NCAA volleyball experiencing historic season

At a time when the course of collegiate sports activities is unsure and unpredictable, volleyball is coming into a season anticipated to be crammed with noteworthy achievements. Whereas each season concludes with the crowning of a brand new nationwide champion, this December will doubtless mark 2023 as a historic yr for our sport. 

The season’s first week has at all times offered volleyball followers with nice matchups, and this yr is not any exception. Contests similar to Florida vs. Stanford, Texas vs. Minnesota, and Wisconsin vs. Baylor are only a pattern of potential championship situations to play out in Tampa on the finish of the yr.  

Nevertheless, essentially the most anticipated match is a midweek, in-state contest between Nebraska and Omaha on August 30. The intrigue just isn’t round Omaha’s efforts to upset the #4 group within the nation however somewhat the truth that a volleyball match will doubtless turn into essentially the most attended ladies’s sporting occasion within the historical past of the US.  

The sport is being hosted in Memorial Stadium (dwelling to Nebraska soccer) as a part of a doubleheader with a Division II exhibition between Nebraska-Kearney and Wayne State. Nearly 83,000 tickets had been bought in 48 hours, with an extra 8000 later being made out there. The present file, at the least for one more week, is 90,185, which was set in the course of the 1999 Ladies’s World Cup Closing at Rose Bowl Stadium between China and the U.S.

Breaking attendance data might turn into a theme for the ’23 season. Turnout at volleyball matches throughout the nation has continued to develop, which may be seen within the numbers of followers heading out to catch the NCAA Volleyball Championship Match. In 2021, Columbus set a file for the championship match with 18,755 current, and 2022 introduced extra folks to expertise the event than any yr earlier than.  

Shifting the championship out of Large Ten nation and all the way down to Tampa presents volleyball one other alternative to show its nationwide presence. With a capability above 19,000 on the host web site Amalie Enviornment, the historic narrative of the yr can finish with a record-breaking exclamation level. The way in which preliminary ticket gross sales look, the Tampa group is poised to ship.  

The energy of volleyball just isn’t solely current in Nebraska and Florida but additionally evident within the consideration and funding tv programmers are making within the sport. In June, ABC introduced it might turn into the primary community to broadcast the NCAA Volleyball Championship this December. ESPN will air greater than 2,500 volleyball matches on its platforms, together with greater than 100 linear broadcasts.  

Because the third highest-rated sport on the Large Ten Community (behind soccer and males’s basketball) volleyball will see a file 64 matches televised nationally on BTN, FOX, FS1, and FS2 for the 2023 season. For the primary time, the FOX broadcast community will carry two matches highlighted by Minnesota at Wisconsin following their NFL airing of the Vikings vs. Packers. Volleyball additionally reveals its market worth to community executives as one of many youngest audiences and has a excessive proportion of feminine viewership. This protection ensures that extra folks will view faculty volleyball on TV this yr than ever earlier than.

This momentum isn’t a surprise contemplating the continued development of the game.  Volleyball has been the primary group participation sport for ladies in highschool since 2015, when it surpassed women’ basketball (in response to NFHS survey outcomes). Final yr that hole grew to 22% extra women taking part in volleyball than basketball.  

Boys’ volleyball has seen distinctive enlargement and a 4.6% development popping out of COVID at a time participation in all sports activities dropped 4.8%. These numbers are anticipated to skyrocket as seven states sanctioned boys’ volleyball over the previous 18 months. On the collegiate degree, males’s volleyball has seen greater than 100 universities add varsity applications on the NCAA and NAIA ranges since 2016 and the institution of the First Level Volleyball Basis

Seashore volleyball continues to take pleasure in its large observe file of development, with greater than 180 universities sponsoring varsity groups. Final season introduced file crowds out to the NCAA Championship in Gulf Shores, and this November will mark the second yr for the AVCA Collegiate Seashore Championship in Huntsville, Ala., the place the highest ladies’s pair might be topped.

Skilled volleyball within the U.S. can also be sturdy and on the rise.  Athletes Limitless might be coming into its third season this October, and extra ladies’s alternatives are on the horizon as Professional Volleyball Federation and League One Volleyball are scheduled to launch in 2024 and 2025, respectively. Males’s leagues proceed to construct whereas the AVP is celebrating its 40th anniversary of competitors. Internationally, volleyball is as sturdy as ever, with each indoor nationwide groups ranked second on the earth and seashore groups experiencing comparable success.

There is no such thing as a query this might be a celebrated yr for volleyball.  From starting to finish, it will likely be crammed with reminiscences that might be relived and talked about for years. Whether or not it’s Lincoln, Neb., in August, Tampa in December, or the hundreds of moments in between, many individuals could have the chance to witness it, and a few could have the possibility to expertise it, however hopefully nobody will let this historic season go them by.