I was talking to my nephew who's attending UH, and he was talking about how budget cuts were making an impact throughout the campus. Then he mentioned to me that the athletic dept. may be looking to cut its budget by dropping a team. And in order for the university to stay in Title IX compliance, if a team is dropped, it would almost certainly be a men's team.
So we started talking about which men's sport would be the most likely candidate to be dropped, if it came to that.
These are the men's sports that UH currently has:
Football
Basketball
Baseball
Volleyball
Golf
Tennis
Swimming & Diving
Now, we all know that football and basketball ain't goin' nowhere.
It is natural to immediately start thinking about cutting one of the non-revenue sports like golf, tennis, swimming and diving. After all, those teams only eat money and do not provide revenue. But,.....
We started talking about men's v-ball and how it might soon be an endangered sport. Keep in mind that while volleyball has been a bigtime sport in the isles, there are only about 20 or so schools that sponsor a men's Division 1 team. Since athletic budget cuts are sweeping across the nation, it wouldn't be inconceivable for some of these other schools to put their men's v-ball teams on the chopping block. If too few v-ball teams remain, the NCAA may decide to no longer sanction the sport and a championship, which would relegate college men's v-ball to a club sport.
Add to this, the fact that the NCAA requires all Division 1 schools to sponsor a minimum of 6 men's sports. UH currently has 7 men's sports. So if Hawaii drops one of the non-revenue teams and the NCAA eventually decides to phase out men's v-ball, the university would have to hastily start up another program.
True, the future of men's v-ball as an NCAA sport is speculation. But what is clear is that no one realistically projects any kind of growth in that sport over the long haul. At best, the prospects are for men's v-ball to barely eke out an existence rather than thrive.
The last few seasons have been tough on the Men of War, who are probably going to finish with their third straight losing season. And in contrast to the baseball team, which has been enjoying a resurgence in fan interest lately, the v-ball team has seen attendance shrink down to the low 2000s. Quite a slide compared to the high-energy crowds during the 1990s heyday, when Yuval Katz, Jason Ring, and Aaron Wilton were the darlings. As recently as 2002, dropping volleyball would have seemingly been unthinkable as the Warriors won (and later forfeited) the school's only national title in a men's sport.
What does everyone else think?
So we started talking about which men's sport would be the most likely candidate to be dropped, if it came to that.
These are the men's sports that UH currently has:
Football
Basketball
Baseball
Volleyball
Golf
Tennis
Swimming & Diving
Now, we all know that football and basketball ain't goin' nowhere.
It is natural to immediately start thinking about cutting one of the non-revenue sports like golf, tennis, swimming and diving. After all, those teams only eat money and do not provide revenue. But,.....
We started talking about men's v-ball and how it might soon be an endangered sport. Keep in mind that while volleyball has been a bigtime sport in the isles, there are only about 20 or so schools that sponsor a men's Division 1 team. Since athletic budget cuts are sweeping across the nation, it wouldn't be inconceivable for some of these other schools to put their men's v-ball teams on the chopping block. If too few v-ball teams remain, the NCAA may decide to no longer sanction the sport and a championship, which would relegate college men's v-ball to a club sport.
Add to this, the fact that the NCAA requires all Division 1 schools to sponsor a minimum of 6 men's sports. UH currently has 7 men's sports. So if Hawaii drops one of the non-revenue teams and the NCAA eventually decides to phase out men's v-ball, the university would have to hastily start up another program.
True, the future of men's v-ball as an NCAA sport is speculation. But what is clear is that no one realistically projects any kind of growth in that sport over the long haul. At best, the prospects are for men's v-ball to barely eke out an existence rather than thrive.
The last few seasons have been tough on the Men of War, who are probably going to finish with their third straight losing season. And in contrast to the baseball team, which has been enjoying a resurgence in fan interest lately, the v-ball team has seen attendance shrink down to the low 2000s. Quite a slide compared to the high-energy crowds during the 1990s heyday, when Yuval Katz, Jason Ring, and Aaron Wilton were the darlings. As recently as 2002, dropping volleyball would have seemingly been unthinkable as the Warriors won (and later forfeited) the school's only national title in a men's sport.
What does everyone else think?
Comment