April 25, 2008

by Brian Logue, Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff

Sixty.

In this age of growth in lacrosse, the number 60 hardly seems big enough to warrant any attention. But Jacksonville University announcing Thursday that it would be adding a varsity men's lacrosse program means that in 2010 there will be 60 schools playing at the NCAA Division I level for the first time ever.

Detroit Mercy begins its first varsity season next year - becoming the first Division I men's program in Michigan since Michigan State dropped its program a decade ago. Bryant is beginning the NCAA's transitional process over the next few years, but begins playing a Division I schedule next spring.

That's three new schools coming into the Division I ranks within a two-year period, following three programs that began play in 2005 (Bellarmine, Robert Morris and St. John's). The only loss at the Division I level since 2005 was Butler in 2007, giving Division I men's lacrosse a net gain of five schools over a five-year span. That's pretty heady stuff for a level that has seen stagnant growth despite the sport's overall boom.

NCAA Division I men's lacrosse is hardly safe -- no BCS-eligible football school has added men's lacrosse since Notre Dame in 1981 -- but it's clearly moving in the right direction.

Jacksonville gives the sport its first Division I men's program in Florida. Last Saturday's record crowd of 29,601 at Ohio Stadium for the Ohio State-Denver game was huge for the sport. The same day a crowd of 16,042 poured into Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium for the Navy-Hopkins game - with no spring football as an enticement.

The weekend before, Virginia sold out Klockner Stadium (8,000) for its showdown with Duke.

Those are the kinds of numbers that the sport is going to need on a regular basis if it is going to catch the eye of Division I athletic directors.