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The Big West Conference likes to think one of its best calling cards as a league is its volleyball brand.
“We’re the only (NCAA) Division I conference that sponsors all three disciplines of the sport — women’s, men’s and beach volleyball,” commissioner Dennis Farrell says, proudly.
And, it has eight national championships on the women’s side on the resume, though none since 1998.
So, having three teams — Hawaii, Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara — in the NCAA tournament field this week for the first time since 2013 presents a significant opportunity to burnish that brand.
Especially with the Rainbow Wahine serving as a first- and second-round host beginning Friday at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Of the 27 non-Power 5 conferences in the 64-team tournament this season, only one, the Big East, has as many representatives as the Big West, which has a third of its membership in the NCAA postseason.
Not since 2003, when it placed six teams in the NCAA tournament, has the Big West had a bigger presence.
But a lot has changed in the intervening 16 years. The more well-heeled Power 5 conferences, a designation that didn’t exist in 2003, are fueled by football and basketball megabucks and have come to dominate sport. Not only in the winning of championships but hosting early-round matches and gobbling up the once widely distributed at-large selections.
This year, for example, in addition to the automatic berths accorded their champions, the Big Ten placed six at-large entrants, while the Pac-12 and Southeastern conferences landed five each and the Atlantic Coast and Big 12 conferences four each.
Now, nobody expects one of the Big West teams to actually win the whole thing. But, the league can do a lot to help itself by having teams that venture beyond the first and second rounds. The fewer one (or two)-and-dones, the brighter the league shines and higher its regard in the sport.
While there is no direct financial reward from winning in the tournament since volleyball proceeds stay with the NCAA and are not shared based on how far teams advance, unlike basketball and football, there is brand building and the residual benefits that can come with it at selection time.
“If there are teams being considered and one of them is a traditional participant in the championships — whether it is Hawaii in women’s volleyball or Cal State Fullerton in baseball — I think that sits in the back of (selection) committee members’ minds,” said Farrell, who has served on numerous selection panels in his 28 years as commissioner.
“There is not supposed to be any regard for history in those rooms but, I think, subliminally it probably does help,” Farrell said.
One of the reasons the Big West approached UH in 2011 about returning to the league amid the crumbling of the Western Athletic Conference was the Rainbow Wahine’s reputation in volleyball and how they could enhance that of the Big West.
This year the 18th-ranked ’Bows stand as the Big West’s only nationally ranked team and its sole member selected as a first- and second-round host. Meanwhile, Cal Poly and UCSB have flirted with the rankings.
The Big West has waited a while for a season and an opportunity like this. One it can ill afford to waste.
CONFERENCE CALL
Most NCAA women’s volleyball tournament selections in 2019
7 — Big Ten
6 — Pac-12, SEC
4 — ACC, Big 12
3 — Big West, Big East
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
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