NCAA LACROSSE

NCAA Lacrosse is the pinnacle of college lacrosse. While the club scene continues to grow, and improve in both quality and interest, it just is no match for true varsity lacrosse at the National Collegiate Athletic Association level.

True varsity lacrosse is typically very high level competition, and the NCAA tournament continues to grow in popularity. The true varsity programs compete at a higher level predominantly because they have the ability to recruit top prospects. They offer scholarships, and they enjoy the financial backing from their universities. This gives them a real advantage over the club teams in recruiting the best talent. Coaches are often paid full time employees. That helps to draw the top coaches which again in turn helps to draw the top players.

While we love lacrosse at this level the down side is that there are only 60 NCAA division I varsity programs in the country and a true National dynamic does not exist. Division II has even fewer schools at just 39. Division III however has a robust 168 schools and growing. Both Div II and III teams have a tournament in May as well.

NCAA men’s college lacrosse is probably the slowest growth sector in the lacrosse community. The problem really has more to do with title IX restrictions than anything else. While there is interest around the country to add men’s lacrosse as a varsity sport, the cost of Title IX to prospective sports like lacrosse is devastating. Lacrosse is in very similar circumstances as other traditional University sports like wrestling that are victims of title IX. While women’s lacrosse is growing at the NCAA level, because it is a relatively cheap women’s sport to add, and Universities struggle to maintain the title IX requirements for maintaining enough women’s sports.

There just does not seem to be a good solution to the problem and that is why organizations like the MCLA and virtual varsity teams are thriving and growth in that segmant remains strong. The second major problem with NCAA lacrosse is that unfortunately only the Northeast is really represented with much significance. There just is not a national footprint at the NCAA level, which hurts the sport it from a global acceptance standpoint.

Never the less some of the most exciting and spectacular lacrosse played anywhere in the world is played in the NCAA. And the tournament is something to behold. NCAA Lacrosse is spectacular, and the action is tremendous. We can only hope that requirements change or
that interest continues to grow, and pressure is applied to add more varsity programs around the country.