I saw that unfortunate press release and my initial reaction was that the Syracuse coach was being a real jerk – sort of rubbing salt into wounds of Duke.

Then I put my sports fan hat back on and realized probably what caused this to have to be said.

It’s already been reported that many of the Duke players (if I recall correctly, it read 15) are asking for the school to release them from their commitment to play for Duke next year.

Now, when coaching a college team sport, one of the issues you constantly face is the conflict between your existing team and potential recruits for anticipated playing time. Players on other teams have to be worried that Duke players may come in and take their playing time.

The Syracuse coach should have made a statement supporting the players who have committed to Syracuse’s team and he would not entertain discussions with Duke players about transfers.

I also wonder if the Syracuse coach is also trying to taint any team/school that does accept Duke transfers as a coach/team/school that will do anything (ethical or not) just to try to win.

Image being a coach at another school (say Virginia) who may take a couple of Duke transfers and having to answer the media’s questions about why your school would take a Duke transfer when other schools would not.

The Syracuse coach’s actions could also be an act of professional courtesy, not wanting to poach players of a team that next year should come back and still be competitive. If he were in Coach Pressler’s position (or Pressler’s replacement), I doubt he’d be happy to lose a large portion of his teams’ players, or have them encouraged to go elsewhere.

It’s similar to all the college students displaced by Katrina. Other colleges and universities opened their arms to those wanting to continue their education—but only until the affected schools were up and running again. Then, those students were strongly encouraged to go back to their “home” colleges (I know second hand, that 3rd year Tulane Law students were told they wouldn’t graduate if they didn’t return for their last semester.) Administrators knew that a school would be devastated and unable to reopen even, if it didn’t have the current students’ tuitions to count on.

IMO, The Duke Men’s Lacrosse program would essentially be finished if the current team members scattered….

DevilAlumna,

Good point about keeping the team together. I got ahead of myself by assuming that the team would be disbanded for 2–5 years.

It’s very early on, but at this point it looks like the team will have difficulty withstanding further inquiries into what happened by the school’s own investigation. It makes sense that the administration would wait until the case is settled before investigating the matter. I suspect that the administration would insist on the players involved to provide statements on what happened.