The NCAA News discussed emerging sports and sand volleyball with Faith Shearer, chair of the Committee on Women’s Athletics, during the group’s recent meeting.

NCAA News: Why did the Committee on Women’s Athletics forward a request to each division to add sand volleyball to the list of emerging sports for women?

Shearer: CWA is charged with managing the emerging-sports process, which was developed in the mid-1990s to identify women’s sports with the potential to grow participation opportunities for women and expand sports-sponsorship options for member institutions. The American Volleyball Coaches Association talked with the CWA for nearly two years explaining “beach” volleyball, a highly successful youth and Olympic sport for women, as a new option for schools to consider. Research showed the large number of female youth participants, the opportunity for smaller student-athletes to see significant competitive opportunity and the sport’s rapid growth. Most recent data indicates that growth continues:

• The most recent report from the Sporting Good Manufacturer’s Association shows participation in sand volleyball grew by 7.6 percent from 2007 to 2008 and has grown by 25.8 percent in the last two years.
• Sand volleyball has more than three million participants and has added 293,000 overall from 2007 to 2008. Female participants under the age of 18 totaled 217,000 in 2007 and 240,000 in 2008.
• Sixty-four percent of youth female sand volleyball participants report playing only the sand game and not indoor volleyball.
• In January 2007, USA Volleyball, the national governing body, restructured to adjust to the emergence of sand volleyball as a discipline with equivalent stature to the indoor game. The resultant 16-member board is split with equal representation from the indoor and the sand disciplines. USA Volleyball saw over 100 percent growth in its other sand programs, with the best performing being those directed at junior girls. The USAV Beach Junior Tour expanded junior girls participation from 534 in 2007 to 1,757 in 2009, a growth of over 200 percent.
• Beach volleyball has been an Olympic Sport since 1996. In August 2008, beach volleyball was featured as part of NBC’s prime-time coverage of the Beijing Olympic Games and, due in part to the remarkable success of the American women’s and men’s teams, received more hours of airtime than any other sport. There have been professional opportunities for women in beach volleyball in the United States for more than 20 years. The number of ranked females on the AVP circuit grew by 24.4 percent due mainly to an increase in junior girls and women ages 16-22.
• In 2009, the number of sand volleyball events and participants from NCAA-member schools  doubled from 2008 levels, with the largest event being the 200-player Fiesta on Siesta Key in Florida, and the most high-profile being the third annual CBS College Alt Games Collegiate Beach Championships in California.

NCAA News: How does the emerging sports selection process work?

Shearer: Potential emerging sports, usually supported by their national governing body and always supported by a number of NCAA schools, must submit a proposal to CWA, including suggestions for financial aid, playing-and-practice-season rules, countable coaches, competitive rules, program facilities and budget projections, as well as data about current competitive programs at all levels and support from governing bodies and conferences. For sand volleyball, the CWA received a dozen commitment letters, signed by NCAA institutional presidents and athletics directors from Divisions I and II and support letters from the U.S. Olympic Committee in 2008 and 2009, a number of NCAA conferences and schools, USA Volleyball and most recently the Women’s Sports Foundation. The CWA published the full sand volleyball proposal online immediately after receipt in July 2008.

The CWA is not a legislative body. It recommends action to the Divisions II and III Management Councils and the Division I Leadership Council. Those bodies decide to forward a proposal for the membership’s consideration. All three divisions then engage in their normal legislative process, which allows for divisional debate, comment and amendment consistent with other legislative proposals.

NCAA News: Have any of the competitive or legislative regulations for sand volleyball been determined?

Shearer: Not yet. All regulations and competitive rules are drafted by and approved by the membership. No rules have been set in place at this time. The membership is free to craft the sport’s structure as most appropriate for student-athlete well-being, cost containment and competitive equity; and is doing so currently. Legislative regulations will be voted on in the current Division I legislative cycle and for Division II at the 2010 convention, and the sport’s competitive rules are being developed through the playing rules process.

NCAA News: Why does CWA think this sport may grow new participation opportunities for women?

Shearer: The data support high interest in sand-only participation, so the sport can provide opportunities for volleyball student-athletes to have a significant competitive experience.

NCAA News: Will any school be forced to add sand volleyball?

Shearer: No. Also, in this economy, it is not likely that institutions are in a position to immediately add new programs. The CWA anticipates that the popularity of sand volleyball may spark significant interest, but schools will only add the sport as a varsity option if it fits their mission, student interest, fan and media interest and budgetary constraints. An emerging sport is just that – one that will hopefully grow new opportunities, but one that is not an NCAA championship sport unless NCAA schools vote for it to be so. This is an exploratory process for student-athletes and schools.