Weekend Preview: Pac-12 Dreams
Opinion
| Arizona
| Arizona State
| California
| Colorado
| Oregon
| Oregon State
| Stanford
| UCLA
| USC
| Utah
| Washington
| Washington State
| Boston College
| Minn-Duluth
| NDSU
| Simon Fraser
(Photo by Bob White)
by Jac Coyne | MCLA.us
LA CROSSE, Wis. – As you are undoubtedly aware, the Pac-12 Shootout will be held this weekend on the campus of UCLA. It consists of 10 games over two days, including some powerful matchups.
It should be a great weekend of lacrosse.
This annual event inevitably brings about a comment or two regarding the viability of a Pac-12 Conference at the NCAA Division I level. It’s an innocuous phenomenon, and one that has become more topical with Utah’s impending varsity move in ’19.
I’m here to pump the brakes on the imminent nature of a varsity Pac-12 league, however. Not because the MCLA would lose some prominent members, but because history would say there are plenty of obstacles.
I’ll start with cautionary tale. Whittier College in California, under the guidance of legendary coach Doug Locker, opted to go full-time NCAA Division III on its own in 2000, becoming the only varsity team in the state.
The Poets had tremendous success, getting as far as the national semifinals in ’03 and churning out All-Americans.
Locker was the toast of the sport.
Whitter was a national lacrosse success story.
It only made sense for the rest of the schools in Whittier’s conference, which had tailor-made demographics and resources for lacrosse, to quickly add the sport and get in on the growth and good times.
After 18 years, do you know how many SCIAC institutions – a league that includes Chapman, among other perfect lacrosse schools like Claremont, Redlands, Pomona and Occidental – have added men’s lacrosse?
Zippo.
Not one team could find the budget, proportionality, interest or value in adding a varsity men’s program (they almost all have women’s teams) despite the tailwinds provided by Whittier. Frankly, years later, I still find it stunning.
As it turned out, Whittier wasn’t the first step in a western varsity lacrosse boom. Nearly 20 years gone and the Poets are still the only D-III team in the state that produces some of the best talent in the country.
Whittier has since withered on the vine. The Poets have burned through numerous coaches while trying to craft a schedule with the closest competition over a thousand miles away. They might not even be the favorites to win the SLC at this point.
Is any of this applicable to Utah? Tough to say, obviously.
Maybe Denver is in the role of Whittier in this example and Utah is part of the second wave that never came in California. Perhaps there is a gentlemen’s agreement out there where the rest of the Pac-12 will slowly add over the next couple of years.
Still, there are enough similarities with the Whittier saga to at least give me pause. Throw in the fact that we're chugging through 2018 and no one else has hopped on the train yet, meaning the next earliest addition would probably be 2021.
I don’t think anyone is wishing against a varsity Pac-12 lacrosse conference, per se, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room to inject a dose of realism into the discussion. Regardless, enjoy the Pac-12 Shootout this weekend in its current iteration.
* * *
The team with the most on the line this weekend at the Shootout is Cal. The No. 3 Bears face No. 7 Arizona State on noon Saturday and then follow that up against No. 8 Utah on Sunday. That’s a nationals-level back-to-back that will test Ned Webster’s troops.
What's the MCLA Div. I Game of the Week for the period ending Feb. 18? #mcla18 #RaceforSaltLake
— MCLA Tournament '18 (@MCLA_Tournament) February 12, 2018
Cal has a slight advantage in that this will be the fourth and fifth game of the season while Utah played last night against Cal Poly and it will be the Sun Devils opener. One would think a weekend sweep would result in a substantial amount of first-place votes for the Bears in the year’s first poll.
What is the MCLA Div. II Game of the Week for the period ending Feb. 18? #mcla18
— MCLA Tournament '18 (@MCLA_Tournament) February 12, 2018
It’s no surprise that the contest between No. 7 Minn.-Duluth and No. 3 North Dakota State in Fargo is the top game in Division II as the schedule is a little thin otherwise.
Zach Bosh has the Bison rolling along as a program, but I’m curious to see who fills the roll of All-American Kevin Sturgeon. NDSU was never a one-man squad, but Sturgeon was special. Meanwhile, Duluth looked scary, especially on defense, against Michigan State.
I’m particularly curious about how a pair of Division I teams start out the season this weekend. Simon Fraser and Boston College had middling 2017 seasons by their standards, and now jump into the season with a challenging couple of games.
No. 22 Fraser starts with Santa Clara, but then runs up against No. 21 Sonoma State on Saturday. Noma got embarrassed in the season opener, so they’ll be throwing everything they have against the Clan.
No. 25 BC travels to Pitt to face the Panthers and then No. 13 Michigan State on Saturday. With the next five games coming on the road against No. 5 Georgia Tech, No. 2 Chapman, No. 7 Arizona State, Arizona and No. 1 Grand Canyon, a slow start could be problematic.
NOTES: South Carolina is off to a solid 4-0 start with a couple of decent wins. A sweep of Florida and FSU on the road would truly cement them as an SELC contender…won’t mean much in the grand scheme of things, but the Minnesota-St. Thomas clash is intriguing…lacrosse’s version of the Red River Rivalry occurs on Saturday as Oklahoma visits Texas…UC Colorado Springs starts its MCLA journey on Saturday against Regis…coach’s nomination for the Commanding Performance of the Week powered by Under Armour should go to [email protected] by Monday morning.