NCAA Proposal 69 Kills National Invitational Volleyball Championship
Paul Soriano
Contact: Paul Soriano, AVCA Director of Sports Information
NCAA Proposal 69 Torpedoes the
National Invitational Volleyball Championship
Colorado Springs, Colo. ‹ Passage of Proposal 69 (Playing and Practice
Seasons-Contest Exemptions-Division I) at the NCAA Convention in early
January has killed the operation of the National Invitational Volleyball
Championship (NIVC), American Volleyball Coaches Association Executive
Director Sandy Vivas announced today.
The NIVC, administered by the AVCA, just completed its seventh year this
past December when 20 Division I womenąs volleyball teams descended upon
Kansas City, Mo., for postseason tournament action.
Founded in 1989 as the Womenąs Invitational Volleyball Championship
(WIVC), this postseason tournament was the brainchild of veteran coaches
who identified a decided lack of postseason opportunities for a
considerable number of the nationąs best volleyball players and teams. A
total of 61 teams made it to postseason NCAA play in the eight years prior
to the NIVC. The NIVC has provided an additional 34 teams with postseason
opportunity. Eighty-nine different teams have played in the NIVC and 19
institutions that had never been to the NCAA tournament competed in the
NIVC and went on to the NCAAs in future years.
Currently, the NCAA provides 48 slots in its championship, up from 32 in
1993 and prior. The NIVC invites 20 teams to participate each year, up
from 16 in the inaugural year.
In order for the NIVC to remain exempt from an institutionąs maximum
number of contest/dates of competition, the tournament would have to find
a source of funding to pay for lodging of the official travel parties (18
people) of each team and provide $30 per day per diem; in three years, 50
percent of the travel expenses of each team would be required. Until last
year, the NIVC was the only exempted event in volleyball. (Four teams now
compete in the pre-season NACWAA Classic.)
łThe NIVC is not in a financial position to afford such payments that were
previously made by the participating teams,˛ said Vivas. łConservatively,
we would require $88,000 this year and an additional $72,000 for travel.
Currently, we run this event on minimal cash dollars, trade-outs that
amount to more than $100,000 in value and have nearly 100 volunteers,
including NCAA, USA Volleyball Heart of America Region, Greater Kansas
City Sports Commission and Big Eight Conference staff members. We also
sponsor a coaching clinic for area high school coaches. Dollars have
nothing to do with whether this event is worthy of certification;
unfortunately, discontinuing the tournament is our only option at this
point.
łLetąs face it, if you do not exempt an event in these days of
mega-conferences and double-round-robin play, no coach is going to hold
out three dates on the chance they may get invited, not to mention the
lost week of practice.
łIt is tragic. That is the only way to describe the lost opportunity for
these teams and their student-athletes. The rationale of this legislation
claims benefits to the student-athlete and institutions. There is no
benefit for volleyball student-athletes when an event like this, which has
proven administration and benefits, goes away.
"It is now time for the NCAA to expand the women's volleyball bracket to
64 teams. All Division I coaches should demand it in an attempt to close
the opportunity gap for female athletes."