The topic of sports programs between SEC and Big Ten schools has always been one where people can’t agree on which is better.
Naturally, anyone from an SEC university is going to have bias. They’ll contend conference football and baseball programs have been the foundation of collegiate athletics.
If you ask anyone who attends a Big Ten university, the answer will be the opposite.
However, a key advantage for the Big Ten comes down to a single sport: lacrosse.
Lacrosse, historically, has been a predominantly northern sport that is heavily funded at Big Ten and Big 12 universities. Duke, Notre Dame and the University of Maryland maintain three of the highest college lacrosse budgets. Maryland, for example, spends just over $2 million annually for its program.
In college athletics today, where an SEC football program spends about $100 million on average for operational expenses and gains double that back in revenue, these numbers for lacrosse are nothing.
Even with much smaller funds, Big Ten schools still find a way to produce numerous national championship teams with the strict budget it allocates to the sport. So, it’s possible for the SEC to do the same. Some might argue they could do it better.
Is it finally time for the SEC to adopt lacrosse as an official Division I program?
The SEC certainly has the resources and the money to do so, so what’s stopping it?
The biggest issue could be the lack of the sport’s popularity in the South.
Since lacrosse is primarily popular in the northeast part of the U.S., the little interest in the sport in the South might just be the reason there aren’t huge SEC programs currently.
While most SEC universities, like LSU, have club lacrosse teams that travel and face other schools’ club rosters, the usual intense training, daily schedule and official Division I title aren’t the same.
With this in mind, recruiting efforts also have to be taken into consideration.
With most southern high schools not having lacrosse programs to pile on top of the lack of interest, it makes the recruitment factor even trickier when thinking local. If the SEC were to attempt to recruit from the North — if that would be the solution — most high school athletes already know where they want to play, and it’s not in the South.
That doesn’t mean that this would be impossible for the SEC to accomplish.
The overall popularity of lacrosse has been on the rise for decades, even after a short span of limitations in the early 2020s. All the SEC has to do is play its cards right.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, lacrosse was regarded as the fastest-growing collegiate sport by the NCAA. In terms of attendance, the highest college lacrosse game attendance was just over 52,000. That came during the 2007 semifinals in Baltimore when John Hopkins faced Delaware, and Duke faced Cornell.
While viewership has slightly decreased since then, lacrosse programs have only expanded. As of 2026, there are 78 universities with DI men’s lacrosse programs and over 130 with women’s teams.
A notable recognition in the growth of lacrosse will be the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. After a 120-year hiatus, lacrosse will be played again, giving the sport an opportunity for visibility on an international scale, with women’s lacrosse making its Olympic debut.
Focusing on women’s lacrosse, the growth of the sport for female athletes in particular can help the commercialization and attentiveness of the sport as a whole, according to World Lacrosse CEO Jim Scherr.
“Women’s collegiate lacrosse is thriving, which will be a major factor in the further growth of the sport,” Scherr said to the National Lacrosse League in 2023. “It all points to providing opportunity. Women have the same interest in sports and lacrosse as men. You provide the opportunities, and the numbers will be there.”
At the end of the day, maybe the issue comes down to how professional lacrosse doesn’t sound as appealing as playing in the NFL or the MLB.
The National Lacrosse League often doesn’t get the recognition it deserves when it comes to sports at the professional level. In fact, most college lacrosse athletes don’t see themselves playing pro once their collegiate tenure concludes.
Despite this, the pure passion and dedication for the sport itself will never be an issue when it comes to popularity. Lacrosse certainly has the potential to grow across the entire U.S., and not just in the North.
With the right funding and recruitment, SEC lacrosse could absolutely contribute to the highly known SEC championship atmosphere.
While a slight budget cut to other programs might be necessary in order to accomplish this, the right athletes and fan attendance would certainly produce the revenue back into the school.
For LSU, the addition of lacrosse would be another commanding program with the means to compete for a national title. An LSU men’s team versus the current No. 1 team, Maryland, or a women’s team versus No. 1 North Carolina, would no doubt be a thriller to draw engagement to the sport.
In any case, a trophy brought back to Baton Rouge is something that fans can always get behind, no matter the sport. If one thing’s for sure about LSU fans, they’ll show up for any athletic program that features players in purple and gold.
After all, the Tigers are “just different.” An official addition of lacrosse would be no exception.
