1. Wake Forest University drops S.A.T. admissions requirements. 2. Pembroke University, UNC-Charlotte, Campbell University, and Old Dominion University are regional institutions that have recently added varsity football teams. 3. Barton College has joined the Conference Carolinas in adding Men’s varsity volleyball. Wake Forest cites diversity as their rationale for dropping the S.A.T. My guess is the high standards for the S.A.T. scores skews the male/female ratio heavily toward females. All three moves are, in no small part, related to the continuing growth in the female populations in higher education. Private schools are particularly affected with a near normal ratio of 70% to 30% in favor of women. Football additions, of course, would be male. And not for the reason one might think: Not only would the male players be additions, but male students who want to attend a “football playing school.” I am pleased that Barton College has elected to join an exclusive group (varsity volleyball for men in Conference Carolina). While men have been playing collegiate varsity volleyball for many years on the west coast (and to some degree in the northeast), almost no colleges play in other parts of the country, most notably the south. There are some 300 women’s volleyball teams in American higher education institutions. There are only about 80 for men. Volleyball, for men, women, or co-ed is a great game. It is comparably inexpensive to fund teams, with institutions already having gyms and equipment ready to go. BUMP,SET, SPIKE. Let’s go! P.S. You people in the big time (the SEC, the ACC, SOUTHERN CONFERENCE, and all DIVISION I AND II schools) ought to get on board too.
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