Cash strapped FSU adding lacrosse?

Better not, unless Title 9 is forcing (thus it would be WOMEN'S lacrosse )

https://floridastate.forums.rivals.com/threads/fsu-looking-to-add-m-w-lax-program.220880/

Email records show a big name school may be adding lacrosse soon. Could @Seminoles be the next lacrosse school in Florida? More from @Eri_Barrister. https://t.co/SOrladX0cs pic.twitter.com/YR3DXHgHLo

— College Crosse (@College_Crosse) July 9, 2018

https://www.collegecrosse.com/platform/amp/2018/7/9/17491142/florida-state-seminoles-foia-college-ncaa-lacrosse-mens-women-s-soccer-acc-stan-wilcox-john-thrasher?utm_campaign=collegecrosse&utm_content=chorus&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&__twitter_impression=true

Email records show Florida State is interested in adding lacrosse

We made a FOIA request and something could be happening down at Florida State.

In late May, the Florida State Seminoles club lacrosse team tweeted out something interesting: A screenshot image of a Warchant.com (the school’s Rivals affiliate) post where FSU President John Thrasher said some intriguing things about wanting to add lacrosse at Florida State.Everything has been really good this year. And I’m hoping one day, another thing I’d like to do before we leave here, is perhaps look at getting another sport here at FSU. Perhaps lacrosse or something like that. Start with a women’s team to make sure we’re balanced (with Title IX) and making sure of that, always. But I think that’s a really unique sport -- and one that the kids are really buying into today. It’s a very popular sport, and I think it would help us attract a lot of kids from all over the country, particularly in the northeast. 

Was this just banter from Thrasher to quell some lax-crazed alums, a trial balloon to gauge the public’s reaction, or was there something else happening at Florida State, a concerted effort to add lacrosse?

We at College Crosse made a public records request to Florida State for any emails to or from either President Thrasher or FSU Athletic Director Stanley Wilcox that dealt with adding a men’s or women’s lacrosse program at the ACC school.

And I’m hoping one day, another thing I’d like to do before we leave here, is perhaps look at getting another sport here at FSU. Perhaps lacrosse or something like that.

While we didn’t get everything we asked for, we certainly got a good look behind the curtain.

Remember the date of the Florida State club lacrosse tweet and post with Thrasher’s quote: May 27th. This date is important as it appears to be roughly two weeks after an interesting meeting in New York City.

The first thing that stood out in the emails is that there seems to be a legitimate grassroots push to get lacrosse at Florida State, with more of a push towards a women’s program first. Florida has a fast growing talent pool with only three options for women’s lacrosse and one for men’s. The University of Florida and Stetson University offer women’s lacrosse, while Jacksonville University offers both men’s lacrosse & women’s lacrosse. Florida State could likely build a successful men’s or women’s program in a relatively short period of time given its name and the fact that the school plays in the ACC.

This reality is not lost on Florida State officials and deep-pocketed FSU alums. In the below email we received in our request, it revealed that President Thrasher and Florida State’s Vice President for University Advancement Tom Jennings met with an alum in New York City back in mid-May to discuss the alum’s interest in the university adding lacrosse. Jennings emailed Florida State AD Stan Wilcox on May 17 to forward a May 16 message that the alum in NYC sent after his lunch with Jennings and Thrasher. The email included an attachment the alum created to support his push (the attachment was not given to us in our records request and the names of all the alums were previously redacted by Florida’s General Counsel’s office to protect donor information pursuant to Florida Statutes).

From Wilcox’s 2015 email:

Based on our current sport offerings and participation rates, we are obligated to increase our female student-athlete participation rates to comply with Title IX. We are in the process of completing a 5-10 year master facilities plan which will include a proposed facility for the addition of a new women’s sport. At this time, we are tentatively discussing plans to add the sport of women’s lacrosse in the next 4-5 years (approximate start-up & year 1 cost: $6.35 million; approximate recurring annual cost: $1.5 million).

The addition of men’s soccer, based on the average squad size for this sport, would require our athletics department to add one to two additional women’s sports teams (even after adding women’s lacrosse) to offset the increase in male student-athlete participants.