Update on 13th Scholarship

[NobodySpecial]

www.avca.org/NewsDetail.asp?id=286

NCAA Proposal 2004-21 Override Passes
13th Scholarship will not be added in women’s volleyball

1/7/2006 -INDIANAPOLIS – NCAA Division I member schools passed the override of NCAA Proposal 2004-21, which would have added a 13th scholarship to women’s volleyball, at the NCAA Convention in Indianapolis on Jan. 7.

The original legislation was passed, but gained enough override votes (116) to suspend the legislation. The NCAA Board of Directors upheld its original decision to add a 13th scholarship in August, forcing a revote at today’s NCAA business session with each NCAA Division I school having one vote. A 5/8 majority (62.5 percent) was needed to pass the override to defeat the original legislation to add the 13th scholarship. The override measure received 63.6 percent of the votes (204-117) to remove the 13th scholarship.

The AVCA will release information on other volleyball-related legislation impacted by the NCAA Convention once it is able to compile a full listing.

[beachman]

Good, one less advantage that the big football schools will have over everyone else!

[comic]

Beachman...I disagree. This is a loss for the game. Less players with opportunities to play in college decreases the level of volleyball nationally. While the short term notion is that the best schools will get more of the best players...the long term would have been that a 13th scholarship will help raise the level of play across the board. The over ride is from short sighted schools worried about their W-L for the next 4 years not from people concerned for the well being of the game.

[miaacoach]

I agree....and add to it that us D II coaches lose quality recruits to bad D I schools just so that the kid can say they "went D I".

Do I sound bitter?

[beachman]

comic said:

Beachman...I disagree. This is a loss for the game. Less players with opportunities to play in college decreases the level of volleyball nationally. While the short term notion is that the best schools will get more of the best players...the long term would have been that a 13th scholarship will help raise the level of play across the board. The over ride is from short sighted schools worried about their W-L for the next 4 years not from people concerned for the well being of the game.

Your argument is horse%*$#!

[Wolfgang]

I will not get into a debate about the merits of 12 vs. 13, but I still think the men's game needs some boost re. more scholarships. And also, tell them to stop hitting the ball so hard so we can see more rallies.

[silversurfer]

I think D2 schools are wrong in thinking that 13 scholarships would have had a huge effect on them. It wouldn't have.

If you're going D1, you're going D1, and you probably weren't considering D2 in the first place. If you can't get a scholarship from one place because they only have 12, you're probably going to seek out more D1 schools, not suddenly decide D2 is the way to go.

[roofed!]

[ftp]http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060108/ap_on_sp_co_ne/ncaa_convention;_ylt=AmEOoLWeyCYIc_BfwZJsbOUkybQF;_ylu=X3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA--[/ftp]

NCAA Rescinds Scholarship Increases

By STEVE HERMAN, AP Sports Writer
1 hour, 3 minutes ago

INDIANAPOLIS - The NCAA rescinded increases in Division I scholarships in three women's sports Saturday, a victory for smaller schools fearing even greater disadvantage if more players were recruited to larger universities.

The sports affected were women's gymnastics, volleyball and cross country-track and field.

The decision by Division I delegates came during their opening business session at the annual NCAA convention. It reversed the scholarship increases approved last year by the NCAA board of directors.

"It was democracy at work," NCAA president Myles Brand said. "This is a membership association, and members have spoken."

But former Sen. Birch Bayh, D-Ind., the author more than 30 years ago of the Title IX legislation requiring gender equity in higher education, called it a blow to women's opportunities.

"It's right to the heart that when you discriminate against young women and don't give them scholarships in equal numbers as young men, you take away their right to get an education," said Bayh, who received the NCAA's Gerald Ford Award, along with former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, on Saturday night.

"I would like to see everybody have a chance to play, but I don't think women have an equal chance to get scholarships, and thus they don't have an equal chance to get an education," said Bayh, whose father was a high school coach and referee in Indiana.

The Ford Awards, named for the former president, a football player at Michigan, are presented each year to recognize individuals who have contributed to college sports.

"I'm deeply honored," said Wooden, who played at nearby Martinsville High School — some of his games were officiated by Bayh's father — and was an All-American at Purdue.

"I know quite well the reasons in back of it, and it would be most immodest if I attempted to feel that I was worthy of it," Wooden said. "But I am very appreciative of those who made it possible, the many young men I've had the privilege of working with over most of my 95 years of life."

Brand, who presented the awards, also gave the annual "State of the Association" address and devoted much of his speech to college finances, which he said must be run almost like a business.

"There is a massive misinterpretation of how an athletic department financially operates," he said. "You have to generate as much revenue as you can, always constrained by the values of higher education."

He said the notion that working hard to generate revenue somehow taints "the purity" of college sports is "nonsense."

"`Amateur' defines the participants, not the enterprise," Brand said, noting that college sports spending has increased two to three times the rate of expenditures of the entire university.

He also reiterated support for Title IX as "one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation" affecting higher education.

During the afternoon meeting, the only sport that failed to get the five-eighths majority of voting delegates required for an override was soccer, in part of concerns about injuries that might require a greater number of players.

The board last year approved increasing scholarships from 12 to 14 in gymnastics and soccer, from 12 to 13 in volleyball and 18 to 20 in cross country-track and field.

The override votes were prompted by requests from more than 100 schools. This was the first time the NCAA has gone to the membership to accept or reject a board decision since Division I adopted its current structure in 1997.

"It is about equity, it is about opportunity for women," said Butler University athletic director John Parry, who supported the override. "But I can tell you the answer for those who are struggling for opportunity for women is to add more sports, don't just add scholarships in selected sports."

Many schools were concerned about the costs of adding two more scholarships in those sports.

"But there are more concerns about competitive equity," Parry said. "We've seen in a number of sports when there have been reductions that it's been much more competitive across the country. It's logical to conclude that if we go up in the number of scholarships, then a number of schools will stockpile and therefore make competitive imbalance."

The votes were 188-111 with 23 abstentions (62.9 percent) to override the increase for gymnastics; 204-117 (63.6 percent) for volleyball; and 202-117 (63.3 percent) for cross country and track. Delegates favored the override for soccer 191-125-1, but the 60.4 percent approval was not enough to pass.

Mike Alden, the athletic director at Missouri, supported the Division I scholarship increases, saying there's no persuasive data such a move would hurt smaller schools.

"I can think of no easier way ... to get people to be able to support what we're doing in higher education than for scholarships for women athletes," he said.

[miaacoach]

Silversurfer:

My point was, why ride pine on a terrible D I team when you can play for a D II team that beats most of the D I bottom-feeders anyway.

And you're right.....us D II coaches wouldn't want a player who was "going D I anyway"---regardless of how terrible they are. For some recruits' parents, it's all about the $$$ instead of the personal attention and the wins.

[Deleted]

Shouldn't our concern be with more opportunities for the female athlete and not with what it means for our own team, whether that team is D1 or D2? And if the schools voted to rescind this because they didn't want to pay for the extra scholarship, then they don't have to offer it.

I hate the fact Megan Hodge chose PSU over Minnesota. I think it's terrible for Big10 competitive balance. But is that Hodge's responsibility? No. Same deal here. If VB players want to take the 13th scholarship to attend a volleyball power, that's their choice--and should be their choice.

[comic]

Beachman...how articulate...or sarcastic. Even with the wink I am not sure.

[Gorf]

comic, Beachy adds the wink when he doesn't have the words to refute you in a way other than calling your idea horse%*$#.