates to money.

In the emerging sports, the options for participants are much, much more limited. LaSalle fill a roster and be net positive financially, instead of being almost assured to be net negative.

Being a conference member in volleyball and softball obligates you to travel far and wide for conference competitions, and with a larger group. They can probably have a squad of 6-8 triathletes who stick closer to home and by the nature of the sport have minimal competition expenses.

This is why many NAIA schools have 25 sports on offer. They are the masters at sports creating a profit instead of merely being an expense. They call it “Return on Athletics.” You can read about it here.

https://www.naia.org/return-on-athletics...ects/index

It’s a very different model than most rich D1 schools are using.

(04-17-2024 05:17 PM)dbackjon Wrote:  

(04-17-2024 04:52 PM)esayem Wrote:  Didn’t Temple cut baseball?

How many Big 5 play?


Yeah, I can use a search engine but I’d rather discuss

there are currently three DIVISION I baseball teams in the Philly area

So you have UPenn, Villanova, and St. Joe’s plus LaSalle and I’d include Delaware in the region.

Temple and Drexel both must have dropped.

(04-17-2024 07:38 PM)dbackjon Wrote:  

(04-17-2024 07:33 PM)AssKickingChicken Wrote:  LaSalle doesn’t sponsor softball, volleyball, or women’s tennis. Those are all conference sports, why not start those up?

Maybe they feel the interest from students would be more, and getting in on the ground floor of the emerging sports would allow for greater success, nationally.

If that's the case, why not add men's lacrosse instead of baseball? There are something like 76 D1 men's lacrosse programs, as opposed to roughly 300 D1 baseball programs.

Adding lacrosse would also bring in more students than baseball (40-50 team members vs. about 25) without significantly increasing the maximum number of athletic scholarships (10.6 vs. 9.9). It would also give the A10 some breathing room on maintaining AQ status (A10 is currently at 6 members, minimum needed for AQ status. That includes UMassl; it's unclear whether UMass will leave the A10 for lacrosse.)

(04-18-2024 07:18 AM)tf8693 Wrote:  

(04-17-2024 07:38 PM)dbackjon Wrote:  

(04-17-2024 07:33 PM)AssKickingChicken Wrote:  LaSalle doesn’t sponsor softball, volleyball, or women’s tennis. Those are all conference sports, why not start those up?

Maybe they feel the interest from students would be more, and getting in on the ground floor of the emerging sports would allow for greater success, nationally.

If that's the case, why not add men's lacrosse instead of baseball? There are something like 76 D1 men's lacrosse programs, as opposed to roughly 300 D1 baseball programs.

Adding lacrosse would also bring in more students than baseball (40-50 team members vs. about 25) without significantly increasing the maximum number of athletic scholarships (10.6 vs. 9.9). It would also give the A10 some breathing room on maintaining AQ status (A10 is currently at 6 members, minimum needed for AQ status. That includes UMassl; it's unclear whether UMass will leave the A10 for lacrosse.)

Good question on that.

(04-17-2024 05:39 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(04-17-2024 03:43 PM)PeteTheChop Wrote:  Excellent news

What is acrobatics?

I assumed he meant gymnastics but apparently they're considered 2 different sports.

(04-18-2024 12:07 PM)b2b Wrote:  

(04-17-2024 05:39 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(04-17-2024 03:43 PM)PeteTheChop Wrote:  Excellent news

What is acrobatics?

I assumed he meant gymnastics but apparently they're considered 2 different sports.

Yes - two completely different sports

(04-18-2024 11:44 AM)dbackjon Wrote:  

(04-18-2024 07:18 AM)tf8693 Wrote:  

(04-17-2024 07:38 PM)dbackjon Wrote:  

(04-17-2024 07:33 PM)AssKickingChicken Wrote:  LaSalle doesn’t sponsor softball, volleyball, or women’s tennis. Those are all conference sports, why not start those up?

Maybe they feel the interest from students would be more, and getting in on the ground floor of the emerging sports would allow for greater success, nationally.

If that's the case, why not add men's lacrosse instead of baseball? There are something like 76 D1 men's lacrosse programs, as opposed to roughly 300 D1 baseball programs.

Adding lacrosse would also bring in more students than baseball (40-50 team members vs. about 25) without significantly increasing the maximum number of athletic scholarships (10.6 vs. 9.9). It would also give the A10 some breathing room on maintaining AQ status (A10 is currently at 6 members, minimum needed for AQ status. That includes UMassl; it's unclear whether UMass will leave the A10 for lacrosse.)

Good question on that.

I'd guess two things:

1. La Salle has a baseball field just sitting there. They use it for field hockey in the fall, but otherwise just a club baseball game or two. It's probably cheaper to just use that than re-line the soccer field for lax.

2. La Salle already had baseball. The baseball alums couldn't have been happy when the sport was cut. Maybe some of them start giving again if baseball comes back. Heck, maybe some of them helped fund it. It would be a few years before the lax alums get to a point in their careers to start donating to the school.

(04-19-2024 08:22 AM)ccd494 Wrote:  

(04-18-2024 11:44 AM)dbackjon Wrote:  

(04-18-2024 07:18 AM)tf8693 Wrote:  

(04-17-2024 07:38 PM)dbackjon Wrote:  

(04-17-2024 07:33 PM)AssKickingChicken Wrote:  LaSalle doesn’t sponsor softball, volleyball, or women’s tennis. Those are all conference sports, why not start those up?

Maybe they feel the interest from students would be more, and getting in on the ground floor of the emerging sports would allow for greater success, nationally.

If that's the case, why not add men's lacrosse instead of baseball? There are something like 76 D1 men's lacrosse programs, as opposed to roughly 300 D1 baseball programs.

Adding lacrosse would also bring in more students than baseball (40-50 team members vs. about 25) without significantly increasing the maximum number of athletic scholarships (10.6 vs. 9.9). It would also give the A10 some breathing room on maintaining AQ status (A10 is currently at 6 members, minimum needed for AQ status. That includes UMassl; it's unclear whether UMass will leave the A10 for lacrosse.)

Good question on that.

I'd guess two things:

1. La Salle has a baseball field just sitting there. They use it for field hockey in the fall, but otherwise just a club baseball game or two. It's probably cheaper to just use that than re-line the soccer field for lax.

2. La Salle already had baseball. The baseball alums couldn't have been happy when the sport was cut. Maybe some of them start giving again if baseball comes back. Heck, maybe some of them helped fund it. It would be a few years before the lax alums get to a point in their careers to start donating to the school.

La Salle already has a MCLA men's lacrosse program, as does just about every Division 1 school that doesn't field a men's lacrosse team at the Division 1 level. McCarthy Stadium is artificial surface, so lining the field for lacrosse is just a one-off effort (the lines would have to be a different color from the lines for the soccer field, however.)

I don't know how involved the MCLA alums would be in the nurturing of a varsity program, but at some schools, they have taken pride in the development of a varsity program after they leave. I know that has been the case at Notre Dame.