National Collegiate Athletic Association

NCAA News Archive - 2010

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Jan 12, 2010 11:39:08 PM

ATLANTA – Advocates for making sand volleyball an emerging NCAA sport for women say it's all about the opportunity. Opponents believe those opportunities might not be meaningful – and providing them might hurt the indoor game.

Division I delegates will decide who's right – or at least who's got the most sway – during the override vote at Friday's business session.

Delegates will also vote on adding a week to the beginning of the baseball season, an argument that is largely geographically based. Schools in the North requested the override because weather forces them to go on the road early in the season, and an additional week at that time would cause additional travel expenses and missed class time. Many schools in this camp would be amenable to adding a week at the end of the baseball season.

Schools in the South, meanwhile, argue that a measure that shortened the baseball season several years ago makes it more difficult to play the allotted 56 games in a 13-week span, causing additional missed class time.

To the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, which voted Tuesday to oppose the baseball override, the issue was less about geography and more about student-athlete well-being. A longer season, they reasoned, would prevent more missed class time for players in a sport that has among the highest rates of missed classes, according to NCA research.

The vote attracting the most attention, however, appears to be the sand volleyball decision. Already approved in Division II, the sport hasn't had as easy a time of it in Division I.

In addition to the argument that it will provide more opportunity for female student-athletes, supporters argue that its popularity will attract more attention to the sport – and its female players. The sport could also be a relatively inexpensive way for schools to improve their gender equity. The indoor and sand games are different, advocates argue, and will not only provide more opportunities for women in college, but also at the high school and club levels and, eventually, professionally.

Kathy DeBoer, executive director of the American Volleyball Coaches Association and a proponent of the sand game, pointed to statistics that show hundreds of new opportunities for women even if only a few Division I schools add it.

"Sand volleyball will create an explosion of new opportunities for women to play volleyball in college, and, as has happened with other emerging sports, that will result in wonderful growth of opportunity at the high school and club levels," DeBoer said.

The SAAC, which had voiced its opposition to the override earlier in the cycle, maintained that position because of the additional opportunities for athletics participation in Division I.

But others disagree. Calli Sanders, senior associate athletics director at Iowa State, said the addition could actually harm the gender cause.

"Institutions will use this as a low-cost way to count their volleyball players twice for equity purposes," she said. "In these economic times, we don't want people to be persuaded to add this sport when those resources could be used toward existing programs."

Division I volleyball has achieved some measure of parity in recent years, and Sanders worries that the sand version could upset that apple cart if the best players attend schools that offer sand programs and leave those that can't add the sport out in the cold. Sanders doesn't think the sport is cost-effective, either.

"People don't realize that you really need three courts to have an event that lasts less than eight hours," she said. "That's a challenge facility-wise. Staffing and facilities are going to be significant costs that institutions may not have fully considered."

Both sides will have the opportunity to voice their opinion at Friday's Division I business session at 3 p.m. Some concerns could be addressed by delaying the effective date of the proposal from August 2010 to August 2011, something the Division I Board of Directors would have the power to do. The Board meets Saturday.