The scholarship numbers are close not sure if another rule would stop it.

There are no NCAA regulations that specify what sports a conference must offer other than:

No Basketball only conferences. To remain eligible for basketball auto-bids, a conference must sponsor two other men's team sports, or Football (might be three or two + football)

Sure you can.

You just need 2 other team sports for men: Ice Hockey, Volleyball, Baseball, Soccer or Lacrosse would fulfill that.

The Big Sky seems to be counting men's Tennis as a team sport, even though it is categorized as an individual sport -- Individuals qualify for NCAA nationals, not teams. Football and Basketball are the other two, and they don't sponsor Baseball or men's Soccer, the most common other men's sports.

Individual sports is rarely a problem. Simply having men's track team pretty much does that, as you can count it as cross country, plus indoor and outdoor Track & Field. Golf, Tennis, Swimming and Diving are usually sponsored because they are relatively cheap.

It's never a problem on the women's side, as Basketball, Volleyball and Soccer are near universal, plus many have Lacrosse, Beach Volleyball. and/or Field Hockey as well.

(07-07-2019 04:25 PM)Stugray2 Wrote:  Sure you can.

You just need 2 other team sports for men: Ice Hockey, Volleyball, Baseball, Soccer or Lacrosse would fulfill that.

The Big Sky seems to be counting men's Tennis as a team sport, even though it is categorized as an individual sport -- Individuals qualify for NCAA nationals, not teams. Football and Basketball are the other two, and they don't sponsor Baseball or men's Soccer, the most common other men's sports.

Individual sports is rarely a problem. Simply having men's track team pretty much does that, as you can count it as cross country, plus indoor and outdoor Track & Field. Golf, Tennis, Swimming and Diving are usually sponsored because they are relatively cheap.

It's never a problem on the women's side, as Basketball, Volleyball and Soccer are near universal, plus many have Lacrosse, Beach Volleyball. and/or Field Hockey as well.

Since the Big Sky sponsors football, that is all they need:

Minimum of six men's sports, with the following additional restrictions:
Men's basketball is a mandatory sport, and at least seven members must sponsor that sport.
Non-football conferences must sponsor at least two men's team sports other than basketball.
At least six members must sponsor five men's sports other than basketball, including either football or two other team sports.

I used to play D1 tennis, and my recollection is that men's tennis only has a maximum of 4 1/2 scholarships, and the women have 8 (balances out Title IX due to the massive amount of football scholarships). The top 6 players compete, and most squads travel 8 players. For the women, this works out perfectly in terms of full ride scholarships for actual participants. For the men, only the ringers get full rides, and most of the bottom half are on partial scholarship, if any.

So, eliminating men's tennis in place of volleyball has a few issues:

1) Few schools would want to eliminate women's tennis because then they would have to replace it with something else. Once courts are built, tennis is one of the cheaper sports to sponsor.
2) Many schools have a "racquet club" so that alumni and donors can use the facilities when the teams are not practicing or playing. Obviously, tennis is a country club sport where a lot of business goes down, and many schools, especially private, use the tennis facilities for more than sanctioned sports.
3) Tennis teams historically have a high academic performers, and they almost always contribute to a school's overall academic grade point average.

So, if a school has awful tennis facilities and does not have a strong tennis culture among the alumni, then eliminating tennis may make sense. However, if the facilities are established and alumni, especially the deep pocketed ones, utilize them often, then it is probably in the best interest of the school to keep fielding the teams. Again, once you get past the cost of scholarships, tennis is a fairly cheap sport to field.

(07-07-2019 08:04 PM)bigblueblindness Wrote:  I used to play D1 tennis, and my recollection is that men's tennis only has a maximum of 4 1/2 scholarships, and the women have 8 (balances out Title IX due to the massive amount of football scholarships). The top 6 players compete, and most squads travel 8 players. For the women, this works out perfectly in terms of full ride scholarships for actual participants. For the men, only the ringers get full rides, and most of the bottom half are on partial scholarship, if any.

So, eliminating men's tennis in place of volleyball has a few issues:

1) Few schools would want to eliminate women's tennis because then they would have to replace it with something else. Once courts are built, tennis is one of the cheaper sports to sponsor.
2) Many schools have a "racquet club" so that alumni and donors can use the facilities when the teams are not practicing or playing. Obviously, tennis is a country club sport where a lot of business goes down, and many schools, especially private, use the tennis facilities for more than sanctioned sports.
3) Tennis teams historically have a high academic performers, and they almost always contribute to a school's overall academic grade point average.

So, if a school has awful tennis facilities and does not have a strong tennis culture among the alumni, then eliminating tennis may make sense. However, if the facilities are established and alumni, especially the deep pocketed ones, utilize them often, then it is probably in the best interest of the school to keep fielding the teams. Again, once you get past the cost of scholarships, tennis is a fairly cheap sport to field.

Men's Volleyball/Beach Volleyball are cheap as well. The indoor courts are there, many schools have built sand volleyball for the students already.

The Beach Volleyball often uses the same women as indoor, so get to add schollies for more players for both.


For NAU - the tennis teams play on the rec courts (fairly nice, open to students when team isn't using) and have access to indoor courts at a country club.

(07-07-2019 08:16 PM)dbackjon Wrote:  

(07-07-2019 08:04 PM)bigblueblindness Wrote:  I used to play D1 tennis, and my recollection is that men's tennis only has a maximum of 4 1/2 scholarships, and the women have 8 (balances out Title IX due to the massive amount of football scholarships). The top 6 players compete, and most squads travel 8 players. For the women, this works out perfectly in terms of full ride scholarships for actual participants. For the men, only the ringers get full rides, and most of the bottom half are on partial scholarship, if any.

So, eliminating men's tennis in place of volleyball has a few issues:

1) Few schools would want to eliminate women's tennis because then they would have to replace it with something else. Once courts are built, tennis is one of the cheaper sports to sponsor.
2) Many schools have a "racquet club" so that alumni and donors can use the facilities when the teams are not practicing or playing. Obviously, tennis is a country club sport where a lot of business goes down, and many schools, especially private, use the tennis facilities for more than sanctioned sports.
3) Tennis teams historically have a high academic performers, and they almost always contribute to a school's overall academic grade point average.

So, if a school has awful tennis facilities and does not have a strong tennis culture among the alumni, then eliminating tennis may make sense. However, if the facilities are established and alumni, especially the deep pocketed ones, utilize them often, then it is probably in the best interest of the school to keep fielding the teams. Again, once you get past the cost of scholarships, tennis is a fairly cheap sport to field.

Men's Volleyball/Beach Volleyball are cheap as well. The indoor courts are there, many schools have built sand volleyball for the students already.

The Beach Volleyball often uses the same women as indoor, so get to add schollies for more players for both.


For NAU - the tennis teams play on the rec courts (fairly nice, open to students when team isn't using) and have access to indoor courts at a country club.

For women, you are limited to six additional scholarships for beach volleyball if you also sponsor indoor volleyball. I’m sure it’s less for men.

(07-07-2019 09:27 PM)DustMyBroom Wrote:  For women, you are limited to six additional scholarships for beach volleyball if you also sponsor indoor volleyball. I’m sure it’s less for men.

Since I don't find a "Men's Beach Volleyball" entry in the Division 1 Manual, I reckon it's 0 additional scholarships, but Men's Volleyball and Men's Tennis are both 4.5 scholarships, plus Volleyball counts as a team sport for schools that need to watch their team sports count. So nothing against swapping Men's Tennis for Men's Beach Volleyball for whatever reason ...

... the racquet club wants more court time, maybe? I dunno, from the above it doesn't sound like there's any substantial benefit to dropping Men's Tennis in favor of Men's Volleyball. Since Tennis teams are more common than Men's Volleyball teams, travel is probably cheaper in parts of the country where you have to go farther afield to fill out a Men's Volleyball schedule.