The Division III Men’s Lacrosse Committee will ask the Division III Championships Committee to increase the size of the bench party, a request the committee believes is in keeping with the Division III philosophical emphasis on participation.

The lacrosse committee permitted a bench party of 48 until a recent Championships Committee decision that limits the bench party in all sports to five people above the squad size (with two required to be medical personnel). The rule limits men’s lacrosse teams to 33 people in their bench area (including 28 student-athletes), forcing teams with bigger rosters to leave student-athletes in the stands. The committee wants to increase the permissible number of people in the bench area to 48, allowing for 15 individuals on the sidelines beyond the official travel party of 33.

“We certainly understand the spirit and the intent of the rule,” said Jim Lyons, committee chair and head men’s lacrosse coach at Geneseo State. “We don’t want to give a competitive advantage to schools with bigger rosters, but it comes down to students practicing, working hard, and sweating next to each other all year long.

“All of a sudden, for the most important games of the year, five or 10 athletes can’t be on the sidelines with their teammates? It’s a little bit contrary to what the Division III philosophy and goals are.”

In other business, the committee will begin using the new selection criteria mandated for all Division III championships, including a change in the definition of “ranked opponents.” Previously, the term was defined as being teams ranked at the time of the selection process, but the change will define a “ranked opponent” as any team ranked at any point in the season. Lyons said that change is likely to affect men’s lacrosse because of the small number of teams that are ranked.

“Lacrosse is a smaller, regional-based sport. We don’t have as many programs ranked, so when you don’t rank as many teams the smaller numbers don’t always give you as good a cross-section,” Lyons said. “Having more teams defined as ranked will give us more information so we can make a better decision. Anything that will give us more information to get the right teams selected for the tournament is going to help. We want to make sure it’s the best possible field we can have.”

The committee also:

• Recommended that the Landmark Conference be added to its list of automatic bids to the championship. The conference completed its second year of the process to receive an automatic bid.
• Recommended that Lyons be confirmed as chair of the committee. He replaces former Haverford men’s lacrosse coach Mike Murphy, who recently accepted the head coaching job at Pennsylvania.