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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; An important lacrosse thing is happening here. (AP)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When we think of NCAA lacrosse at all, we think of East Coast schools, which is more than understandable; thanks to the prowess of Syracuse, Maryland, Virginia, Duke and North Carolina, there hasn't been a Division I title game without a current Big East or ACC member school participating since 1987. But it's the Big Ten that might be edging further into lacrosse territory, and further into Maryland, if it succeeds in wooing away Johns Hopkins as a lacrosse-only member for a brand-new league:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u00A0Being a DI program in a DIII athletic department, Johns Hopkins has flexibility within lacrosse that nearly all of its peers lack \u2014 the best interest of the lacrosse team is the leading consideration in potential conference affiliation, not a byproduct of the football and basketball teams\u2019 most lucrative TV deals, as has been the case in many recent realignment choices. As a result, coach Dave Pietramala, athletic director Tom Calder and the rest of the Blue Jay staff can consider the future of the program and its possible conference decision more narrowly than most of their counterparts. In a conversation with IL earlier in January, Pietramala said while his program hasn\u2019t joined a league or been offered an invitation to join a league and no decision is imminent, Hopkins is considering its options to abandon its long-lived independence.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And you will never, &lt;em&gt;ever&lt;/em&gt; hear the end of it from Jim Delany if this happens. You think academic posturings between conferences are shrill now? Johns Hopkins lacrosse will be the handsome beau already off at college who only comes home every third weekend while still remaining all anybody can talk about. &lt;em&gt;Have you heard we have Johns Hopkins now? They're DOCTORS. ALL of them. So no, Brad, I don't want to perch on the corner of the couch while you watch boxing.\u00A0&lt;/em&gt;What does this have to do with football? Absolutely nothing. We're at that point in the offseason.\nWhile we're here, want to meet Johns Hopkins' football team? The Blue Jays won 10 games in 2012 and finished the season ranked No. 12 in the AFCA Division III Coaches' Poll.&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/college-football/campus-union/2013/01/31/slow-news-thursday-leaders-legends-and-laxers>