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CIAA institutes Women's Bowling for Fall 2001July 21, 2001The CIAA will be adding women's bowling as a conference sport beginning with the 2001 fall season. All twelve CIAA schools will sponsor the sport with a conference championship scheduled for this fall. Schools in the two conference divisions will have three regular season dates and roll among themselves. Scores from those regular season competitions will determine the seeding for cross-divisional play in the conference championship. CIAA officials have been working closely with Collegiate Bowling USA, the national body governing collegiate bowling. CBUSA was instrumental is helping the conference begin operation this fall. Bowling enthusiasts are looking toward the possibility of an NCAA sanctioned National Bowling Championship by the 2003-2004 season. The NCAA requires a minimum of 40 institutions sponsoring a sport in order to hold a championship. Since there is no divisional breakout in collegiate bowling, the addition of 12 CIAA schools could speed up the process of establishing a national championship in the sport. Under current NCAA guidelines, if a championship were held, the CIAA would receive an automatic bid. The addition of collegiate bowling also provides an additional sport for women to choose to become collegiate athletes and is consistent with gender equity initiatives throughout the country. The CIAA now becomes the third HBCU conference to sponsor collegiate bowling. The SWAC and MEAC already sponsor championships in the sport.
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