According to Corey McLaughlin of Lacrosse Magazine, who spoke with Michigan head coach John Paul, there will not be a Big Ten lacrosse conference with any less than six teams.
At this time, there would be three teams; Penn State, Ohio State and Michigan. However, Rutgers and Maryland, who both of D1 college lacrosse programs, will be moving to the Big Ten. That would make five. A conference only needs four teams to have an official conference, as we see with the current ACC.
If they are serious about making a Big Ten conference happen, a few things could come into effect here. Could the Big Ten take a non conference school just to be an automatic qualifier? That seems unlikely.
Could an MCLA team step up for a Varsity program that would be in the Big Ten? That is a real possibility. But while they are waiting for this conference to possibly exist, what is next for Maryland and Rutgers?
Some reports see Maryland or Rutgers becoming independent similar to Johns Hopkins, and it wouldn’t be hard for Maryland to form a schedule. Might be harder for Rutgers, so a strong possibility is in lacrosse they join the ECAC.
The ECAC is rather bloated so it might not take both of them, so the MAAC remains a possibility for these teams too. It is extremely unlikely the ACC and Big East keep these schools as lacrosse only programs.
Comments are closed.