I promised to sit on this story for about a month but Inside lacrosse broke this potential Lacrosse blockbuster yesterday. What a perfect fit for Hopkins and what a tremendous addition to the Big 10 to make Maryland’s new Conference have a Automatic Qualifier into the NCAA Tournament. It also would make it possible for the major rivalry in College Lacrosse to play twice a year. Coach Pietramala is weighing his options but this move would catapult the greatest rivalry in Lacrosse to new heights.
from Inside Lacrosse.com
Being a DI program in a DIII athletic department, Johns Hopkins has flexibility within lacrosse that nearly all of its peers lack — the best interest of the lacrosse team is the leading consideration in potential conference affiliation, not a byproduct of the football and basketball teams’ most lucrative TV deals, as has been the case in many recent realignment choices.
As a result, coach Dave Pietramala, athletic director Tom Calder and the rest of the Blue Jay staff can consider the future of the program and its possible conference decision more narrowly than most of their counterparts. In a conversation with IL earlier in January, Pietramala said while his program hasn’t joined a league or been offered an invitation to join a league and no decision is imminent, Hopkins is considering its options to abandon its long-lived independence.
“We have not joined any conference,” Pietramala said. “We have been approached by several, and like anything else, you do your due diligence. You research the pros and cons of things.”
Pietramala wouldn’t confirm whether a prospective Big Ten men’s lacrosse conference is one that’s approached the Blue Jays, but multiple sources have told IL that the Big Ten, the Big East (or a representative of the future Big East) and the ECAC are among those interested in Johns Hopkins.
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