What if. What if? A popular song by the band Creed? But no. That is not where I am going with this title. Do you ever think about Lacrosse and wonder, what if? I do.
Q. What if College Lacrosse was a fall sport?
A. I’ve given this thought. A lot of pros and cons for sure. The cons are easy I think. There are, or seem to be many more fall sports that you’d have to compete with, as a spectator sport that is (football, M/W soccer, M/W volleyball to name a few). If you work at a small private college and only have 1 turf field, that would be a nightmare trying to schedule practice, I can tell you. You also don’t have a the pageantry of Memorial day weekend for a season ender. This could probably be argued as a pro to an extent, but competing with football would be tough that time of year for viewership. I do like how memorial day marks the end of lacrosse for both men’s and women’s and all divisions. It doesn’t work that way for football, and I’m fairly certain it doesn’t work that way for other fall sports as well. How about some pros. First would be the weather. You would have no cold early season games for sure. I don’t know about other areas of the country, but I can tell you we get very little snow in the month of December. I think you could play an entire season in the fall semester without any cold weather or snow related cancellations/postponements. I like the idea of students arriving to campus earlier as well. I envy sports like soccer. In late July/early august they can start to get in shape for their seasons and go right into competing. If they lift all summer and train the right way, the can be in peak game form right at the start of the season, as opposed to trying to stay in shape all year long preparing for a spring sport. And when their season is over, they can relax and rest all spring semester, and it get to go on spring break, etc. As an athlete, I think I would prefer that schedule.
Q. What if box lacrosse was a college sport?
A. I’ve had this discussion with friends in the past. I think it’s interesting to think about. When would your season be? And when would it end? I think if it was a winter sport like it is normally, that would make sense to a certain degree. If you had an entire league dedicated to just box lacrosse that could probably work. But if you were to have box lacrosse on a national scale, and you’d want to include the divisional teams that already sponsor the field game then maybe make it a fall sport. There you go! Solves all your problems. You could have fall lacrosse season replaced by box or sixes lacrosse. Maybe you could play sixes in the fall if you went college in the south where the weather is good. Or at the DI or DII level that have their own facilities. You could play box lacrosse if you went to school in the north. That would solve facility issues, not needing access to outdoor turf fields or soccer facilities. You could also play back to back games in one weekend, which could potentially save money in the travel budget. But I am starting to rant here.
Q. What if college lacrosse got rid of the faceoff/adopted a 2 point arc?
A. This is the most dire of what ifs. I know there is real talk of removing the faceoff, which is an unconscionable, unfathomable, unthinkable hypothetical in this field game purist’s opinion. There aren’t strong enough arguments, in my opinion, to discard the faceoff. I understand speeding up the game and all that, etc., etc. But to remove a major aspect of the sport because of a misplaced feeling of inequity, or overspecialization, or pace of play just doesn’t sit well with me. There are a lot of young players today that are trying to earn an opportunity to play at the next level, and they are putting a lot of time and work into becoming a faceoff specialist that one team can rely on for the next 4 years to help win possession. Plus, I can’t picture what the game will look like with that part removed completely. There will be a multitude of unintentional consequences that are unforeseen which will inevitably arise as a result. There are also talks of added a 2-poin arc, just like the PLL. Though I don’t think this would be as severe of a bastardization of the game as removing the faceoff, but I still would not support it. Mostly because of the goalie. I think the 3 point arc serves to even out some inequities in basketball, because of the open, unguarded goal. In Lacrosse, with the goalie in play its almost in reverse. Teams would settle for less quality shots in lieu of a 1 point opportunity. I would argue its actually harder to get the ball in tight and score in front of the net then it is from deep with hands free. But I know things can happen throughout the game that are unforeseen and unintended. For that reason, I believe all goals should worth the same amount of points. I don’t think a team should be able to score a freak goal, from a certain distance away, in desperation down by 1 late in the game, and get over rewarded by earning a win, as opposed to heading into overtime. But this is all one man’s opinion. You would find some unintended consequences with that change as well, that I believe would not be in the best interest of the game.
Q. What if college lacrosse season didn’t end on Memorial Day?
A. This is another thing that gets tossed around from time to time. The idea being that we could stretch our playing season and championship format beyond memorial day, similar to that of college baseball. I gotta tell you, I am kinda torn on this one. On the one hand, I love the final four and championship weekend the way it is now, and always has been. And I know non-lacrosse people might not associate memorial day weekend with lacrosse in any way, shape, or form. Maybe they don’t care at all. But to me, it has always been a staple. I can’t remember not watching a final four, either in person or on TV. I can’t separate the two. To other people it may be the “official start of summer,” or whatever, but to me the weekend has always been synonymous with college lacrosse. But on the other hand, I can tell you there would be some definite pros to moving championship weekend back. It could open up the ability to push the start of the season back. I could see how southern teams would vote against moving the start time back, because they can play in early February. But it would be interesting to do a case study to see just exactly how many divisional teams actually have mild enough climates to be in favor of the long standing tradition of a memorial weekend commencement. I, and I imagine others, might be in favor of a, let’s say March 1st start date. It’s hard to practice/play in 30 degree weather, and because of the stop gap that is our championship deadline, it is inevitable for many schools. Everyone could play and practice in better weather, not just the southern teams. There would be some cons though as well. I think the unofficial theme of this piece is unintended consequences. I’ll use the term one more time. I think you would see that there could be barriers to keeping guys on campus far past graduation dates. You could find that some institutions would have budget issues housing and feeding students until early to mid-June. This might not be a part of a long term solution. Also, a later end date could impact certain students, especially seniors. Asking them to stay that long could affect applying/interviewing/ and accepting jobs/internships/etc. Even just seasonal and summer employment opportunities might have start times that don’t coincide with a later playoff format. So that is a matter of debate for sure. But if I had to vote right now, I would keep the memorial day championship weekend. I think it is important for our game as a long standing tradition.
Q. What if SEC/BIG 12/all the BIG 10/all the ACC schools had Division I Lacrosse teams?
A. Look out.
KASEY BURST
The HC at the University of Dubuque, Kasey brings all things college lacrosse to your inbox.