Sand

[Landlord]

Forgive my lack of knowledge on this, but isn't title IX based on numbers of participants not number of sports? i.e. football and volleyball are NOT treated as equal sports on the talley due to there being way more people playing football.

 

 

 

That's right - your ratio of male-to-female athletes need to match your ratio of male-to-female student enrollment. Since football is such a HUGE sport numbers-wise, you have to have several more women's sports to compensate.

[huskerhill]

Forgive my lack of knowledge on this, but isn't title IX based on numbers of participants not number of sports? i.e. football and volleyball are NOT treated as equal sports on the talley due to there being way more people playing football.

 

 

 

That's right - your ratio of male-to-female athletes need to match your ratio of male-to-female student enrollment. Since football is such a HUGE sport numbers-wise, you have to have several more women's sports to compensate.

 

Interesting. I was under the impression that this might be the 1st step in adding men's hockey, but if it actually doesn't add to the female enrollment then maybe not.

[knapplc]

Sand Volleyball is something that has been in the works across the NCAA for quite some time. It was always going to be a tertiary sport, so this fits in to what I've been hearing over the years. I'm a little caught off guard by this announcement because it's always been a "some day" or "maybe next year" thing. Apparently this is Some Day.

 

Regarding Title IX and the other sports that have been axed, I have mixed feelings. I imagine attendance plays at least a small role in deciding which sports are kept and which are cut, and swim wasn't that big of a spectator sport, was it? If Nebraska adds any men's sport, I'm guessing it's Hockey, and they'll do that in the next few years. I imagine this is a bone thrown at the feet of Title IX (albeit a rather transparent bone) as a precursor to Hockey coming aboard.

 

Regarding attendance, I guarantee there will be crowds watching these matches, especially if the facilities are indoors. I would imagine they'll play outdoors, though - especially if other schools have their courts outside. Sand volleyball isn't an indoor sport, after all. Only problem is, Spring in Nebraska is often either very windy, very rainy or very tornado-y, and those don't make for easy matches. Having your volleyball asplode from a lightning bolt kinda kills your momentum some.

[RedRedJarvisRedwine]

As much as this state loves volleyball, I'm wondering if there have ever been discussions on fielding a men's team?

[kchusker_chris]

This is going to set us apart from a recruiting standpoint. As Nebraska has proven - the money in volleyball post-college is in sand volleyball. That's where the endorsements are, that's where the competition is. If you want to play profession volleyball after your career on the court - it's likely where you are going to end up. So I think we just took a huge jump towards dominating college volleyball for many years to come. We should be able to pull recruits from Penn State and others with this. Not to mention, anyone that has played sand volleyball knows it's a drain. We'll have the most fit team in the nation if a core group of them are playing sand volleyball.

[knapplc]

In America, post-college, the money is in sand ball. Most of our girls go to the Caribbean or Europe to play indoor court ball professionally, with some (notably Nancy Meendering/Metcalf) playing in Brazil.

 

From what I can tell, most girls enjoy their experiences overseas. It depends on the club and the country you're in, though. If they could play here in America and make money, I'm sure most of them would prefer to stay.

[knapplc]

As much as this state loves volleyball, I'm wondering if there have ever been discussions on fielding a men's team?

 

We have a men's club, and have had for years. With Men's ball being such a west-coast dominated sport, I don't know that it would be easy to get going here. Ohio State and Penn State both have men's teams, but I don't know about the rest of the Big Ten.

 

The men's game is very different than women's volleyball. In women's ball, there are far more rallies and the action is much more fan-friendly. The men's game is serve-pass-set-HUGE KILL. Lather, rinse, repeat. It's rare that you get good, crowd-pleasing rallies going in the men's game, so to be a fan you'd have to really enjoy watching kills slammed into the floor over and over and over and over.

 

This is why women's volleyball is on TV much more during the Olympics, both in sand and court. Men's volleyball is kinda boring.

[Lyons in the Sea of Red.]

As much as this state loves volleyball, I'm wondering if there have ever been discussions on fielding a men's team?

 

We have a men's club, and have had for years. With Men's ball being such a west-coast dominated sport, I don't know that it would be easy to get going here. Ohio State and Penn State both have men's teams, but I don't know about the rest of the Big Ten.

 

The men's game is very different than women's volleyball. In women's ball, there are far more rallies and the action is much more fan-friendly. The men's game is serve-pass-set-HUGE KILL. Lather, rinse, repeat. It's rare that you get good, crowd-pleasing rallies going in the men's game, so to be a fan you'd have to really enjoy watching kills slammed into the floor over and over and over and over.

 

This is why women's volleyball is on TV much more during the Olympics, both in sand and court. Men's volleyball is kinda boring.

And not as fun to look at

[BigRedBuster]

I'm not big on men's VB becoming a prominent sport here. I love women's VB and I really don't want something like men's VB to dilute the excitement for the program.

[GM_Tood]

If I were a betting man, I would put some money on Mens VB becoming an official sport at Nebraska in the near future.

 

I talked with one of the new frosh family last night and they said sand vb practice starts today. Anyone down there able to swing into the facility today and take a look at who they have in there?

[VectorVictor]

Forgive my lack of knowledge on this, but isn't title IX based on numbers of participants not number of sports? i.e. football and volleyball are NOT treated as equal sports on the talley due to there being way more people playing football.

 

 

 

That's right - your ratio of male-to-female athletes need to match your ratio of male-to-female student enrollment. Since football is such a HUGE sport numbers-wise, you have to have several more women's sports to compensate.

 

Or any sport that you bring programs that have both a women's and men's component to it to maintain the existing, acceptable ratio...like swimming/diving (as mentioned above)...or ice hockey, which our new AD is familiar with starting from the ground up.

 

Frankly, I would love to see both swimming/diving and ice hockey added to DoNU. Frankly, money shouldn't be an issue as soon as we get our full piece of the B1G pie and we're done with stadium expansion. Plus, the later sport has an instant rival (UNO) and a few close teams to play (Denver, ND) that I'm sure would love to schedule us as part of their non-con (until we get good)...

[GM_Tood]

Paige Hubl is coming back for a 5th year (she didnt see the floor during her Soph season) to play sand...and she will be playing indoor as well. This is good news!

[knapplc]

If I were a betting man, I would put some money on Mens VB becoming an official sport at Nebraska in the near future.

 

I talked with one of the new frosh family last night and they said sand vb practice starts today. Anyone down there able to swing into the facility today and take a look at who they have in there?

 

No, because the sand court is inside the Hawks Championship center, down a long hallway, well out of view of the public.

[HuskerFanChuck]

Few interesting factoids:

 

Need 40 teams at either DI or DII level for the NCAA to sponsor a championship for the sport, as I understand what I've been reading, but in any event, won't sponsor one before '16.

 

15 sponsored last year, along with 1 NAIA team. Looks like another 15 (including Nebraska) are confirmed for this year (including 1 DII team, I believe), with another 2 confirmed to start in '13-'14.

 

Required 8 game/event season, with at least 3 required to be duals, but from what I can gather, no more than 16 in one year, either. (Wow... if what was reported was correct, and they want to try and fit their season into a spring break trip to Cali... that's a lot of matches/events in a very short period of time.)

 

Read within the handbook on AVCA's website, I believe, that this is classified (?) as an outdoor sport, and so all matches must be played outdoors, except in the event of inclement weather. Interesting - would mean a court would have to be built around Devaney if that were the case, though not sure that would be a huge issue. Plenty of open land over in that vacinity.

 

This seems to be a good site for at least basic information:

 

http://www.collegesand.org/

 

Also here, at the AVCA's website:

 

http://www.avca.org/sand/

 

The handbook I pulled a couple of those pieces out is in the Handbook that has a link on the right-hand side of the AVCA's sand volleyball page.

Interesting stuff. Be interesting to see how they do this year.

 

And I think this was mentioned by someone above, but there is some regulation regarding the sport right now where if you accept a scholarship in sand volleyball, you can't play indoor, but if you take a scholarship in indoor, you can still play sand. Sounds like some schools are already offering scholies for sand, as I know Cook said the gal that transferred to play sand wanted to ONLY play sand, and not both, so this wouldn't have helped in keeping her here, and I imagine someone out West had offered a scholarship.

[HuskerFanChuck]

From the list of colleges showing on the collegesand website, it would be nice to see Notre Dame and Missouri State at least end up with teams, to have at least someone within relative proximity of us.