Hopkins to join Big Ten as lacrosse affiliate

President Ron Daniels announced on Monday morning in an email to the University community that Hopkins is set to join the Big Ten as an affiliate member in men’s lacrosse. The University said it was pursuing conference affiliation over two weeks ago, after a special committee formed by the president recommended bringing to a close 130 years of independence in men’s lacrosse.

The men’s lacrosse team will begin league play in 2015 along with the other members of the fledgling Big Ten men’s lacrosse conference. The University of Maryland, an intrastate Hopkins rival, has also inked a deal to join the Big Ten in 2015 after a messy divorce from the Atlantic Coast Conference.

NCAA rules and regulations require conferences to have six or more men’s lacrosse programs in order to be eligible for an automatic qualifier for the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championship tournament each year. Even with the addition of the University of Maryland and Rutgers University, which is leaving the Big East, to the roster of men’s lacrosse programs besides the Pennsylvania State University, the Ohio State University, and the University of Michigan, the Big Ten would only have been able to field five men’s lacrosse teams.

Hopkins will join as the much sought-after sixth member.

“This is an important moment for both Johns Hopkins and Big Ten men’s lacrosse,” Daniels wrote in the email. “For the first time, the Big Ten has welcomed a university into its ranks to participate in a single sport.”

The women’s lacrosse program, which has plans to become independent in 2015 after leaving the American Lacrosse Conference, will not be affected by the men’s lacrosse program’s move to the Big Ten.

All of the affiliation conditions set forth for Hopkins by the president’s special committee appear to have been met by the Big Ten. The criteria included an initial membership term of five years, an opt-out opportunity after three years, a guarantee that Hopkins will not be impacted by further conference realignment, and the power for the University to preserve its existing television broadcasting relationship with ESPNU.

The men’s lacrosse team this year failed to qualify for the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1971. Being left out of the postseason for the first time in 42 years was seen as further proof that the men's lacrosse program could no longer sustain its status as an independent.

In March, the president formed a special committee composed of former Blue Jay lacrosse players and other Hopkins leaders and stakeholders to study whether the men’s lacrosse program should maintain its independent status or affiliate with a conference.

“With so many leagues now eligible for an automatic qualifying spot in the NCAA Division I Championship, it seemed imprudent to become the only school denying our student-athletes and fans two qualification routes into the postseason,” Daniels wrote.

Both Athletics Director Tom Calder and Men’s Lacrosse Head Coach Dave Pietramala concurred with the committee's conclusion that conference affiliation was necessary in an era of more and more automatic qualifiers for the NCAA tournament.

“I can remember a while ago—about two years ago—Dave Pietramala and I just thought about what it would be like for Johns Hopkins to go into a conference, and it’s amazing that it’s coming to fruition right now,” Calder said in a news conference at the Cordish Lacrosse Center on Monday morning. “I really enjoy being able to have a second chance to get into the NCAAs, and this will be another way to do it.”

Through the affiliation, Hopkins will not only help launch Big Ten lacrosse play and contribute to the creation of the league’s lacrosse culture, but it will also be able to continue its historic rivalry with Maryland.

“We are a good fit with the Big Ten institutions, research universities with whom—in most cases—we already share close connections through the Association of American Universities," Daniels wrote.

The Big Ten in turn felt that Hopkins was central to the league’s strategic lacrosse expansion.

"Johns Hopkins is an outstanding institution with a legacy of success in men's lacrosse that is simply unmatched in intercollegiate athletics,” Big Ten Commissioner James Delany said. “Lacrosse is an emerging sport among our current schools and is a long-held passion among our East Coast institutions. With the addition of Maryland and Rutgers in all sports and Johns Hopkins for men's lacrosse, we will have the requisite number of institutions to make men's and women's lacrosse official conference sports, building upon our tradition of broad-based sports competition.”

Calder said that the prospect of playing against a number of excellent teams was a significant selling point for the University’s final decision.

“I feel very good about it because with Penn State and Ohio State being as good as they are and with Maryland going in and Rutgers moving up a little and Michigan after their first year showing that they’re going to be good, it’s going to be a very impressive conference,” Calder said.

This post was updated on June 3 to reflect new information.