PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The BIG EAST Conference will formally begin sponsoring the sport of men’s lacrosse beginning in the spring of 2010. The announcement about the Conference adding its 24th sport was made today by Commissioner Michael Tranghese following a unanimous vote by the league’s 16 Directors of Athletics during their recent annual spring meeting.

The seven conference schools that will participate in the newly formed league are Georgetown, Notre Dame, Providence, Rutgers, St. John’s, Syracuse and Villanova. The teams will play a six-game single round-robin regular season schedule. The BIG EAST will apply for an automatic bid to the 16-team NCAA Championship field.

Syracuse won the 2008 NCAA Men’s Lacrosse national title, the program’s 10th, after earning an at-large bid as a Division I Independent. Notre Dame also garnered a berth into the national tournament as an automatic qualifier from the Great Western Lacrosse League. Currently, Georgetown, Rutgers and St. John’s are part of the ECAC, Providence is a member of the MAAC and Villanova plays in the Colonial Athletic Association.

“We are looking forward to the excitement that men’s lacrosse will bring to the BIG EAST Conference,” said Commissioner Tranghese. “We have schools with established and successful programs, which want to come together and compete under the BIG EAST brand.”

Men’s lacrosse will be the BIG EAST’s 11th men’s sport while the Conference conducts 13 women’s sports.

Villanova women’s lacrosse will also join the BIG EAST effective in the 2009-10 academic year. The Wildcats will become the ninth women’s lacrosse program under the auspices of the BIG EAST Conference – joining Connecticut, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Rutgers, Syracuse and associate member Loyola (Md.). Cincinnati and Louisville are scheduled to begin competing in the spring of 2009. The Villanova lacrosse program has been a varsity sport since 1990. It was an associate member of the Patriot League from 1999-2006 and has played the last two seasons as a Division I Independent. The Wildcats are led by head coach Jebb Chagan, who just completed his third season at the helm.

“We are excited that our women's lacrosse program will be part of the BIG EAST beginning in 2009-10,” adds Villanova Director of Athletics Vince Nicastro. “The BIG EAST is one of the nation's elite lacrosse conferences and our student-athletes and coaches are energized by the challenges and opportunities it presents.”

The format for the BIG EAST Women’s Lacrosse Championship will remain unchanged with the top four teams in the conference standings selected and seeded according to Conference game-winning percentage at the conclusion of the regular season. The championship semifinals and final are played at a predetermined campus site.

UPDATE-Syracuse Head Coach John Desko's Comments:

Syracuse head men's lacrosse coach John Desko held a teleconference today to discuss how the formation of the Big East Conference will affect his team. Here are some highlights and quotes:

Desko seemed in some ways ambivalent about Syracuse participating in the Big East conference when it comes to being in 2010. "If it doesn't affect our strength of schedule, than why not," he said when asked about joining the league.

He acknowledged that the conference will probably help the other programs more than Syracuse, though having another option to get into the NCAA Tournament (via a Big East AQ) is not a bad thing. Though, he said, we would rather make it the way Syracuse always has, by winning games against top teams on the Orange's usually ultra-competitive independent schedule.

In order to protect that schedule, Desko said he is attempting to already lock up weekends in 2010 for traditional match-ups (Hopkins, Princeton, Virginia, etc.) to ensure those games will fit within a Big East schedule.

One thing Desko does not want to affect his schedule is a postseason tournament. "I'm personally not in favor of it," he said when asked about a conference tourney. It would cost another week of Syracuse's schedule, possibly losing a traditional game. He also sees it as redundant, saying, if you played everyone in the regular season and one team emerges with more wins than the rest, that should dictate a conference winner.

While the addition of Syracuse definitely was a key piece in creating this conference, Desko sounded as if he personally had little to do with it. "It's a Big East decision," he said, "it's a school decision." Syracuse's Athletic Director Daryl Gross met with other Big East official when the conference held a meeting to discuss and eventually ratify the new men's lacrosse league. Though Syracuse looks like the biggest fish in this new small pond, Desko does not see the school having a larger say in decisions the conference makes.

With the school year being over for nearly a month, and his players dispersing to their homes after their championship run, Desko said he has not had a chance to talk with players to gauge their opinions of playing in a Big East lacrosse conference. He does not see it affecting the team too much.
"I think they're like me," Desko said. "They are waiting to see how it all plays out...I can't see it being a negative if we don't have to change our schedule."