Georgia Bulldogs: Four sports UGA could join on a varsity level in the future
The NCAA sanctions competition for 23 sports. The Georgia Bulldogs compete in 12 of those sports. Two of those sports are men’s only, four are women’s only.
As the University of Georgia grows, and as the popularity of other sports grow in the southeast, The Georgia Bulldogs will begin adding more varsity level sports. It’s just a matter of when and which sports.
Here’s a short list of sports I could see UGA begin playing within the next 20 years. Each entry will come in pairs of men’s and women’s sports because of Title IX. School’s can’t just add one sport anymore. They have to add two to keep men’s and women’s scholarships equal.
Men’s and women’s’ lacrosse
Men’s and women’s lacrosse makes a lot of sense for two reasons. The sport is growing in popularity in the southeast at a very high rate. Especially in Northeast Georgia. Tow local high school programs, Oconee County and North Oconee, have boys and girls LAX teams. As does Gainesville High School and several schools in Gwinnett County. So there is plenty of local talent.
It also makes sense because Georgia has fielded very successful men’s and women’s lacrosse teams outside of the NCAA. The men compete in the Southeast Lacrosse Conference in the Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association. The women compete in the Southeast Women’s Lacrosse League of the Women’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association. Both leagues are a hybrid club/varsity.
The men’s team struggled a bit this year and settled for a third place finish in the southwest division with an 8-5 record. But they are used to winning. They have won the SELC Championship three times since 2007.
The women’s team has been even better. They have eight SWLL Championships, including the last three and four of the last five. They also won the WCLA National Championship in 2016 and are poised to make a run again this year.
Of course a jump up to the NCAA will include growing pains. But there’s a lot of quality high school programs around Athens. Plus, there are great athletes all around the state. Georgia wouldn’t endure those growing pains for too long.
Men’s soccer – Women’s rowing
Lacrosse is still growing in popularity, but it’s still decades from catching baseball, football and basketball. Soccer is almost there. We know all about that in North Georgia with our club, Atlanta United FC, breaking attendance records and exceeding 70,000 fans in attendance three times.
And like lacrosse, high school soccer programs around Athens are improving. Even schools in rural areas have soccer programs that are going toe-to-tow with the big Atlanta public and private schools.
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Rowing isn’t on here for popularity, just equity. Out of all the other women’s sports in the NCAA rowing made the most sense. Mostly because of the major bodies of water in Northeast Georgia. Gainesville even hosted the NCAA Rowing National Championships in 1998 and 2001.