3 Sports that Clemson Athletics should add at the varsity level

Men’s Lacrosse

Clemson also has a club Men's Lacrosse team. Follow them on X here.

Lacrosse is another sport that wasn’t that visible in the region when I attended Clemson in the 1990s. It has exploded in the years since. High schools have added the sport, several club-level teams have sprung up and it’s available at the recreation level in many areas too.

NCAA lacrosse has boomed for both men and women. There are some schools, like Johns Hopkins, that put a lot more emphasis on lacrosse than other sports like football or basketball.

It's been particularly popular in the Northeast for years. For example, Syracuse doesn’t have a baseball team because it is tough to make the sport fit in mid-February in upstate New York. Lacrosse is similarly outdoors but is a sport that is better suited to the climate.

It has crept southward to the point that the Atlantic Coast Conference now offers it in both men’s and women’s, and it isn’t just the northern schools that have been added over the years.

Duke, North Carolina, and Virginia have added the sport on both sides. In addition to Clemson, Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh, Louisville, and Boston College now have women’s teams.

Only Syracuse and Notre Dame join Duke, North Carolina, and Virginia on the men’s side. This is where Title IX can impact schools that might want to add it under different circumstances. Right now they would also have to add a women’s sport to balance things out.

If football were to no longer count towards Title IX, I could see several schools looking into adding lacrosse on the men’s side.

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