BIG TEN
The Power Five can write many of their own rules, including those pertaining to cost-of-attendance stipends and recruiting.
The SEC, Big 12 and Pac-12 are the other high rollers in college athletics. None of the conferences sponsors lacrosse. Five Pac- 12 schools — Cal, Colorado, Oregon, Stanford and USC — have women’s lacrosse. The NCAA had football and basketball in mind when giving more latitude to conferences with more resources, but the Big Ten is keeping lacrosse in mind too, thanks to its biggest asset: the Big Ten Network. “Our goal is to become the top conference in both men’s and women’s lacrosse,” said Wendy Fallon, Big Ten associate commissioner for championships. “How can we best showcase these student-athletes and their stories, and educate some fans who may be less familiar with the sport? A big part of that will be showing live lacrosse games on the Big Ten Network.”
According to Fallon, the network and universities would like to broadcast lacrosse games in prime- time hours Thursday (women) and Sunday (men). “That puts our programs in a great position to get more exposure,” she said. The Big Ten Network struck deals with major
cable providers in the New York/New Jersey and Maryland markets in June to expand its reach to 60 million homes. The lacrosse coaches agreed to use the final five weeks of the regular season almost exclusively for conference play. Newcomers Maryland and Rutgers will host the 2015 Big Ten men’s and women’s lacrosse tournaments, respectively, with Johns Hopkins and Northwestern up in 2016.
“The TV coverage on the men’s side has been unprecedented over the last several years,” Northwestern coach Kelly Amonte Hiller said. “But on the women’s side, TV coverage is still lagging. Hopefully, this will push other conferences to step up and support women. The more people that can see it, the more people who want to play it. It’s a really contagious sport.”
As autonomy increased in deep-pocketed conferences, outliers like Johns Hopkins, a traditional men’s lacrosse power that competed independently in Division I, had to seriously consider the pros and cons.
Even with a winning record in 2013 and a win over top- ranked Maryland, the Blue Jays, with no automatic bid to secure, did not make the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1971.
“After careful
consideration, we just felt like being a part of a conference was the right decision for Hopkins, given the change in landscape of athletics,” Johns Hopkins coach Dave Pietramala said. “The last straw was when we didn’t make the playoffs. Being an independent, you’re left alone. We didn’t fall under the umbrella of any conference. We didn’t have any protection. That was a concern when you look at how it’s changing with all this talk about the Power Five, how football and basketball may impact non-revenue sports. You start to look at it and say we’ve got to protect ourselves.”
As these changes unfold, the Big Ten provides another level of support not only for programs with rich lacrosse traditions like Johns Hopkins, but also for up- and-coming teams like the Michigan women.
“Our goal was to build the foundation of a championship culture. The ALC was a very difficult conference,” Wolverines coach Jennifer Ulehla said. “It’s nice to be sponsored by a conference that Michigan is in.” While Northwestern,
Maryland, Johns Hopkins and Penn State have never had a problem landing blue-chip players, coaches at Michigan, Ohio State and Rutgers say the Big Ten
40 LACROSSE MAGAZINE » october 2014
A Publication of US Lacrosse
©BILL DANIELEWSKI (ZS); ©PENN STATE
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