Cindy Luis: Advocates want more to be done to acknowledge NCAA men’s collegiate volleyball

Thinking about the NCAA and its continued disregard for collegiate men’s volleyball reminds one of “Gone With The Wind.”

The good folks at the No Clue At All play a mean Rhett Butler.

“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”

The level of disrespect goes from the manini — no Hawaii championship T-shirt on ShopNCAASports.com until complaints forced a rush job for May 16 availability of a May 7 title — to the uber-nui ESPN2 conflict where viewers were treated to the end of women’s beach volleyball semifinals, delaying the live coverage of men’s volleyball. Then ESPN2 cut away from the trophy presentation and celebration to go live with the American Cornhole League Bag Brawl.

Nothing against what is called Portuguese Horseshoes in Hawaii but this was an NCAA championship. And it was the one of the six tournament matches that was on national television.

The list of grievances is endless. Unlike men’s basketball and its “First Four” aka play-in games that are on the bracket, the NCAA only recognized the semifinal and championship dates on its logo and, until the past few years where all matches were played at a single site, the play-in matches — now called opening rounds — weren’t on the bracket.

And, speaking of brackets, the one on NCAA.com for the 2018 tournament only shows the Division III bracket, even when using the dropdown menu for NC (National Championship). The 2019 bracket omits Hawaii from the championship box and lists just Long Beach State as the 3-1 winner.

It also doesn’t help that the Big West is the only conference with men’s volleyball at the moment with a voice at the NCAA level, the only one that could propose and advance legislation. (Other conferences are hybrids such as the MPSF, MIVA and EIVA, with no official NCAA voice or vote).

Volleyball fans aren’t happy. The coaches and players aren’t happy. The American Volleyball Coaches Association isn’t happy.

So how to fix it? A big first step would be to not have men’s indoor volleyball and women’s beach volleyball tournaments in the same week, something that is avoided only once in a four-year cycle.

Asked if there was one thing that he would do to help grow the popularity of men’s volleyball, Long Beach State coach Alan Knipe had multiple suggestions.

He didn’t pull a Harrison Ford with his “Get off my plane” in the movie “Air Force One” but it came close.

“Don’t schedule the women’s beach championships on top of the men’s,” Knipe said during a May 6 press conference prior to his title match against Hawaii. “It’s a brand new championship (first sponsored in 2016 compared to men’s volleyball in 1970).

“Show some respect to the men’s game. Find a different weekend.”

The conflict splits the volleyball resources, including staffing and officials. AVCA Executive Director Kathy DeBoer had travel issues when flying from the beach tournament in Gulf Shores, Ala., to make it to UCLA for the men’s final on May 7.

“We are in favor of the National Collegiate Championships in Men’s and Beach being on different weekends,” DeBoer wrote in an email about the stance of the AVCA. “We attend both championships and offer programming at the Men’s Championship. Splitting our staff and attention, from a coverage standpoint, is difficult.

“I agree completely that men’s volleyball is being shortchanged by the NCAA. The size of the field makes men’s volleyball the most difficult championship to make of any offered by the NCAA. No other sport the NCAA offers leaves one of the top-five ranked teams in the country out of the tournament due to bracket restrictions.”

Due to the additional conferences that likely will be given an automatic bid — the SIAC, NEC and what is now the Independent Volleyball Association — the field is expected to expand from its current seven to at least 11 or 12. That comes too late to help Penn State (23-4), the regular-season EIVA champion that was upset in the conference semifinal by Princeton.

With regular-season MPSF champion UCLA (22-5) also losing in its semifinal and Big West regular-season winner Long Beach State (21-6) swept by Hawaii in the BWC tournament final, the selection committee had three deserving teams vying for two at-large spots.

“I can’t complain, we had our shots (up 10-8 in Set 5 only to lose 15-12),” Penn State coach Mark Pavlik said in a phone call. “The thing to push for is expansion.

“We need advocates for men’s volleyball at the NCAA. One of the interesting numbers is championship tournament Tweets. (The EIVA) posted 5,000 times, the MIVA 6,000, the Big West over 2,000. And then you have the NCAA which Tweeted eight times. We need to bring that to the (NCAA’s) attention.”

DeBoer said the AVCA protested when the NCAA dropped its social media coverage of the 2021 men’s volleyball championship — also won by Hawaii — claiming staff reduction.

It’s not for lack from the outside to help. Off The Block, a blog dedicated to NCAA men’s volleyball since 2011, offered to run the NCAA’s social media volleyball platforms for free for a year. OTB helped the hashtag of #NCAAsBestKeptSecret become tops in sports trending within hours of its first use during the NCAA Tournament.

“For me the frustration is how can you expect to grow the sport when you’re not even promoting your own tournament,” Off The Block founder Vinnie Lopes said in a phone call. “People want to see the highlights and the NCAA isn’t providing that. Some of the great things they do on the women’s side is left up to the individual (men’s) teams to do it.

“They talk about the cost of things. You’re not hamstrung to do an Instagram page. There’s such a failure on so many levels.”

One of Lopes’ suggestions is to take the median average of what it costs to put on the men’s tournament and give that money to an entity such as First Point Volleyball Foundation to run it instead of the NCAA.

Some of his other proposals include having events at the championship site that engage the boys and men’s volleyball community: A pro combine where players not in the NCAA Tournament will be seen by international pro teams. A boys club tournament on days in between NCAA matches. A high school boys all-star game. Having special ticket packages for boys high school and club teams.

“Where’s the outreach?” Lopes asked. “Where’s the marketing?”

Where’s the NCAA congratulatory tweet? It took 10 hours after Long Beach State setter Aidan Knipe’s net violation capped Hawaii’s 25-22, 25-21, 25-20 sweep of The Beach before the NCAA congratulated the ’Bows on their back-to-back championships. It happened Sunday morning, just hours before Stanford women were congratulated on their water polo title and USC on its beach volleyball win. Both of those tournaments were held Sunday.

Even former President Barack Obama, a Punahou graduate, Tweeted before the NCAA did with “I’m a Hawai’i kid, so I’ve got to congratulate the Rainbow Warriors for their back-to-back national volleyball championships! You made all of Hawai’i proud!”

And where’s the T-shirt?

Within hours of their respective wins on May 8, Stanford and USC had championship gear available through the NCAA-licensed ShopNCAASports.com. Until this past Monday, the only championship Tee for Warrior volleyball was from 2011.

When asked about a 2022 shirt on the website’s chat function, I was told there was one and given a link … to the 2021 shirt. When pointing that out, the response was “2022 not in stock.” When asked if that meant no shirts had been made, the answer was, “Yes … but you can buy 2021.”

A number of Hawaii fans called the company to complain. Some were told there would be no shirts … ever. But late Monday the shirt became available, generic white for $34.99, $5 more than the USC and Stanford shirts. Take it from someone who has done her fair share of T-shirt orders, this was a rush job with the higher price to cover the expedited order.

Hawaii coach Charlie Wade was given a Key to the City by Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi as part of the Warriors’ championship being celebrated on Tuesday. Does he have a key to unlock some interest by the NCAA?

“I think expanding the tournament would help, giving more teams that championship experience,” he said. “For us, we just keep trying to grow the game, travel when we can across the country and bring teams out here to show what high-level men’s volleyball is all about.

“What we can do is to continue to put out a good product on the floor that’s entertaining and that people want to come watch. I think we’ve generated interest all over the world.”

Apparently one pocket of the globe that has yet to be reached is 700 W. Washington Street in Indianapolis, home to the No Clue At All folks.

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Reach Cindy Luis at cindy3luis@gmail.com