When the University of Hawai'i women's volleyball team begins play in the NCAA final four today it will carry the banner not only for its school and state but for the oppressed, the disenfranchised, the ... well, the non-Bowl Championship Series conference schools.

Yes, this is volleyball but don't think for a minute the shadow of the BCS is missing from what happens at the net, too.

There are reasons the Rainbow Wahine are not only the sole non-BCS representative in this final four but the first one in four years, elbowing their way in among Penn State, Texas and Minnesota today. Millions of them, actually.

Before the advent of the BCS in 1998, schools from what would become the non-BCS conferences represented, on average, almost a third of the teams appearing in the final fours over the previous 17 years. From the 2000 season on, however, they represent just one-eighth of the teams in the final four fields.

UH, Pacific and Long Beach State, once frequent final four participants with eight NCAA national championships between them up through 1998, have zero in the past decade.

They are rarely even glimpsed at the final four, where UH's last appearance before today was in 2003. Pacific and Long Beach State, who no longer field football teams, last reached a final four in 1999 and '01, respectively.

The growing disparity in money flowing from the football postseason, where the BCS monopoly is tightest, has allowed the six automatic conferences (Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Big East, Big 12, Pac-10 and Southeastern) to spend away in areas beyond just football. You see it most pronounced in women's basketball but also, increasingly, in women's volleyball.

Consider the average BCS payout to each of the automatic six conferences was $20.8 million from last season. The five non-BCS conferences, including the WAC, averaged $3.9 million each. That kind of gulf buys a lot when it comes to facilities, coaches' pay, recruiting budgets and travel. It allows the haves to ante up in bids to land regional host berths.

Multiply it over a decade and you can see how the already cash-rich, power schools have managed to pull away even more from the non-BCS schools as well as launch more contenders.

To be sure, UCLA, Stanford, Texas, Nebraska and USC have always been strong in volleyball. But BCS money has enabled Tennessee, Washington, California, Wisconsin, Arizona and Minnesota, among others, to contend in strength not previously seen. Prior to 2000 there was not an NCAA final four appearance between them. Since 2000, they total nine.

And it isn't hard to figure out who got bumped in the process.