Quote from: WUPHF on April 29, 2026, 10:51:44 AM

Quote from: CNU85 on April 29, 2026, 10:08:13 AMI found a way to see the rosters. 18 on the mens team and 13 on womens team. That's just not enough to be competitive. Player safety would be my first concern.

I do not know anything about lacrosse, but that makes more sense.

My first reaction was of surprise that a school would cut a program with 18 players.

As CNU85 stated, and as was alluded in the Cal Lutheran presser to which Kuiper linked, both the Marian men's roster and the Marian women's roster are too small to be competitive, and the women's roster is so small that player safety is a concern.

Thing is, if Marian had its druthers, I'm sure that it would've saved both of those sports. The reason is economic; in the midwest in particular, lacrosse tends to be an upper-middle-class activity, and a big reason why both men's lacrosse and women's lacrosse programs in this part of the country have burgeoned so rapidly on the D3 level over the past decade and a half is because the families of lacrosse players are much more likely to pay out of pocket for school rather than draw a lot of aid.

What I think Marian ran into, however, is what I call "footprint sustainability." Marian's recruiting footprint is Wisconsin, and there just doesn't seem to be a big enough base of interest in (or access to) lacrosse among Wisconsin high schoolers to sustain the sport at multiple-D3-school levels.

For evidence of this, look at the nemesis of Marian and all of the other Wisconsin D3 privates: the WIAC. The WIAC sponsors women's lacrosse, but it does not sponsor men's lacrosse. Right away, that tells me that Title IX is a major motivator for those schools to maintain the sport on a conference level only for women, despite the fact that the sport itself draws far more interest as an activity among high school boys than it does among high school girls. Now look at the schools participating in WIAC women's lacrosse. There are nine teams, but only five of them represent actual WIAC member schools. The other four are non-Wisconsin-based private schools (Augsburg, Colorado College, Hamline, and St. Benedict) participating as affiliate members. And of the five true WIAC teams, four -- UWEC, UWL, UWRF, and UW-Stout -- represent four of the five WIAC campuses that are located close to the state's western border. And that's no accident. If you look at the rosters of the Blugolds, Eagles, Falcons, and Blue Devils women's lacrosse teams, you'll see so many Minnesotans that the teams are probably passing around baking pans of tater tot hotdish in the back of the bus.

This past season Marian had seven Wisconsinites (better known as "Sconnies" in Minnesota parlance) on the men's lacrosse team and four on the women's lacrosse team, and to me that just screams poor footprint sustainability for Marian lacrosse.

Quote from: WUPHF on April 29, 2026, 10:51:44 AMI am far less surprised by Lakeland cutting tennis with significantly fewer tuition-paying players.

Tennis is actually a lucrative -- I don't like to use that word in connection with D3, but if we're being honest it's a major consideration in terms of which students are paying full boat (or at least mostly out-of-pocket) at your typical D3 private and which ones are likely drawing a lot of aid -- sport at the D3 level, even with the small rosters, provided that you have six functional, well-kept courts on campus. Lakeland doesn't; it rents the courts at nearby Howards Grove High School. If you're renting, you're spending, and if you're spending and you bring a small roster to the table, the higher-ups may decide that you're more trouble than you're worth at a small private D3 that is pinching pennies in the current demographic environment.

Quote from: Kuiper on April 29, 2026, 05:54:30 PMThey just added the fast growing sport of Girls Flag Football this year, which effectively replaces lacrosse.

I wouldn't say it's an exact fit as a replacement, because it appears to me that on average flag represents a different economic stratum than lacrosse in terms of participants (I'm waiting with bated breath now for some NESCAC type to jump in and tell me that all of the prep schools in New England have leaped onto the flag bandwagon ;-) ), but in terms of roster sizes and number of sports offered, yeah, it's more or less an effective replacement.

Good get for NCC: Nathan Palmer from Geneva will be playing in Naperville. Palmer averaged 16 points this past season for the Vikings, was Third Team All State according to the IBCA.

Quote from: WUPHF on April 29, 2026, 10:51:44 AM

Quote from: CNU85 on April 29, 2026, 10:08:13 AMI found a way to see the rosters. 18 on the mens team and 13 on womens team. That's just not enough to be competitive. Player safety would be my first concern.

I do not know anything about lacrosse, but that makes more sense.

My first reaction was of surprise that a school would cut a program with 18 players.

I am far less surprised by Lakeland cutting tennis with significantly fewer tuition-paying players.

As a comparison, CNU has 60 on the men's roster. The women list 31.

Quote from: D3 Poster on April 29, 2026, 04:51:19 PMQuick review of the out of conference schedules for 2026 based on 2025 records:

Mount 19-6 Wheaton/Grove City
Etta & Wilm 14-8  Westminster/MSJ, Wooster/Hanover
ONU 13-7 Adrian/Bluffton
Musk 11-10 MSJ/Franklin
Heidi 10-10 Maryville/Rose Hulman
BW 9-12 Bethany/Alma
Ott 7-13 Calvin/Manchesster
Cap 6-14 Waynesburg/Anderson

in the NPI world that we live in, Alma @ BW, Maryville @ Heidi, ONU @ Adrian and the Etta games are some big ones for the OAC outside of the Mount Union OOC's.  The conference needs to clean up on the winnable games and make some noise in the big-time matchups

Quote from: Gregory Sager on April 24, 2026, 04:19:31 PM

Quote from: PauldingLightUP on April 24, 2026, 01:40:08 PMWheaton schedule is posted. Non cons vs MSOE, vs Illinois Tech, vs Simpson, vs Pfud Classic x2 (UW-River Falls, Central, Piedmont), vs Chicago, at Carleton, at Trinity (TX) Tournament x2.

https://athletics.wheaton.edu/sports/mens-basketball/schedule/2026-27

We should give out an award -- let's call it The Early Bird Trophy -- to the CCIW head coach who not only completes his annual scheduling task ahead of his peers but gives it to his school's SID and has it posted online first.

Here you go, Mike Schauer. Add this to your virtual mantel. Congrats!

Greg I must say this is hilarious

SLU having a guaranteed winning record while making the playoffs for the first time since 2013 is more evidence of the remarkable coaching job Kenny Collins pulled off this year.  He was not left with much when he took over, and given SLU's mediocre at best history in baseball what he managed this year with his first full recruiting class deserves major props.

Quote from: nescac1 on April 29, 2026, 01:47:01 PMBit of NESCAC-adjacent coaching news while still waiting for the Colby process to shake out - Amherst alum Kevin Hopkins is no longer the Muhlenberg head coach ...

He did make a public statement on Facebook today but that's been on our Coaching Carousel for more than a month.

Quote from: BrownBagBowdoin on April 24, 2026, 06:12:00 PMAngus Leary—greatest athlete to walk through the program. Too soon?

Ok, I'll take the troll bait. Lets slow down on the GOAT talk. Leary is a very good player but if you're going to be his hype man I suggest you start your comparison with a guy who just graduated--Koy Price. So far Leary has performed very well and he's got 2 years left. Lets see if he can get to KP level and then you can start the Hype talk again and take on a few others I have in mind.
What area do you live in West Roxbury?

Quote from: HoopsDad34 on April 29, 2026, 04:03:47 PMUMW is losing more coaches than players! Lost both assistant coaches: one to a local HS team as HC and one to Maryville as HC. Congrats to both Coach Lomax and Sansone. Quality gentlemen.

That assistant job should be one hot commodity.