Crosse Checking: NCAA Lax Title Game Returning To Baltimore

The NCAA is expected to award the men’s lacrosse championships to M&T Bank Stadium in ’07 and “shift the annual Memorial Day weekend event in 2008 to Gillette Stadium,” according to sources cited by Gary Lambrecht of the Baltimore SUN. The tournament includes the Division I final four and the Division II and III title games. There also “has been talk” that Gillette Stadium will host the event in ‘09 “as part of an unusual, three-year commitment.” The NCAA in recent history has selected its championship sites in two-year blocks. The tournament “moved away from college campus settings to larger venues” starting in ‘03 and “played to record crowds” at M&T Bank Stadium and Lincoln Financial Field in ’03 and ’04, respectively. Towson Univ. AD and NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Committee member Wayne Edwards said, “I’ll be surprised if this ever goes back to a college campus again.” (Baltimore SUN, 9/21).

ACADEMY NOMINEE: U.S. Military Academy AD Kevin Anderson confirmed that formal discussions “are being arranged to resume college football games involving the military academies at Soldier Field.” Anderson hopes to schedule a game at Soldier Field for ’06 or ’07 (Fred Mitchell, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 9/19).