But with 10 of the Big 12 voting against, it seems unlikely that we'll see it here ever. Sort of like men's soccer.
I don't know about that. Other schools will use it as a recruiting tool, and Nebraska already has the facilities. It will definitely be interesting to watch this unfold. Since the only professional volleyball league in the U.S. is AVP (beach volleyball), players will lobby to be able to develop their beach game. One of Nebraska's 2011 recruits is a beach standout, in fact.
Some coaches, including John Cook, support sand volleyball but don't like the proposed model. They would prefer it to be implemented kind of like track and field, which has an indoor and outdoor season with the same group of players, instead of being treated as a separate sport with extra scholarships and extra coaches. Schools with sand volleyball will be allowed to hire an additional coach, with no required designation for duties to be specific to either sport for any coaches...meaning the extra coach will also be available for the indoor team. So teams will end up being forced into sand volleyball to protect their indoor program.
Most smaller schools won't be able to afford all these additional costs. West Coast schools will have a definite advantage since they have weather and outdoor infrastructure to easily implement a sand program. A lot of other schools will have a much tougher time with this. It's even possible that failure to implement sand volleyball will decimate a school's indoor team competitiveness, making them look hard at whether it makes sense to maintain a volleyball when they can satisfy Title IX requirements with other, less expensive sports (women's lacrosse, for example).
The rich will get richer, and while it might work out OK for Nebraska, I don't think it's good for the indoor game in general. In fact, I bet sand volleyball's victory will eventually come at the indoor game's expense.
The AVP lobbied hard for NCAA sand volleyball and they got their way. I think they should focus more on building their spectator base without resorting to skimpy attire to draw an audience. Not to say that I don't enjoy watching talented, attractive women in bikinis, but at some point the sport needs to move beyond that.
