Forming men's lacrosse league on minds of Big East ADs

The Big East athletic directors will gather for their annual meeting next month in Florida, and one hot topic of discussion will be the formation of a men's lacrosse league.

The pending creation of the league has been talked about for months now, and many of the nation's Division I coaches believe it is a done deal. Syracuse University athletic director Daryl Gross, who confirmed that the topic will be on the agenda May 19-21 in Ponte Vedra, believes those feelings are a tad premature.

There is no question Gross is on board with the concept, a decision he arrived at after talks with head coach John Desko.

"I defer to John. You know, what does he think is best for the program," Gross said. "John thinks the Big East is the right thing."

So far, so good, as Syracuse has been generally considered to be the major barrier. As one of the sport's two independent giants (Johns Hopkins is the other one), the Orange has long been able to maintain its longtime local rivalries with schools such as Cornell and Hobart while scheduling enough national heavyweights to make it a lock for NCAA Tournament selection as long as it finished above .500.

The team's first losing record since 1975 last season combined with the increasing parity at the D-I level has the SU braintrust rethinking that strategy. The creation of the Big East lacrosse conference would provide another potential path to the postseason via the automatic NCAA bid awarded to conference champions.

To receive that bid, though, a conference must have at least six members. Currently, seven Big East teams play Division I lacrosse - Syracuse, Notre Dame, Georgetown, Rutgers, St. John's, Villanova and Providence - but the latter two do so while making a minimal financial commitment to the sport in terms of allotting the NCAA limit of 12.6 scholarships and hiring full-time coaches.

"That is one of the problems," Gross said. "The league has to be formidable, and it has to have an automatic bid. Without the bid, that's a deal-breaker."

Without a sixth team there will be no bid, so Villanova or Providence must step up next month and make the commitment to play on a level field with the rest of the members.

The second potential sticking point could come from Gross himself.

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