The first NCAA beach volleyball national championship starts Friday in Gulf Shores, Ala., sending it from "emerging sport to NCAA championship-level faster than any other sport," according to Justin Meyer of USA TODAY. UAB hosts the event, and eight teams "will participate in the double-elimination tournament that ends Sunday." Coverage "will be shown on truTV and TBS and NCAA.com beginning Friday." Cal-Poly coach Todd Rogers, who won Olympic Gold in '08, said that having an NCAA championship "further validates the sport." Rogers: "The NCAA wouldn't have bothered adding it if they didn't think it would be successful. I'm sure the NCAA did their due diligence on all this stuff, and they said, 'We need to get this in our fold, because this stuff is blowing up on the Olympics level and we need to have this for these kids to be able to play." Meyer notes beach volleyball in '09 was labeled as "an emerging sport by the NCAA." AVP Managing Partner Donald Sun said that the NCAA "would provide a pipeline to the pros and Olympics" (USA TODAY, 5/3).
