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Post by mvolleyfoll on Oct 16, 2014 12:31:50 GMT -5
I had an interesting discussion with a DIII College President this afternoon. They were looking to add a Men's Spring sport. This is a Midwestern School that is halfway between Chicago and St Louis. I said why not Men's Volleyball. He said why not Men's Lacrosse. He stated the fastest growing sport is Lacrosse. He then showed me multiple amounts of Literature from there national organization. His view was that Men's Volleyball has grown stagnant even though the MCVL had just been formed. I tried convincing him other wise showing him all the information I had. His comments to me where then why is your national organization not out beating the bush at all of the DIII school's. So I guess my question is what is USAV doing to promote the growth of Men's Volleyball at the DIII level particularly in the Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Missouri area's as well as the Western states where you have good clubs and high school volleyball around Milwaukee, Chicago, St Louis as well as all the western clubs and schools. |
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Post by Not Me on Oct 16, 2014 13:23:23 GMT -5
I had an interesting discussion with a DIII College President this afternoon. They were looking to add a Men's Spring sport. This is a Midwestern School that is halfway between Chicago and St Louis. I said why not Men's Volleyball. He said why not Men's Lacrosse. He stated the fastest growing sport is Lacrosse. He then showed me multiple amounts of Literature from there national organization. His view was that Men's Volleyball has grown stagnant even though the MCVL had just been formed. I tried convincing him other wise showing him all the information I had. His comments to me where then why is your national organization not out beating the bush at all of the DIII school's. So I guess my question is what is USAV doing to promote the growth of Men's Volleyball at the DIII level particularly in the Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Missouri area's as well as the Western states where you have good clubs and high school volleyball around Milwaukee, Chicago, St Louis as well as all the western clubs and schools. The AVCA is far too busy promoting the abomination that is women's beach volleyball to care about men. I think that the USAV has too many things on their plate. I don't think they really do much to promote college vb - either gender. |
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Post by donneyp on Oct 16, 2014 21:56:13 GMT -5
I had an interesting discussion with a DIII College President this afternoon. They were looking to add a Men's Spring sport. This is a Midwestern School that is halfway between Chicago and St Louis. I said why not Men's Volleyball. He said why not Men's Lacrosse. He stated the fastest growing sport is Lacrosse. He then showed me multiple amounts of Literature from there national organization. His view was that Men's Volleyball has grown stagnant even though the MCVL had just been formed. I tried convincing him other wise showing him all the information I had. His comments to me where then why is your national organization not out beating the bush at all of the DIII school's. So I guess my question is what is USAV doing to promote the growth of Men's Volleyball at the DIII level particularly in the Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Missouri area's as well as the Western states where you have good clubs and high school volleyball around Milwaukee, Chicago, St Louis as well as all the western clubs and schools. So you mean like offering a grant to offset the startup costs associate with adding a men's volleyball program? www.teamusa.org/~/media/USA_Volleyball/Documents/Grants/Mens%20Collegiate%20Grant%20Program%202014.pdfThey've been doing that for at least 15 years. |
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Post by mvolleyfoll on Oct 17, 2014 5:38:34 GMT -5
You may have miss my point. Other organizations and associations are actively seeking schools to add their sport with the idea that you build college sports programs and that will build the high school and club systems. DIII schools use athletics to attract diversity to their school. If USAV and AVCA really want to grow the mens game they need to be out a promoting it at the DIII and DII level where it is growing. Question for you why has Wabash College in Indiana not added a program but add's a Lacrosse program next year. It is not affected by Title IX since it is an all men's school. It would be a perfect fit for MCVL. Its because the national organizations are not approaching and looking at these programs. They are more focused on the women's programs. Just an opinion.
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Post by Semp12 on Oct 17, 2014 12:38:18 GMT -5
The question is what is the bigger benefit to the university? Lacrosse has a larger roster, but certainly more expensive to start and run a program. At the end of the day, I would think that the finances of a lacrosse program may beat a volleyball program on the sheer #'s standpoint (although a schools tuition does play a role in creating that gap).
I wonder how knowledgeable a president may be anyways. Any coaching organization can send a pamphlet with the positives of adding their sport and put it in a good light. I am sure even sports on the decline can give the "right" numbers to show why they are the sport to add.
The Northeast understands how boy's/men's volleyball is still growing and the opportunities are there. Even if the growth is small, the amount of HS athletes vs. college programs available is still embarrassing and plenty of seats for a ton more college programs.
The fact that DI men's volleyball is so stagnant is probably a big detractor. Adding/Losing one or two programs every few years won't cut it for it to ever get anywhere.
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Post by yorktowne12 on Oct 17, 2014 15:47:21 GMT -5
I think we have to grow the game from the ground up. We need more middle schools and high schools to get boys volleyball. Once this happens more colleges may want to get mens volleyball.
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Post by TheReignman on Oct 18, 2014 8:17:24 GMT -5
A little birdie told me that any MAC school close to adding men's volleyball is being encouraged to do so, in an attempt to sponsore mens volleyball as a conference sport. With so many of the MAC schools in PA (which has 2nd most HS teams in country) it looks like that may give more high schoolers (especially of lesser talent) more oppurtunities to play at the collegiate level.
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Post by vbc1 on Oct 18, 2014 8:31:14 GMT -5
I think we have to grow the game from the ground up. We need more middle schools and high schools to get boys volleyball. Once this happens more colleges may want to get mens volleyball. This will always be backwards thinking. Why would you create interest in a sport for kids, that have no where to go after they graduate high school? Sure, they could play club, but club volleyball in college, although positive, does not help the growth of the men's game. It makes no sense. The AVCA has been doing this model for years, and although the numbers are growing a bit for boys club and high school volleyball, there still needs to be places to go for them to continue to play their sport after they graduate. The DII's are a great place to start with growth (as evidenced by the recent additions of conference carolinas, and other DII's across the country), as their business model of admissions supports adding more people to their university to make money. DIII's are good as well, and have increased in recent years with some good success. The real proof for them, will be in the stability of those newly added programs. When their athletic budgets take a hit, and AD's look for a place to save money, hopefully they do not look to men's volleyball to save a buck. Across the globe, our sport is huge. Second behind only soccer in participation. We all just witnessed the largest crowd ever to watch a match in Poland with over 62,000 spectators. None of us could have ever dreamed of a crowd that size to watch volleyball, let alone a men's match. The real issue here is complex, and has many layers. You can't repeal title IX, so don't even try. Football is the great lead weight that skews all statistics with their scholarship numbers, and you aren't getting rid of that ever. The NCAA hamstrings schools to be compliant, but won't change the model of which they operate. Our game is not in jeopardy of dying tomorrow, but growth at the highest levels may be stagnant until something major shifts in the climate of college athletics. DII's could become the new major contenders in our game. The Lewis' and Lindenwoods of the country could quite possibly become the UCLA's and Stanford's of future generations. It won't happen quickly, but maybe one day they will if funded correctly. Unless some AD who played our sport in college decides to figure out a way to bring it to their campus, the growth at the DI level will be stagnant for quite some time. There have been rumblings of some larger schools trying to get this done (won't divulge here, but there are some big names), but their speed to add the sport is not lightning by any means. Its not happening tomorrow. But, there is some discussion. The bottom line is, growth, at any level, is good. No question. We must continue to find women's coaches that are interested in having a men's team on campus, AD's that are creative in ways to find the funding, and schools that are willing to find avenues to help with compliance of title IX. A large combination of things have to happen in order to bring it to your school. So, if you're an AD reading this: You know what to do. |
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Post by Not Me on Oct 18, 2014 11:45:42 GMT -5
I think we have to grow the game from the ground up. We need more middle schools and high schools to get boys volleyball. Once this happens more colleges may want to get mens volleyball. That's not the model they used for women's sand volleyball. I don't think there were any high schools and a few junior programs prior to the NCAA adding it. Of course men's volleyball can't sell the sex like sand volleyball does. |
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Post by vinnielopes on Oct 18, 2014 13:05:29 GMT -5
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Post by donneyp on Oct 19, 2014 22:58:44 GMT -5
The growth in the Northeast was largely because of Gerry Matacotta, Executive Director of NECVA. I'm sure there are a few colleges who added men's volleyball and joined NECVA just so Gerry would stop calling.
He pushed the needle to 50 teams when the NCAA picked it up and they've added an average of more than 4 schools each year since. I think it was 51 teams in 2011, and now I think they are up to 72 programs. Since the NCAA championship I think they've added. Anna Maria, Benedictine, Cazenovia, Dominican, Keuka, Lakeland, Loras, Marymount, North Central, Penn State Altoona, Penn State Behrend, Sarah Lawrence, Valley Forge, Wells, Wilson. At the same time there are a handful of new D2 and NAIA programs.
Men's Volleyball IS growing. I think its an appealing idea to jump from 70 to the 430 that the women's game has overnight but that isn't going to happen. It is tough for football schools to add it and there isn't a recruiting base for it in Minnesota or Texas or a number of other states. They can and will get D3 to 100+ and a 16 team championship bracket but with the possible exception of a league or two coming on board together it's mostly going to happen 4-6 schools at a time.
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Post by TheReignman on Feb 26, 2019 21:49:28 GMT -5
Funny to revisit topic after boom of last 5 years
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Post by akbar on Feb 26, 2019 21:51:35 GMT -5
I had an interesting discussion with a DIII College President this afternoon. They were looking to add a Men's Spring sport. This is a Midwestern School that is halfway between Chicago and St Louis. I said why not Men's Volleyball. He said why not Men's Lacrosse. He stated the fastest growing sport is Lacrosse. He then showed me multiple amounts of Literature from there national organization. His view was that Men's Volleyball has grown stagnant even though the MCVL had just been formed. I tried convincing him other wise showing him all the information I had. His comments to me where then why is your national organization not out beating the bush at all of the DIII school's. So I guess my question is what is USAV doing to promote the growth of Men's Volleyball at the DIII level particularly in the Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Missouri area's as well as the Western states where you have good clubs and high school volleyball around Milwaukee, Chicago, St Louis as well as all the western clubs and schools. The AVCA is far too busy promoting the abomination that is women's beach volleyball to care about men. AMen! That product is garbage |
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Post by stevedraco123 on Feb 27, 2019 12:27:28 GMT -5
Anybody have the numbers on how many D3 teams there are this year?
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Post by bbk on Feb 27, 2019 13:04:01 GMT -5
Anybody have the numbers on how many D3 teams there are this year? 102 are eligible for the Championship. 1 additional program is provisional. |
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