As a regular reader of this blog, you probably don't follow the world of lacrosse too closely. (Under normal circumstances, I don't follow it at all.) But something is happening there that indirectly affects the Patriot League in terms of expansion - and it's a good introduction to the "unseen" forces in terms of conference affiliations that may even affect, say, football. Lacrosse is still (to me) a niche sport, but it has grown in leaps and bounds in popularity in the last decade on both the men's and women's sides. Until recently, most of the elite teams in the lacrosse world competed as independents in order to allow them the flexibility to make their own world-class schedules (read: this allowed them to play perennial Ivy League power Princeton and academic powerhouse Duke, among others). Notable Lax independents included Syracuse, Georgetown, and D-III Johns Hopkins (who had an exception to be D-III in all other sports, but D-I in Lacrosse). The ...
Independent writing about Lehigh, the Patriot League, FCS football and whatever I damn well please since 2003