YSU Athletics to Add Men's Swimming & Diving, Women's Lacrosse Teams

[YSUGO]

I checked Kent st wrestling and they had a dual meet with Wisconsin and Iowa and only had 1100 people attend.  The other events they hosted had no announced figures and the schools were not as notorious.  So I don’t see what you are seeing at the collegiate level.  I think we need to trust the Athletic department on this one.

[IAA Fan]

Just settle down here. A said, thank goodness we have an AD the thinks about the future. Consider a few things:

1) Lacrosse is HUGE. Wrestling does not even come close beyond High School.

C'mon man, 1AA the buzz-kill.  Trying to kill off the vicious battle between men's wrestling and women's lacrosse?!?! 
Lacrosse is HUGE?!?!?  On which planet would that be true?  Certainly not this one.  Tell me the best teams in college lacrosse (without looking it up, we all have google searches) 
Football draws, Men's BB draws, Women's BB draws pretty good, but only about 1/4 of MBB, and EVERY OTHER COLLEGE SPORT draws fans by the dozens.  If it wasn't for parents and personal friends, it would be 1/2 that. 
Arguments about whether lacrosse will outdraw wrestling in really lame. Hasn't ANYBODY been to a spring practice?  How does Waid look?  THAT is the only real sports question for YSU this year!

No, between wrestling and Lacrosse. Lacrosse is huge ...quite ...much more so than wrestling. I have no idea on the women's teams, but traditional powers in men;s Lacrosse are very well-known now, thanks to Duke. Some of those are Loyola, Johns-Hopkins, Duke, St. John's and Notre Dame. Average attendance for DI men's lacrosse is usually between 2,500k (JHU) and 6,000k (Syracuse). Largest championship attendance was Maryland vs. Loyola at 30,816 just a couple of years ago. The largest sanctioned DI lacrosse game was in Philadelphia and drew 59,501. "And those figures ain't shrinking"!

[go guins]

I checked Kent st wrestling and they had a dual meet with Wisconsin and Iowa and only had 1100 people attend.  The other events they hosted had no announced figures and the schools were not as notorious.  So I don’t see what you are seeing at the collegiate level.  I think we need to trust the Athletic department on this one.

" I think we need to trust the Athletic department on this one."  You mean on other issues they check with us for approval?   I believe we have to trust the athletic department on all, and if JT doesn't trust them, he will have to change them.  (and trust me, there is NO chance the AD made these additions without JT signing off first!)
I don't see us as having much of a roll except trolling from the cheap seats!

[mvfc penguin]

I look at YSU as a local university that supports local programs - especially in the olympic and non revenue sports.  Please, someone tell me how many men's swimming and women's lacrosse teams there are in the Northeast Ohio area?  There are not enough student athletes in those sports to locally support those programs. Wrestling on the other hand is supported by numerous schools in the area with some of the best wrestling in Ohio - besides the Catholic Cleveland schools.  Who from this area is going to go support women's lacrosse?  Men's swimming?  Someone please send me a pic of the crowd at the first home women's lacrosse game and men's swimming meet.  If YSU had a wrestling program, I can guarantee it would be supported by local wrestling programs - from youth to high school.  Canfield, Austintown, Boardman, Girard, West Branch, Beaver Local, etc...all have top notch wrestling programs.  That does not include the rest of the EOWL (Eastern Ohio Wrestling League) that goes from Ashtabula to Lousiville to Wellsville.  Those schools alone could supply enough wrestlers to have a program.  Title IX has destroyed wrestling programs throughout the country.  It has increased women's programs, no doubt, but at the expense of wrestling.  Another big mistake by the YSU athletic department that is out of touch with the local area athletes.

You ever think it's not necessarily about the 'local' recruits? But more so about getting more 'national' and 'international' recruits?

[go guins]

I look at YSU as a local university that supports local programs - especially in the olympic and non revenue sports.  Please, someone tell me how many men's swimming and women's lacrosse teams there are in the Northeast Ohio area?  There are not enough student athletes in those sports to locally support those programs. Wrestling on the other hand is supported by numerous schools in the area with some of the best wrestling in Ohio - besides the Catholic Cleveland schools.  Who from this area is going to go support women's lacrosse?  Men's swimming?  Someone please send me a pic of the crowd at the first home women's lacrosse game and men's swimming meet.  If YSU had a wrestling program, I can guarantee it would be supported by local wrestling programs - from youth to high school.  Canfield, Austintown, Boardman, Girard, West Branch, Beaver Local, etc...all have top notch wrestling programs.  That does not include the rest of the EOWL (Eastern Ohio Wrestling League) that goes from Ashtabula to Lousiville to Wellsville.  Those schools alone could supply enough wrestlers to have a program.  Title IX has destroyed wrestling programs throughout the country.  It has increased women's programs, no doubt, but at the expense of wrestling.  Another big mistake by the YSU athletic department that is out of touch with the local area athletes.

You ever think it's not necessarily about the 'local' recruits? But more so about getting more 'national' and 'international' recruits?

Again, the point is they wanted to add men's swimming and diving to match with women's swimming and diving.  We are the only women's only team in the Horizon League.  Next issue?  You add a men's team, you HAVE GOT TO OFFSET IT WITH A WOMEN'S SPORT FOR TITLE IX.  Lacrosse can use existing facilities so it becomes a relatively now cost to  men's swimming. This is NOT about lacrosse vs wrestling, it is about Title IX

[IAA Fan]

I look at YSU as a local university that supports local programs - especially in the olympic and non revenue sports.  Please, someone tell me how many men's swimming and women's lacrosse teams there are in the Northeast Ohio area?  There are not enough student athletes in those sports to locally support those programs. Wrestling on the other hand is supported by numerous schools in the area with some of the best wrestling in Ohio - besides the Catholic Cleveland schools.  Who from this area is going to go support women's lacrosse?  Men's swimming?  Someone please send me a pic of the crowd at the first home women's lacrosse game and men's swimming meet.  If YSU had a wrestling program, I can guarantee it would be supported by local wrestling programs - from youth to high school.  Canfield, Austintown, Boardman, Girard, West Branch, Beaver Local, etc...all have top notch wrestling programs.  That does not include the rest of the EOWL (Eastern Ohio Wrestling League) that goes from Ashtabula to Lousiville to Wellsville.  Those schools alone could supply enough wrestlers to have a program.  Title IX has destroyed wrestling programs throughout the country.  It has increased women's programs, no doubt, but at the expense of wrestling.  Another big mistake by the YSU athletic department that is out of touch with the local area athletes.

You ever think it's not necessarily about the 'local' recruits? But more so about getting more 'national' and 'international' recruits?

Again, the point is they wanted to add men's swimming and diving to match with women's swimming and diving.  We are the only women's only team in the Horizon League.  Next issue?  You add a men's team, you HAVE GOT TO OFFSET IT WITH A WOMEN'S SPORT FOR TITLE IX.  Lacrosse can use existing facilities so it becomes a relatively now cost to  men's swimming. This is NOT about lacrosse vs wrestling, it is about Title IX

Yes, which is why we wanted women's Lacrosse. You brought up a good point there go guins. There are at least 4 or 5 member schools that do not have S&D (men).  I am interested in how many teams are required to stay NCAA sanctioned in Swimming. We lost 2 and picked up one. We do not have S&D or Soccer, which are HL sports. We do have all of the women's sports the conference offers. I noticed that the MAAC, SoCon and several other conferences allow WLAX-membership only. UDM and Central Michigan just joined the SoCon (a new conference for women's lacrosse). It will be interesting either way.