Badger join the MCLA

The UW men's lax team has just joined the MCLA and been added to group 1A of the Great Rivers Lacrosse Conference. You can check out the conferences, and their teams here.

In-conference, they'll be playing the likes of Lindenwood, Illinois, Illinois State, Indiana, Purdue, Missouri, and Kansas.

This addition is a HUGE move, for both the team and league.

More info coming soon.

As a player currently on the Wisconsin team, I just want to say this a big step forward for our team's desire to play better lacrosse against skilled opponents. We will still be maintaining GLLL squads because of the shear number of players coming out who do not want to pay more for MCLA. Players on the A team are really excited to move up and play more competitive teams, as the GLLL just isn't cutting it anymore for our top squad. I just returned with the team after going to a tournament in Maryland where we beat the Navy, Cornell, and Westchester club teams, in addition to what we think is a JUCO program (Anne Arundel Community College).

While I can continue to play in the GLLL as a law student at UW, I am not sure about MCLA. I am hoping I still have 1 season of eligibility left after studying abroad my junior year. In any event, thanks for the plug Mike, and I will try to provide more info about it as things move forward

Technically, since you haven't competed as a player in MCLA or NCAA competition (which I assume to be the case) and merely played in GLLL games, you would have 4 years of MCLA eligibility remaining. For example, if an NCAA or MCLA player who had competed during his 4 years of undergraduate work were to attend UW for graduate work, they would have used up the allotted four years of eligibility (or played only 3 seasons, thus having 1 year of MCLA eligibility left).

Therefore, if your schedule and finances permit, you could potentially play for another 4 seasons in the MCLA, so long as you're a registered student at Wisconsin enrolled in the required minimum number of courses mandated by the MCLA rule book.

It should be interesting to see how competitive both the GLLL and MCLA programs are relative to each other. I could see the GLLL team possessing a very strong talent pool with ex-NCAA and ex-MCLA players comprising most of this squad since their are no eligibility restrictions. If this holds true, the inter-squad scrimmages may be just as, if not more exciting and competitive than MCLA league play, and would really help bolster further development of the program.

Regardless, good luck to all UW players in this exciting transition, and thank you for taking the next step in growing and further legitimizing Wisconsin lacrosse.

mkexlax wrote:

Technically, since you haven't competed as a player in MCLA or NCAA competition (which I assume to be the case) and merely played in GLLL games, you would have 4 years of MCLA eligibility remaining.

This is absolutely incorrect. All years of college lacrosse (spring season only) count towards MCLA eligibility.

NCAA does not count MCLA as years of playing eligibility, but your matriculation clock will have started and you will have burned years that way.

I'll be interested to see how Madison fares on the field and with the additional administrative & financial burdens.

It could be a painful process the first year or two, but I'm glad they've taken this step. Both leagues have positives and negatives and this will strengthen the MCLA now. I'm glad to see that they're keeping a team in the GLLL as well, to offer that (cheaper) alternative to kids who may not be looking for an MCLA experience. Not to mention, this should make the GLLL more competitive since UW used to crush most everyone they played.

CJL wrote:

This is absolutely incorrect. All years of college lacrosse (spring season only) count towards MCLA eligibility.

Yeah, I just spoke with Mike Martin, Commissioner of the GRLC who confirmed that GLLL or any other college lacrosse counts towards burning eligibility. Luckily, he says due to my time spent abroad I have one year left of eligibility.


The factors that contributed to Wisconsin not going MCLA earlier are not gone, and like Kevin says it will be painful, with some players on the A team probably opting out of the more serious nature of MCLA. One of the best things about the UW team is how laid back we are, and that attracts a lot of talent to the team because some skilled players just do not like serious training and rules for lacrosse. Yet this will be the toughest hurdle to overcome with all our players used to this laissez-faire system coming into contact with the more restricted and serious nature of MCLA. Despite this, I also believe this was ultimately the correct course to take.