Kevin,
 
Your original post had one main theme… and that was the BWI article was WRONG about Brother Rice being No. 1. (The point about U of Michigan being able to support a varisty team with Michigan payers was beside the point, or as you said “While we are here… .” It is a complex issue I don’t think abyone can address with a quick blog post and internet search.

Well, your point was misguided and just plain wrong.

Brother Rice was the national champion.

Let’s give you some links (instead of the feeble work you did to reference the Brother Rice homepage):

http://sports.espn.go.com/highschool/rise/lacrosse/news/story?id=4015493

http://www.insidelacrosse.com/page.cfm?pagerid=65840&cat=67366&hidecontent=yes&id=190854

So, stop squabbling over ancillary points (i.e., lacrosse manufacturing).

Own up to your mistake.

As far as those lacrosse comments, there could not be two more misinformed people having an argument unless it was Charlie Weiss and Rosey O’Donnell arguing over which diet is more successful. There is so many pieces of BS in both arguments I don’t know where to start and the 3 articles are all over the map so bear with me…
  

Rice was national champions LAST year. Not this year. They were still in 2008 when they signed the LOI so that might be where the confusion from the main article is coming from.
 
And it was not in the laxpower power poll, it was in the Inside lacrosse/Under Armor Power Rankings. If that guys at BSD is a laxpower addict like he claims there is NO WAY that he does not know about the other poll. That’s like Nebraska fans acting as if they didn’t split with Michigan in 97. Debate who is better all you want, but you can’t deny that the other poll does exist. For him to pretend it doesn’t shows his bias.
 
I’m also pretty sure that PSU didn’t go Varsity until the early 90s. I think you should give a program 15-20 years before you start demanding national championships, but that’s just me. The big lax schools have it as part of they’re culture in the university and it will take some time for the other schools to catch up.

Nick and Danny are great kids that were recruited by everyone, not just PSU. They could have gone to UVA, Hopkins, Syracuse or anywhere else, but chose PSU. His older brother Charley is going to be a 5th year Sr on the PSU lax team next year and Danny always wanted to play with his big brother. Nick is Danny’s best friend and while he didn’t to PSU because Danny told him to I’m sure Danny going to there was a big reason he went. For you to dog this recruiting class it shows you have no idea what you’re talking about.

Also there was an article in Lacrosse magazine a few months ago on which states produce the most college players they broke it down by D1 rosters only. 1-5 were all the east coast power houses and I think New York had 5 times more than the #10 team. That being said, I think the state of Michigan was #8 on the list. Actually, they were left off the list, but I’m such a dork I went and added it up myself and emailed the editor and he verified I was right and it was a mistake, a correction or my letter will be in the next issue.

The reason that those states dominate is not that they have better athletes; it’s that they have better youth programs. In NY, MD, CT and the other power states the youth programs begin for 5 year olds if not earlier. Most of the towns in Michigan just got lacrosse in HS and are trying to put in youth programs. The challenge they have is that they don’t have any coaches. Most of the dads that are helping out never played. The reason that Rice is so damn good is that Steve McNulty (Rice class of 85) runs the Michigan Warriors for 3-8 graders and they can all throw, catch and shoot when they get to Rice and Ambrose just has to worry about getting them stronger and playing as a team. You look at most other schools and they might have better athletes, but they’re recruiting kids off the football team and giving them they’re first stick as an upperclassman. There is no way to compete with that.

That being said, you drive through towns like Birmingham and Clarkston now and lacrosse goals are almost as common as basketball hoops. The sport is growing, but we need another generation of players to come back and coach to take it to the next level and we can compete on a regular basis.

To pile on UDM’s lacrosse team is weak. They are a first year team made up of Freshmen and transfers. That’s just a dick move.

The comment about Rice not playing anyone from the East Coast is unfair. The MHSAA won’t let teams travel more than 300 miles and those schools won’t come here because they have nothing to gain and everything to lose. It’s like people saying that Boise State shouldn’t be in a BCS bowl. If someone had the balls to play them we’d find the answer if they were legit or not. Rice used to go to Maryland and NY to play back pre MHSAA and knocked off some of the top teams out there and in the loses they held their own and belonged on the same field.

Lacrosse is growing nationally and the best way to tell is to follow the money. Back when I first played it was Brine or STX and you wore Nike football cleats. Now New Balance bought Warrior, Warrior bought Brine, Nike owns part of STX, Adidas and RBK are making gear and Gait, Shock Doctor, Cascade, Under Armor, Maverick and Scorpion are all manufacturing lacrosse specific equipment. They are not going to throw money at the gear unless people are buying it in more places than just Long Island and Baltimore County.

So yeah, for them to argue about who has better equipment manufacturers and where they were founded is kind of funny.

As far as Rice being an "elite" program. Yes they are. Absolutely. Ask any college coach and they will tell you that they recruit kids from Rice every year. Now you ask anyone at Rice if they are the best program in the country and they’ll admit no. I think it’s like MSU basketball. We know we are not UNC, Duke or UCLA, but we should be in the conversation with the next tier. Having 13 D1 recruits from last years team was wrong. Since then Walker signed with Yale, Hebden signed with UDM and a few more might get a shot too. That’s 16 kids with D1 offer off 1 team including kids that went to Maryland, Hopkins, Hofstra and other powers.

Could Michigan succeed as a D1 program? Absolutley. They wouldn’t knock off Syracuse anytime in the next 10 years, but they could join the GWLL and compete today and probably have a winning record. John Paul has more money for his program than most D1 schools and will have better facilities than even the top schools in the next few years. They are a "virtual varsity" or "varsity club" that gets everything from the U that the big sports do short of scholarships.

Ok, that’s enough rambling for today.

I tend to agree with the base argument that Michigan could not compete TODAY, even with the east coast talent they now have (although I do think they could be much more competitive than UDM was in their first year). I also agree that BR was awarded an Inside Lacrosse national championship in 2008 more for the sake of discussion than reality (and ESPN picked it up because they are partnered with IL).

The PSU hockey comment would be accurate, if it wasn’t for the fact that Michigan’s club lacrosse team does not operate like a club team. They have full time coaches, trainers, strength coach, director of operations, etc. They recruit nationally (one of their incoming recruits is the starting goalie at Gilman in Baltimore, the mostly undisputed #1 high school team in the nation this year), and they already have many strong recruiting connections in the east (they just aren’t getting the blue chip kids as a club team, which is not surprising). They scrimmage a lot of D1 teams (Hopkins and Army actually came to them in the fall of 2007), which does not show that they can compete with those teams, but it certainly shows that they are respected by those coaches and that the current club coach is well connected. I doubt many club teams in the nation in any sport are scrimmaging the defending D1 national champs at home. In fact, I don’t think even the Penn State varsity team has ever hosted Hopkins in Happy Valley (could be wrong on that). The UM club team is about to build a multi-million dollar support building (locker rooms, meeting rooms, offices 5000 sq. ft weight room, training/rehab…pretty much the whole enchilada) that will put them near or at the top of D1 lacrosse facilities, even though they will still be a club team. All of this puts them far, far ahead of the typical school that is adding a new sport. Really, aside from scholarships, the top recruits and the ability to compete for an NCAA championship, they are already ahead of a lot of D1 programs in structure, coaching and funding. The only other team in the country I can compare them to is Cal Rugby, as they are building an empire themselves, without a lot of university support and with no university money. The difference is rugby exists only at the club level nationally. Cal can’t take it any farther. Michigan has something to aspire to in lacrosse, and every new step they take in building their program not only establishes dominance at the club level (which they are still fairly new at), but also prepares them more than most for a future in D1, if it ever happens.

I think it’s logical to think that they could compete quickly, and it’s also logical to think that they would draw very well from the east right off the bat. Could they win a national championship in five years? Doubtful. But they could certainly quickly get to the level ND has reached, and perhaps higher.