Beach Volleyball Rises in Shifting Sands of College Sports

New York Times ^ | May 5, 2016 | MARC TRACY

[ConservativeStatement]

“We wouldn’t be here if they hadn’t started it,” the senior Alexis Townsend said.

What she meant is that when Georgia State created a football team in 2010, that put an immediate strain on athletic department finances but also required a rebalancing to comply with Title IX, the federal law mandating gender equity in higher education. A result was that Georgia State dropped its men’s cross-country and track and field programs, and added one in the nascent women’s sport of beach volleyball.

[ConservativeStatement]

I guess they are celebrating that two men’s teams were discontinued.

[NewCenturions]

those men could legally play on the women’s team now

[ken5050]

Do they wear bikinis?

[ConservativeStatement]

“We want them to be able to feel comfortable out there and yet not be in a bikini, because that’s not what the image is for us,” said Kristin Fasbender, a championships director at the N.C.A.A.

[Ready4Freddy]

Sady, this isn’t the Brasilian women’s team

[Bratch]

I can't imagine why the sport would be popular.

[relictele]

Beach volleyball is a sport the same way beach drinking is.

Women athletes are nothing if not hypocritical.

On Monday they are demanding equal pay for soccer teams/matches because they claim they’ve earned it.

On Tuesday they are praising Title IX for its inherently unequal outcome-based model. If the men’s football and basketball programs announced they would be keeping and spending what they earned from their ticket sales and TV rights a la the women’s soccer national side, the Title IX crowd would go insane with rage over ‘civil rights’ (read: $$$$$ of others).

[Fiji Hill]

Beach volleyball??? But there aren't any beaches close by. As Henry Clay Work once noted, it's 300 miles "to the main" from Georgia State.

[Prov1322]

Here in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in beautiful NWGA we have a growing youth sports complex, LakePoint .

Beach volleyball is one of their sports. I expect that it is now called Beach Volleyball if it is played on a sand court even if it is in GreenAcres, surrounded by mountains!

Rally Volleyball

[bjorn14]

The NCAA officially calls it Sand Volleyball.

[chrisinoc]

“The NCAA officially calls it Sand Volleyball.”

Part of the reason they do not call it Beach Volleyball is that it some schools thought it would give the Long BEACH State women’s team a slight advantage in the sport. They are a power in volleyball although not as dominant as before.

[freefdny]

I think it’s back to Beach Volleyball.
http://www.ncaa.com/news/beach-volleyball/article/2015-06-30/ncaas-newest-championship-will-be-called-beach-volleyball

[DungeonMaster]

This is the first positive thing I’ve seen about any college in years.

[Jack Hammer]

But where is Women’s Championship Tiddlywinks?

[longtermmemmory]

This is simply about ratings.

Nobody cares about women’s rowing, basketball, soccer, or any other simulated serious title IX sports.

Beach volleyball is about sex sells and nobody cares about the score.

Way to go institutions of higher learning.

[HamiltonJay]

Say what you want, but Beach Volleyball is an incredible sport, I play 6’s and 4’s sand and have just no idea how any two people remotely cover a 2 man court. Yes most rally’s are short, but I’ve seen some insane rally’s that just blow my mind that 2 people can be that quick in sand.

[HamiltonJay]

Hate to break it to you, and yes I am sure women’s beach volleyball probably gets the gawkers who just want to see women in bikinis but there are a lot of folks who watch it for the competition, believe me on that. Its an incredible sport to watch, men or women’s. Particularly between 2 high caliber teams.