Sunday, August 03, 2014
As the summer of 2014 winds down, this websites 5th summer of existence, we have started to notice a (somewhat worrying) trend specific to colleges and varsity status. Frankly, there just seems to be less colleges announcing varsity lacrosse this year than in recent years.
By compiling all the dates of university press releases announcing varsity men's lacrosse, women's lacrosse, or both over the last 5 years we came up with the below data:
| Year | Announcements Per Month |
| 2010 | 1.5 |
| 2011 | 2.4 |
| 2012 | 2.75 |
| 2013 | 2.6 |
| 2014 | 1.5 |
Now granted 2014 is not over, and is currently in line with 2010s announcement rate, however there is reason to believe it could ultimately end up trending below 2010s rate. In the four year period from 2010-2013 there was a total of 3 months where there was zero announcements for varsity status. Halfway through 2014, we already have 3 months this year with zero announcements.
However there are also some reasons to think 2014 could turn things around. Over the last 4 years the month of August has averaged the greatest amount of varsity announcements (4) in any given month, followed by September (3.25). The fall months in general tend to be very active for varsity announcements, so here's hoping 2014 ends on a strong note.
So what does all this mean? Who knows, could be nothing. It's certainly too premature to worry about a slowing in the games growth. However when you combine this data with the US Lacrosse most recent participation survey that showed in 2013 we had the worst year to year growth since 02-03, it's certainly something to keep an eye on.
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