Volleyball is a scam — at least at the high school and college level:
High school volley ball players often use the sport as a way to gain college admission and a year of free school at college and then quit the team. I went to an ACC volleyball game and was amazed at the number of freshmen who were starting. Universities don’t really care because volleyball isn’t a revenue sport and it’s sponsored for Title IX compliance. In particular, schools that have rushed to create football programs in the last 10 years have created women’s indoor and beach volleyball teams in order to offer relatively cheap lady athletics scholarships.
I don’t think ‘scam’ is quite the right word here. Who is defrauding whom? These sports and scholarships – and the efforts of high school kids to win them – wouldn’t exist at all were it not for the government compelling schools to make the male/female counts come out right.
Everything else is just individuals and institutions responding to the incentives this mandate creates. Universities are trying to check all the necessary boxes and jump through all the required hoops in the least expensive way possible, and with only the minimal degree of pretense that they ‘really care’ necessary to keep the state off their backs.
Meanwhile, the student athletes are going to optimize costs and benefits. The cost is the time commitment (and opportunity cost of doing other things) and potential injuries, and the benefit for all but the most gifted and serious is getting into schools of a prestige level slightly above the caliber of their other abilities, and whatever tuition discounts they can swing. Since there is practically zero chance of any ability to turn talent at these sports into a lucrative career of professional competition and endorsements, there is practically nothing to gain besides the admission and scholarship, and there is no point going any further than one absolutely has to to obtain these things.
If there is any ‘scam’ here, it is the big false narrative – enthusiastically supported by all the parties in the whole ecosystem from the state to the university to the athletes and their parents and coaches: because it is in all their interests to do so – that they really care about any of this and really take it just as seriously as any other student athletic activity, and that this isn’t just some way to cover a political scheme that redistributes goodies to the system’s clients.
Question I always ask: Why do football players need college educations? Soccer players don’t.
I already know the answer, of course. But seeing it play out in Last Chance U is painful.
I’ve heard it said many times (by women students who should know) that the women in various minor sports that offer scholarships (like volleyball, field hockey, lacrosse etc) are not very competitive and frankly couldn’t care less if their teams have a winning season. The best way to enjoy your time at college and maximize your chances of getting a degree (or at least a husband) and not getting a lifetime injury (women are 5 times more likely to get ACL tears, for example) is put first things first and do just enough athletic activity to keep your scholarship.
My sarcastic response to this issue is only because my daughter is not one of the tall and big girls who now get these scholarships almost by default, and so my wife and I had to figure out how to pay her way through.