The Ripple Effect

Last night as I went to bed I grabbed the newest issue of Sports Illustrated (yes, I still read magazines). I opened it to the table of contents and BOOM - there it was. A horizontal picture that spread across the entire page, showcasing the Northwestern women's lacrosse team walking together to take on North Carolina. As I furiously flipped through SI looking for what I thought would be an inset box story, I came across a multiple-page spread entitled:

"Go West Young Lady: How Kelly Amonte Hiller turned a Northwestern club team into a No. 1 program with staying power upsetting the Eastern establishment and expanding the sport's reach. Please do yourself a favor and read Jon Wertheim's article here.

As you've read, the point to the article isn't just that the Cats are a power, but also they've completely transformed the game by shifting the balance of power and it is having a direct impact on the rapid growth of the sport. Even if you don't care about NU or lacrosse, for that matter, this is one of those can't miss articles, meaning even if you're casually leafing through SI you can't miss registering the article based on the photos and its length (incidentally, the inset box story was on Syracuse MEN'S lacrosse). To the best of my knowledge, it is the most extensive coverage we have received in SI - the gold standard of sports magazines - since Darnell Autry famously graced the cover with "The Real Deal" headline on November 12, 1995.

For those of us who grew up in the provincial and egocentric Northeast (like I did), you realize that is sports tremors like this that have an amazing grassroots effect. Massachusetts prep schools, the bastion of lacrosse, are now forced to acknowledge that Northwestern is on the map. Who knows how to quantify the true impact of image enhancement this has in the hallways of high schools from Boston, MA to Bethesda, MD? But, I can guarantee any teenage girl in the old school lacrosse beltway who plays the sport can now point out Evanston on a map (and to those of us from New England, help further disspell the annoying questions like "Did you go to Northeastern (in Boston)?").

Now I'm not contending that a national lacrosse power translates into better recruits for football. I am contending that elite level play at any sport, and hopefully multiple sports, has a halo effect on brand reputation for the school, which does help. For years, those of us in the Northwestern camp have been trumped by Stanford's Director's Cup status of perennial #1. While most 17-year-olds have no clue about this stat, there is a gut-instict feel for a Stanford recruit that it is a well-rounded athletic program. Considering we recruit against Stanford regularly, in several sports, this is a contributing factor to the overall well-being of NU.

It is rather obvious that improving basketball - both men's and women's - has a more direct impact. More mainstream national media coverage means more exposure means more brand awareness. But even more specifically for football, the standard off-season recruiting trip revolves around going to a basketball game (just look at the letter jacket-wearing football team behind the east basket). The hoops recruiting class we've scored helps not only basketball, but if they perform well, and fans pack Welsh-Ryan, the experience of a recruits weekend is that much more impressionable. While going to a lacrosse game on Lakeside Field is pretty cool, the takeaway of bigtime program will more likely come from seeing the Cats playing Indiana at Welsh-Ryan.

Regardless, the Cats lacrosse team is not impacting Northwestern's image, but they are having a direct impact on an entire sport - and THAT is something that is remarkable. Go Cats!