That’s a good question Uteusmc. I too have been wondering, but as I don’t live in Utah, I hadn’t heard any news one way or the other about this since 2018.
We had early discussions with the ACC, BigTen, AND the Big East — the 3 top collegiate LAX conferences in the country. But that’s all I know. I get the feeling however, that both the BigTen and the ACC are waiting to see what Johns Hopkins ultimately decides to do (will they defect to the ACC or remain in the BigTen) before inviting any new members, and the Utes are waiting to see what the ACC and BigTen are going to do with respect to inviting new members before making any serious attempts at joining the Big East.
I’d also heard that Larry Scott wanted more Pac-12 teams to sponsor lacrosse as a Men’s sport, but now that he’s on his way out, I don’t know what kind of traction that option is getting.
The minimum number of teams a conference must have in order to qualify for an autobid to the NCAA tournament is 6. The ACC currently has 5. That’s why they’re watching JHU — a current BigTen affiliate school….LAX only. And JHU’s term in the BigTen is coming to a close. Will they re-up with the BigTen? Or will they migrate to the ACC — a better geographic fit? For what it’s worth, the ACC won’t ever be a threat to NOT make the tourney. They’ll just have to get in ala “at-large”. If JHU decides to go to the ACC, the BigTen would lose THEIR autobid. However, like the ACC, they’ll surly get at least one team in as an “at-large”. At any rate, whichever league DOESN’T get JHU in their next contracted period, just might be interested in adding the Utes.
The Big East already has 6 teams, but Denver just might like the idea of a travel partner.
As for the Pac-12, with Scott’s ouster, we’ll have to see what the new commissioner thinks of expanding into a lacrosse league. If s/he DOES pursue it, we’ll need 5 more teams. The most likely candidates (i.e. those whose talent levels would most likely quickly rise to D-1 level) would be Colo, Ariz St, and Cal. Ariz, UWa, and Ore have some work to do, and it’s possible that both ybU-p (yuck) and UVU might be more ready than those aforementioned 3. So would the Pac-12 consider ybU-p and UVU as affiliate members in order to get to 6 teams? Or would they prefer waiting it out for UA, UW, and/or UO to get up to speed?
I really wish the SLTrib or DNews would do an article on the Utes, and ask those questions — at least once a year. The lacrosse program had done an amazing job at promoting themselves to the community. In our 1st-yr in D-1, we finished ranked in the Top-5 of all lacrosse programs in terms of attendance. In our 2nd-yr, we finished #2 — behind only Syracuse. It baffles me that that we somehow have overlooked the “media” as another way to get our name out there.
Sorry for the long-winded response. This is all that I know for now.
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