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St. Bonaventure to MAAC for men's lacrosse in 2019 by tf86

As an affiliate. Old news, but . . .

This surprised me for a few reasons.

1. A-10 will have four full members playing men's lacrosse. I would have thought that they would be looking to sponsor the sport. By way of comparison, the SoCon only has three full members playing men's lacrosse (Furman, Mercer and VMI), yet sponsors men's lacrosse with five additional affiliate members.

2. MAAC already had seven men's lacrosse members, including one affiliate (Detroit). It also has one school which is predominantely a member of the conference but which plays men's lacrosse in the CAA as an affiliate (Fairfield). Given the numbers, the MAAC didn't really need to add St. Bonaventure, at least not at the current time. Yes, there is an advantage to scheduling -- no more bye weeks for the members during the conference part of the schedule -- but that is offset by the unbalanced home/road conference schedule an 8-team conference requires. And the MAAC member who definitely makes sense as an annual opponent for St. Bonaventure (Canisius) probably would have been an annual opponent regardless of conference affiliation.

In any event, probably a smart move for St. Bonaventure. I'm all for more independents in the sport, but independence only works for a true powrehouse. The current independents we see (Cleveland State, Hampton, and NJIT) are more or less forced to go that way. Those schools have no theoretical path to the NCAA tournament. At least St. Bonaventure has that.