Television has fundamentally changed the landscape of college athletics. The advent of conference-affiliated networks has infused cash-strapped athletic departments into profitable enterprises. And yet, for all of the millions in cable dollars that have shifted conference alliances and made athletic directors into CEOs of seven-to-eight-figure enterprises, the players have yet to see a dime.
While the Northwestern football team has stepped forward to challenge the player compensation status quo, the NCAA has finally gotten around to put the deluge of cable money to good and introduce popular club sports into the world of full-fledged, big-time college athletics.
For the first time ever, after years as a majorly popular "emerging sport," sand volleyball is becoming a fully sanctioned NCAA activity this season. Schools can compete for championships now.
Former club teams will obviously have a leg up.
Pepperdine is entering the 2014 season ranked preseason #1. Your school would too if it was on the beach in Malibu.
Despite a bumbling couple of years of football, the University of Southern California hasn't dropped a beat at beach volleyball. They are preseason #2.
Crosstown rival UCLA Bruins are at #6. LA doesn't need pro football when it has top-flight beach volleyball.
On the East Coast, the top teams are where you'd guess they'd be. Florida State is preseason #4.
Florida International has been sucking it up since becoming a Division I football team. That's not the case on the beach, though, where the Lady Panthers are preseason #9.
With this new NCAA classification, major schools are fielding their first sand volleyball teams. If Title IX requires an equal number of scholarships for ladies as for men, the association couldn't have picked a better sport to bring in.
The South Carolina Gamecocks have a deep in-state sand volleyball program to recruit from. Myrtle is fertile with talent.
LSU hopes to translate its SEC speed into the sand courts.
One school I'm astonished to learn has never fielded a sand team before this year is the University of Arizona. Because if anything is in Arizona, it's sand. Lots of sand.
The Wildcats are looking to the Witt twins to lead their maiden season.
