Pac-12 will sponsor Sand Volleyball beginning 2015-16

[johnbar]

Press release from Pac-12 summer metting: pac-12.com/article/2015/06/07/pac-12-announces-series-decisions-out-summer-meetings

quoting:
Pac-12 Sand Volleyball
The Council also voted to make women’s sand volleyball a Pac-12 sponsored sport effective this upcoming academic year (2015-16), making it the Conference’s 23rd sport and becoming the first major conference to sponsor sand volleyball. Eight member institutions currently sponsor the sport, well above the Conference threshold of six teams to consider sport sponsorship.

In a related decision, sand volleyball will have a Pac-12 championship in the spring of 2016. The format of the championship will be based on the to-be-established NCAA automatic qualification requirements. This past year, USC capped an undefeated season with its first AVCA Collegiate Sand Volleyball Team Championship.

[FOBRA]

Other than the PAC12 champ getting an autobid, does this change anything? Will there be an actual conference schedule?

[johnbar]

Jun 8, 2015 11:50:49 GMT -5 FOBRA said:

Will there be an actual conference schedule?

I would assume so.

[gk]

Does that mean all the schools in the Pac 12 will be doing sand?

[Kamali'i-7]

That being said (ASU, UA, USC, UCLA, Stanford, Cal, Oregon, UW), the BW is getting ready to announce themselves pretty quickly (UH, LBSU, CSUN, Cal Poly, CSUB-play in, & IF it holds true through opinionated public pressure--UCSB).

I like the NCAA holding its form with the three westcoast/three eastcoast teamed-format.
Two at large bids could come from a) independent types [Pepp, GCU, Boise State / NoCal conglomerate] versus b) another representative from the Mexican Gulf-coasted neighborhood.

---
ASUN winner
#eastcoaster
#eastcoaster

PAC12 winner
BW winner
NoCal? winner

at-large (i.e. Pepperdine)
at-large (LSU)




Yeah! 

 
 

[johnbar]

Jun 8, 2015 12:05:16 GMT -5 gk said:

Does that mean all the schools in the Pac 12 will be doing sand?

No. Conference only requires six schools minimum to sponsor a sport. Already have eight.

[johnbar]

The NorCal Consortium is not really a conference. I would be surprised if it got an autobid.
Two of its eight members are Pac-12 anyway.

[trollhunter]

Jun 8, 2015 13:13:58 GMT -5 Kamali'i-7 said:

That being said (ASU, UA, USC, UCLA, Stanford, Cal, Oregon, UW), the BW is getting ready to announce themselves pretty quickly (UH, LBSU, CSUN, Cal Poly, CSUB-play in, & IF it holds true through opinionated public pressure--UCSB).

I like the NCAA holding its form with the three westcoast/three eastcoast teamed-format.
Two at large bids could come from a) independent types [Pepp, GCU, Boise State / NoCal conglomerate] versus b) another representative from the Mexican Gulf-coasted neighborhood.

---
ASUN winner
#eastcoaster
#eastcoaster

PAC12 winner
BW winner
NoCal? winner

at-large (i.e. Pepperdine)
at-large (LSU)

As Geddy mentioned I don't think NoCal consortium actually becomes a conference. Hope the BW does sponsor sand sooner rather than later.

The conferences get to decide how allocate their bid, so they could actually have no regular season schedule and just a tournament. Or just give bid to a regular season winner if they do a conference schedule.

Also, note that the At-Large bids are NOT regionally allocated - they can come from anywhere. Makes for great conversation on VT trying to guess them

[FOBRA]

Looks like WCC will be officially sponsoring and holding a championship tournament as well. Not sure if this means an autobid or not though.

[bigfan]

Jun 7, 2015 23:31:46 GMT -5 johnbar said:

The Council also voted to make women’s sand volleyball a Pac-12 sponsored sport effective this upcoming academic year (2015-16), making it the Conference’s 23rd sport and becoming the first major conference to sponsor sand volleyball.

What kind of finances are we talking here? Are we talking full scholarships? How many? How much does it take to run a sand program? $500,000? More? Less?

[Kamali'i-7]

Jun 8, 2015 19:30:17 GMT -5 trollhunter said:

Jun 8, 2015 13:13:58 GMT -5 Kamali'i-7 said:

That being said (ASU, UA, USC, UCLA, Stanford, Cal, Oregon, UW), the BW is getting ready to announce themselves pretty quickly (UH, LBSU, CSUN, Cal Poly, CSUB-play in, & IF it holds true through opinionated public pressure--UCSB).

I like the NCAA holding its form with the three westcoast/three eastcoast teamed-format.
Two at large bids could come from a) independent types [Pepp, GCU, Boise State / NoCal conglomerate] versus b) another representative from the Mexican Gulf-coasted neighborhood.

---
ASUN winner
#eastcoaster
#eastcoaster

PAC12 winner
BW winner
NoCal? winner

at-large (i.e. Pepperdine)
at-large (LSU)

As Geddy mentioned I don't think NoCal consortium actually becomes a conference. Hope the BW does sponsor sand sooner rather than later.

The conferences get to decide how allocate their bid, so they could actually have no regular season schedule and just a tournament. Or just give bid to a regular season winner if they do a conference schedule.

Also, note that the At-Large bids are NOT regionally allocated - they can come from anywhere. Makes for great conversation on VT trying to guess them

Could deflate the balloon with party concerns, but I won't ...just now. 

[Kamali'i-7]

The $-WCC-$ is not terribly good news for me and my BW crew *lolos*, mainly Hawaiifan(s)inthe808. '-)

[johnbar]

Jun 9, 2015 15:21:30 GMT -5 bigfan said:

What kind of finances are we talking here? Are we talking full scholarships? How many? How much does it take to run a sand program? $500,000? More? Less?

Schools aren't required to provide scholarships or pay for dedicated sand coaches (unless there is some additional agreement that hasn't been made public yet). For 2015-16 schools can provide up to 6 sand scholarships; it's an equivalency sport, so those can be split across as many players as they like. (Schools that don't have indoor VB can offer eight sand scholarships, but that obviously doesn't apply to Pac-12 schools.)

I have no dollar amounts.
AVCA links to an article that says you can start a sand program for $40,000.

[geddyleeridesagain]

Jun 9, 2015 22:19:18 GMT -5 johnbar said:

Jun 9, 2015 15:21:30 GMT -5 bigfan said:

What kind of finances are we talking here? Are we talking full scholarships? How many? How much does it take to run a sand program? $500,000? More? Less?

Schools aren't required to provide scholarships or pay for dedicated sand coaches (unless there is some additional agreement that hasn't been made public yet). For 2015-16 schools can provide up to 6 sand scholarships; it's an equivalency sport, so those can be split across as many players as they like. (Schools that don't have indoor VB can offer eight sand scholarships, but that obviously doesn't apply to Pac-12 schools.)

I have no dollar amounts.
AVCA links to an article that says you can start a sand program for $40,000.

It's all over the map, and depends on scholarships/no scholarships, travel needs, facility needs (do you have your own or do you have to rent), whether you host tournaments, dedicated coaches or not, and so on.

Some schools spend $10,000 a year on sand and a couple are north of $500,000.

[trollhunter]

Jun 9, 2015 14:40:55 GMT -5 FOBRA said:

Looks like WCC will be officially sponsoring and holding a championship tournament as well. Not sure if this means an autobid or not though.

Yes, the WCC made it official, so they will have an automatic NCAA bid. As will the PAC-12. ASUN will probably have an auto bid as well, if they can pick up a 6th team or get a waiver for having 5 teams next year. I think the Big West only has 4 Sand teams, so I doubt they will make a conference sport yet. Haven't heard of any other conferences discussing it.

WCC announcement: www.wccsports.com/genrel/060815aab.html

Curious to see if the rest of the NCAA At-Large bids will be assigned regionally or nationally. I doubt that At-Larges will be awarded in a mixture of nationally and regionally like the AVCA did, since I don't think any other NCAA sports do that.