As Pac-12 Conference Athletic Directors and officials wrapped up the leagues annual meetings, one of the many head lines to come out of the meetings was that the Pac-12 will add sand volleyball as the conference’s 23rd varsity sport. When the league adds the sport in 2015-2016 academic year, the Pac 12 will become the nations first major Division I conference to sponsor the sport. Beginning in the spring of 2016, the eight members who have chosen to field teams will compete not only for the first ever Pac-12 Sand Volleyball title, but they will also be competing for the inaugural NCAA Sand Volleyball championship.
The eight Pac-12 universities who will participate include Arizona, Arizona State, Cal, Oregon, Stanford, ULCA, USC and Washington. All of these universities currently field sand volleyball teams, but not every Pac-12 school will adding sand volleyball just because the conference now sponsors the sport. University of Colorado athletic director Rick George recently told Buffzone.com that the university wouldn’t field a sand volleyball team “until we properly support all our current sports”, despite current head volleyball coach Liz Kritza calling for the Buffs to add a sand program.
But just because Colorado isn’t willing to field a team, doesn’t mean there will be a shortage of teams fitting for a spot in the eight-team, double elimination NCAA championship bracket in 2016. Over 40 Division I institutions from coast to coast and even as far as Hawaii have been competing against one another for the last several years. Some of the bigger schools currently fielding sand volleyball teams include LSU, Mississippi State and South Carolina from the SEC. Florida State, Nebraska and TCU are other Power Five programs that have teams currently competing in college sand volleyball. The Group of Five, or the five smaller Division I football conference also sponsor teams. Those universities include Boise State, FAU, FIU, Georgia State, ULM, New Mexico, San Jose State and Tulane. When counting Division II and Division III universities that are currently sponsoring sand volleyball, there are over 50 teams playing college sand volleyball.
History
Prior to NCAA announcing it would be adding a sand volleyball championship, teams would gather in Gulf Shores, Alabama for a Championship Tournament. The events were run by the American Volleyball Coaches Association. The AVCA has hosted a sand volleyball tournament every year since 2012, when the championships were sanctioned by USA Volleyball. Pepperdine University won the first team championship in 2012 as they defeated Long Beach State. Long Beach State would capture the title in 2013, Pepperdine again in 2014 and Southern Cal took home the crown in 2015. The Trojans finished the season with a perfect 28-0 record. The championships have even drawn television interest. The 2014 Championships were broadcast on the CBS Sports Network.
What’s Next
The February 2013 issue of Sports Events points out that according to a 2012 Sports and Fitness Industry Association study, beach volleyball had seen the highest sustained growth of all of volleyballs major competition categories. Sand volleyball grew at a rate of 10.5% from 2010-2012. The trend has no indication of slowing down and while the Pac-12 is the first conference to add sand volleyball, you can hardly expect them to be the last and only. While right now it only makes sense for the Pac-12 to sponsor the sport, simply because of the numbers (eight Pac-12 teams), it is only a matter of time before bigger institutions add the sport as well. Currently several of participating universities field their sand teams with members of the universities traditional hard-court volleyball teams. Other programs have gone the other direction and do not allow any hard-court players to participate. But for schools who have yet to add, the allowance of players being able to play both may be too much of a training advantage to pass up. There is no doubt that sport will continue to grow, and as it grows in popularity, both on and off campuses, you will see more universities adding sand volleyball programs.
The NCAA has yet to announce an official date or site for the inaugural sand volleyball championships, but the tournament is expected to take place sometime in May. College AD will pass along any information once it becomes available.
You can view all of the current programs playing Division I sand volleyball here.
Feature image via Youtube
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