Q&A: Future Considerations

by Jac Coyne | MCLA.us

LA CROSSE, Wis. – Ryan Car checked in with a question about the direction that NCAA Division I lacrosse is heading and if it puts the MCLA in a unique situation. I touched on this back at the start of February at the commencement of my triumphant – and final – return to the association, but perhaps there is more meat on the bone to nibble on.

QUESTION: I would love to see an article on the future of the MCLA in the current revenue sharing environment. [Former Auburn coach] J.J. Arminio mentioned in a podcast several months ago that in the SEC, ACC and other P4 conferences, there would not be any addition of sports programs because schools don’t want to add sports that detract from their revenue now that they’ll have to pay players, and football will take most of the $20 million or so.

This tweet discusses the revenue and expenses each major program has in their programs, and mentions the “virtual varsity” concept.

Could we see the MCLA and programs under the MCLA begin to really push to fill this space? How do you see this potentially playing out over the next few years? Is there a world where NCAA lacrosse does not exist in P4 conferences because they are non-revenue and the MCLA is the premier lacrosse program across the country? Potentially could we see teams like Mercer or even Michigan (just an example because they’re still new and lacrosse is non-rev) still “sponsor” lacrosse, but within MCLA rather than the NCAA because it is cheaper to operate with less restrictions?

ANSWER: This is actually the doomsday scenario that the IMLCA had in mind when they mandated back at our inception that the MCLA not infiltrate campuses with a varsity entity in exchange for some mild recognition and a seat at the kid’s table. They didn’t want to give a cost-cutting or anti-lacrosse athletic director an opportunity to use an advanced club structure to ditch a varsity product. It seemed silly at the time – and for the past quarter century as lacrosse has grown exponentially, to be honest – but with every passing day, the IMLCA’s nightmare is looking clairvoyant.

Obviously, the MCLA’s decision to allow teams from varsity schools into the membership isn’t what sparked the current angst, but it could potentially result in the same end-game. I’m guessing it will be a relatively slow attrition rate if there is a purge at the varsity level, and it will be primarily at the Division I and II level. Division III programs operate at significant loss anyway, so unless the entire institution becomes insolvent – see Cabrini – it’s unlikely there will be a mass exodus there.

If programs start folding, it would make sense it would start on the periphery, both geographically and competitiveness-wise. I don’t need to list them off; most savvy lacrosse fans know the initial dominoes that will fall. The IMLCA will be quick to jump into the fray in order stop the hemorrhaging (it is very much on its radar already), but they have very little infrastructure upon which a de facto Division I league can be built.

One of the horrific options for Division I non-revenue sports is to watch a complete dissolution of the NCAA. It certainly seems odd to think about, but if football and basketball go off on their own – a wild, but not entirely implausible, possibility – the NCAA will go belly up, cutting loose all of the championships that were propped up by football and basketball. We’ll have 30-plus governing bodies operating as best they can under budgetary and geographic constraints.

To avoid getting too repetitive from my original screed in February, I will say that if things play out a certain way, we’ll see another artifact from the MCLA’s past receive new life: the premier league concept. Long before the pro league of the same name evolved, the MCLA was toying with the idea of an uber-league – kind of like the one a lot of the big soccer teams in Europe were talking about a couple of years ago – where the association’s teams with the most resources and talent would sit a level up from everyone else. The notion was met pessimistically at the time, but if there is an influx of former varsity programs, it might be time to dust off those binders in the cavernous MCLA warehouse.

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