🥍 In Today’s Newsletter. Week Zero and the Myth of Fearful Midweek Games. College Athletic Departments Are Wooing Recruits With Content Studios. HCLC Announces Three New Members. Whittier Suspends Women’s Lacrosse Program, Cancels 2026 Season. Groundhog Day.

🎶 Your Morning Pick Me Up. I Alone. Live

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“If there’s one thing the college lacrosse world can agree on, it’s that the season starts too early. This weekend’s glut of postponements, venue changes and cancellations was just another example. And yet, the season just keeps creeping earlier and earlier.

Why?

Because college lacrosse coaches keep chasing the outliers. To solve the problem, someone needs to push for a universal start date that isn’t nearly two months before the actual start of spring.”

» Field Awareness. “It can be done without pushing the postseason past Memorial Day – as some have called for – but it will require more midweek games and/or more weekend series with multiple games. That’s all it takes.”

» Why It Matters. “But coaches are reluctant to play more than one game a week even though the biggest event of the season – NCAA Championship Weekend – features two games in three days. That’s the same schedule every conference tournament format uses as well.”

» The Final Word. “Bottom line. If your team isn’t good enough to handle a midweek game, they’re probably not a legitimate championship contender.”

Christopher Newport 17, Elizabethtown 4
Centenary (La.) 27, LaGrange 10|
SCAD Savannah 15, Southern Virginia 9

Salisbury at Eastern, 2:00

“Cody Worsham has an Emmy on his desk. It’s an unusual accolade for someone with his job: senior associate athletic director for strategic communications and brand advancement at the University of Southern California.

His department operates on a “close to eight-figure” budget and is tasked with telling the story of the university’s athletic programs through several creative mediums, including social media content and long-form video.

It’s a full-blown production studio operating within an athletic department infrastructure—and the setup is becoming increasingly common. Since the NCAA’s NIL rules went into effect in 2021, Division I schools have been radically rethinking the role of content in college athletics.”

» Driving The News. “Creative work was once largely an afterthought for collegiate athletic departments—maybe a lone social media coordinator tucked into a sports information office. But for many schools, multimedia has become a well-staffed strategic function resembling a Fortune 500 marketing team, complete with specialists including photographers, videographers, graphic designers, and social creators—plus suites of analytics dashboards and performance-tracking tools.”

» Why It Matters. “Leaders of these teams also tell Front Office Sports that they’re pouring money into creative operations with four major goals in mind: recruiting and retaining top athletes, attracting deep-pocketed brand sponsors, engaging donors and fans, and raising the general profile of their respective universities.”

» The Bottom Line. “Athletic department content teams are also looking for outside money, which can help with the recruiting push. “We’re very much in competition for sponsorships now as well,” says Kevin Camps, the University of Florida’s assistant AD for creative media and branding. “Even the biggest brands only have so much that they can spend on sports marketing, and they want to put that money where they know they’re going to get the most exposure, so we’re always thinking about how we can grow the value of our [athletic program] social accounts.”

“The Heartland Collegiate Lacrosse Conference (HCLC) announced on Friday morning that the league will welcome three new members. Alfred State College (NY), Hilbert College (NY) and LaRoche University (PA) will begin play with the existing four members of the conference this spring.

Existing HCLC members are Earlham College (IN), Hanover College (IN), Spalding University (KY) and Transylvania University (KY). The addition of the three new members brings the single sport Division III men’s lacrosse conference to seven full members.”

» What They’re Saying. “Bringing together the three schools from the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) with our existing HCLC teams accomplishes several exciting and stabilizing outcomes,” said Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) Commissioner Jay Jones. “The addition of the schools provides immediate stability in a constantly evolving Division III men’s lacrosse membership environment.”

» Quotable. "The AMCC is proud and excited to partner with the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference for men's lacrosse,” said AMCC Commissioner Jeromy Yetter. “It is important to us to try and provide a path for our student-athletes, coaches, and institutions to compete for automatic qualification into the NCAA Tournament and this partnership affords that opportunity.

“The Whittier College Athletic Department has announced the suspension of its women's lacrosse program for the 2026 season.

The decision impacts competition for the upcoming year. The long-term future of the program is currently under evaluation. The College is committed to supporting the affected student-athletes throughout the transition.

» What They’re Saying. "First and foremost, the safety and welfare of our student-athletes must be prioritized," Whittier College Director of Athletics Rock Carter said. "Given the current low participation numbers and limited experience on the roster, we are unable to provide a safe and competitive intercollegiate experience at this time. We are actively re-evaluating the needs and goals of the program and remain committed to delivering a positive student-athlete experience as we do for all of our teams."

Earlier this morning, the most famous groundhog in the world came out of his burrow in Punxsutawney, Pa. and declared that we will have six more weeks of winter. Damn him.

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