Taylor caught on the wrong side of haves and have-nots

Now that the sting of Nikki Taylor being relegated to second team All-American status has lessened somewhat maybe we can see it for what it also represents in the bigger picture.

The denial of a first-team berth for the senior outside hitter isn’t just the snub of a much-deserving player, it is a further example of the widening perception gulf between the so-called Power Five conference schools and the Group of Five.

Basically the haves and the have-nots of the Division I intercollegiate world.

And despite its rich history, enviable attendance and remarkable string of winning seasons, the University of Hawaii is lumped in the latter category by virtue of its conference affiliation. Effectively its pedigree.

Unless you are in one of the Power Five — Pac-12, Big Ten, Big 12, Atlantic Coast or Southeastern — conferences, you are increasingly marginalized across several fronts, including postseason selection, seeding and all-star honors.

Not only in women’s volleyball but in most Division I athletic pursuits these days.

Unless you think it is merely a coincidence that just one player from the have-nots landed a berth on the 14-member American Volleyball Coaches Association All-American first team two years running now.

Indeed, Taylor was the only player from the have-not conferences to make second team. That’s two players out of 28 on first or second teams this year.

Consider that it wasn’t that long ago that players from those conferences were regularly winning player of the year honors, Rainbow Wahine such as Kim Willoughby, Angelica Ljungquist and Tee Williams prominently among them.

Recall that in an 18-year span, ending with Willoughby in 2003, 11 players from what are now viewed as the have-nots won or shared national player of the year awards. In one year (1989) Williams and Long Beach State’s Tara Cross shared it.

None from those conferences have done it since Willoughby.

What dramatically changed the landscape was the Bowl Championship Series and the financial divide it created. When the Power Five schools began taking home increasingly larger shares of the bowl and TV money they put significant distance between themselves and the have-nots.

Money that football brought in didn’t just stay in football. Because of Title IX, some of that money eventually found its way into other sports, including women’s volleyball and basketball.

That meant more moolah for hiring coaches, upgrading facilities and recruiting to lift programs that had lagged behind UH and Long Beach State. More recently, it is helping to fund cost of attendance stipends and training tables that less well-heeled programs have little hope of competing with.

And, as some Power Five conferences began grabbing as many as eight NCAA Tournament berths in a single year, conferences such as the Big West increasingly became one bid only leagues. As a result, not since 1998 has a have-not conference member won the NCAA Tournament. Since 2001 just one has even gotten to the championship match.

Perception-wise the statistical accomplishments of some of their top players, such as Taylor, who ranked second nationally in ace average, fifth in points and 14th in kills after the regular season, are not given their full due.

You see it in football too, where San Diego State’s Donnel Pumphrey ranked second nationally in rushing yards (2,018) this season and is on the verge of breaking the all-time NCAA record but struggles to land a berth on first-team All-American squads.

There was nothing lacking in Taylor’s accomplishments this year, just in some people’s ability to value them.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.