Just an update; we dodged the bullet and got what we wanted;

"NCAA Approves Women’s Bowling As Championship Sport
May 14, 2003
The National Collegiate Athletic Association has announced the approval of women’s bowling as a NCAA championship sport beginning with the 2003-04 school year. The first women’s bowling National Collegiate Championship is to be held following the completion of the 2003-04 regular season in spring 2004. The proposal to elevate women’s bowling to NCAA championship sport status was approved by the governance structures of all three NCAA divisions.

The Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet originally put forward the proposal in September 2002. After receiving approval at the Division II and III levels, the Division I Board and Management Council put the final stamps of approval on the proposal by unanimously passing the proposal via voice votes.

The first step toward planning the 2004 NCAA Women’s Bowling Championship is the formation of a six-person NCAA Women’s Bowling Committee. The committee must include three appointees from Division I and at least one appointee from Division II. Two appointees will be selected at-large and two appointees must be athletics administrators. The policy of the committee will be that two members will be selected from each of the following regions: Central (Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Texas and Wisconsin); South (Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina); and North (Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia).

One of the six appointees will serve in the capacity of secretary rules editor. The six-person committee will be responsible for all aspects of the NCAA Women’s Bowling Championship, including rules development, site selection and budgeting.

The 2004 NCAA Women’s Bowling Championship will consist of an eight-team field, with each team consisting of nine members and a maximum of 13 in each travel party. The championship dates and site have not yet been determined, but is tentatively scheduled to be held following the completion of the winter sport season. The format for the eight-team championship will consist of double-elimination match play competition over a three-day span. The inaugural event will be a cross-divisional championship.

Women’s bowling was given NCAA “emerging sport” status Sept. 1, 1994, with the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference becoming the first to secure NCAA sanctioning for women’s bowling by adopting the sport prior to the 1996-97 school year. Former University of Nebraska and Team USA standout Jennifer Daugherty became the first collegiate woman bowler to receive a full-ride athletic scholarship when the Cornhuskers added women’s bowling to its athletic program prior to the 1997-98 school year. Currently there are 42 institutions sponsoring women’s bowling as a NCAA varsity sport, with approximately 86 additional schools that have women’s bowling as a club sport."

There are 3 more schools coming on board 2004/05.
Arkansas State, La. Tech and another I can't recall.

The athletic depts. of all schools have not funded
every program for 5 full rides. Some are at 4.2, 3.7, even just 1 I believe the funding for 1 was
FDU but that will probably change after this past
seasons success. The DIV3 schools have no funding,
however they do disguise it as grants.
Also, the "full rides" are most likely based on
in-state tuition. Though I do know that Southerns
will waive the out of state as long as at least
$500 in athletic aid is given to any player.
Other schools do not waive the out of state extra
cost, that is why they like to recruit good students also so that portion can be offset by
academic awards.

Do the women lose any previously earned scholarships? Pretty much yeas, but I have also
heard they can use what remains after deducting
the expense to earn the scholarship. This seems to be a very grey area at this point.

Hey, I had to make some sort of post to get started on this site. If anyone would like to
expound on this subject it would be greatly appreciated as my daughter will be accepting NCAA
$$$ soon.