I now coach two middle school teams, a JV and varsity high school squad and am looking at starting an offseason club team.

Maybe I’ll move home one day:) Geaux Tigers.

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sent via iPhone

I will also say that I have more respect for Bama than Florida. I was raised to despise all things Florida. My Dad used to say, “Knox you can go to any SEC school, or any school in the country for that matter, as long as it's not Florida. I won't pay for Florida.”

I think you're hitting the nail on the head with your second and third paragraphs, and thought you may find this interesting.

I email'd someone yesterday, and I can't tell you their name, but let's put it this way – the guy came from a lacrosse heavy college to the SEC. You'll just have to trust me that this guy is a higher up and knows what he's talking about. I asked him what his thoughts about lacrosse in the SEC were. Here's his response.

“I am quite familiar with lacrosse and think it is a great sport…in the long term I do not think there is much hope for men's lacrosse in the SEC, however, there is a chance albeit slim that women's lacrosse could grow in the conference…keep up the good work, any sport a kid is playing is helping their development.”

To be honest with you, I was just happy he responded at all.

Speaking from personal experience, why would UA spend a couple million to fund men's and womens' lax which would not give anything back to the athletic department, when they can, for the same investment, add additional seating to the football stadium which will pretty much pay for itself next football season? Until lacrosse can be viewed as a sport with a good return on investment, it will always be on the back burner at SEC/ACC schools. And IMO the way to get lacrosse to that point is to continue to fuel the growth at the youth and HS levels. Especially in the southeast where football is king, the more popular lacrosse gets the harder it will be to ignore. And once the football elitists realize that an athlete that can play a couple sports well will always be superior to a specialized one, a whole new world of opportunities will open up. Just imagine an HS lacrosse program in AL (or LA) with the support of the football coach because he recognizes the advantage his linemen have since they have defensive footwork knowledge from lacrosse.

In fact, I think there's more advantages to having football and lacrosse compliment each other instead of trading one for the other. Yes, big time college football has its share of “athlete-students” but for every 5-star recruit that signs to play at Bama (or LSU or any SEC school) there is at least one student that will now give serious consideration to that school. The growth my lacrosse team has seen over the last 3 years can be partially linked to the hiring of Saban (I know I'll probably irk Knox here). It's true, his complete and total climate change of the program, and our recent rise back to national prestige, has fueled the growth of the entire school. And as a result I'm getting kids coming out for the team that would have never given Alabama a second glace had it not been for the football team. This coupled with a focus on out of state enrollment has brought an influx of talent that is benefiting all aspects of campus (especially lacrosse). If Saban wasn't getting unGodly amounts of $$ already I'd think about donating a percentage of my take (btw my take is $0, and therefore any percentage of that is also $0). In all honesty though, there are some positives to the big money, big college sport mentality. And the fact of the matter is, especially in the SEC, football will always rule the roost. So instead of focusing on how it's detrimental to the culture of college in general, why not look for a way to have the two compliment each other.

Listening to Some Chords right now.

And I'm 100% ok on agreeing to disagree on this issue. I went to a liberal arts school with under 3000 students in Connecticut and our football was bad enough that I was able to walk on my senior year (having literally NEVER played the game before) although I was still the worst player on the team. And football was still a lot of fun. I actually love football!

I think that probably flavors my outlook on college sports as much as anything. Basically, I'm incredibly elitist and biased. But I'm trying to overcome it!

One argument I CAN make FOR sports to be elevated to high levels in college (even with my bias!) is that it preps these kids for the big time. Some of the guys on LSU's team will be stars in the pros. Maybe college is the best place for them to learn the ropes. Now if this is the case and the schools are making SO MUCH money… shouldn't we just pay the kids so we can stop calling them amateurs? I guess that's my problem. We try to rationalize it by calling the student athletes. Why? give them four years, pay them to be there and call them resident pros or something but students? please. Again, some of the guys are real students (the SS from FSU last year who is now a Rhodes Scholar is a great example) but let's find the guys who are only there for sports and let them do their thing.