Lacrosse

[gostangs]

What happened to the Lacrosse updates that used to be on this page? Is it not an "Other Sport"?

[smupony94]

SMU lost to Texas State in the semis who then beat Texas to go to nationals

[gostangs]

that is too bad. Wanted to see us play UT pretty bad.

[couch 'em]

What happened to the Lacrosse updates that used to be on this page? Is it not an "Other Sport"?

ponyfans.com management decided it is not an 'other sport' and banished all smu lacrosse talk to "around the hilltop"

[smupony94]

Same with quidditch

[gostangs]

lacrosse effects a ton more students than equestrian, that's for dang sure.

[couch 'em]

Seems like equestrian is more akin to games of skill like darts or bowling or racing than sports.

[Water Pony]

Seems like equestrian is more akin to games of skill like darts or bowling or racing than sports.

My daughter rode competitively in college and my son played LAX at SMU. Both are real sports and very demanding and physical at the highest levels. For a young woman to control more than a thousand pounds of a difficult to control horse over fences is no mean feat.

As for LAX, I love it. Fast, high scoring, frequent contact, accuracy and constant movement. Hard to beat it.

[fifty]

equestrian is a sport but will no longer be an ncaa sport. i thought ncaa was supposed to have a final vote on it this month. generally no news is bad news.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

equestrian is a sport but will no longer be an ncaa sport

Not true. The NCAA has recommended removing equestrian from their list of emerging sports, but have not made a final decision. The decision is expected by October 2015.

If the NCAA does indeed decide to remove the sport from its official emerging sports, there are already enough schools willing to commit to equestrian to meet the NCAA minimum requirements to reinstate the sport as an emerging sport so nothing should change.

As for lacrosse, Denver University won the national championship today. They are the first school west of Chapel Hill to win the championship. Tons of schools in the "new" lacrosse markets will be adding this sport over the coming years, there is no doubt about that.

[fifty]

http://www.tcu360.com/equestrian/2015/0 ... a-concerns

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

http://www.tcu360.com/equestrian/2015/05/34325.tcu-equestrian-remain-varsity-sport-despite-ncaa-concerns

Yeah. Although Kansas State and Tennessee-Martin are dropping the sport, there are still 16 schools (according to reports) that will commit to the sport which is all the NCAA requires to reclassify it as an emerging sport.

The future of the sport is definitely not rosy, but it's not dead - of course, we will see if these schools really put their money where their mouth is if the NCAA does agree to drop the sport from the list of emerging sports.

As far as SMU goes, if we dropped it, we would have to add 15 women's scholarships somehow. I would also think there is no way we would keep the sport if it wasn't somehow under the NCAA umbrella.

[fifty]

Thanks for the info Dan. I didn't know all of that.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

If schools are indeed forced to drop equestrian, it will be very interesting to see what some of these schools do.

It was easy for Kansas State since they were one of the three major schools that didn't have women's soccer.

But for most of the major schools like Auburn, Georgia, A&M, Oklahoma State - even Baylor and TCU - who already have a pretty full slate of women's sports, they would have to add a newer sport like lacrosse or consider dropping a a men's sport like track or swimming.

Can you imagine a school like Auburn dropping men's swimming or track? No way...

Otherwise, you are cobbling together scholarship counts with sports like gymnastics, rifle, fencing, sand volleyball, etc.

The other big scholarship women's sport is rowing (with 20!) - but we already have that.

SMU has a relatively "easy" potential add in softball (infrastructure cost notwithstanding), but I wouldn't be surprised if women's lacrosse will be the big sport added by a lot of these schools, including SMU, if push comes to shove.

[stc9]

How in the world does rowing have 20 scholarships and equestrian 15? Both are more than lacrosse, soccer, baseball & softball. Rowing has more scholarships than Hockey? That is a religion, like football, in a lot of northern schools.

I don't get how the NCAA creates the scholarship limits.