For collegiate men's volleyball, these should be increasingly nervous, look-over-your-shoulder times.

While the deepening national economic slump is touching every corner of the sports spectrum, it is men's volleyball, among the NCAA sports, that has the most to fear as the dollars grow tighter and the budget axes sharper.

With just 23 NCAA Division I schools in the country fielding teams, the sport has been hanging on for dear life the past decade, counting each year as a blessing.

Now, as administrators prepare for a new, deeper, round of cost cutting amid gloomier financial projections, few sports are as vulnerable as men's volleyball.

Never mind that it is already run on a bare-bones budget most places. Hawai'i, until recently, was the only school that broke even or showed a profit on the sport. If you've seen the near-empty stands at the Stan Sheriff Center lately, you know that is sadly a thing of the past.

Because the sport doesn't pay its way, doesn't help balance gender equity requirements and has little more than a cult following outside of Hawai'i and Southern California, cutting it would raise little outcry most places and help lessen a lot of burdens.

So, The Associated Press report yesterday that Stanford University is projecting a $5 million deficit over three years and could cut some sports is the kind of news that should send chills down the spines of a lot of volleyball coaches. After all, if well-heeled Stanford is already considering cuts, then very few institutions are immune.

At UH, athletic director Jim Donovan has said he does not currently envision cutting any sports. But with projections of as much as a $3 million deficit for the current fiscal year on top of an accumulated net deficit of perhaps double that, there could come a point when there would be little recourse in a prolonged financial crisis.

Sooner or later volleyball will be on the chopping block and all it would take would be for a couple of schools, like Stanford, for instance, to drop the sport and you'd see a snowballing effect that could consign volleyball to club sport status.

At Stanford — and most other places — they are taking a magnifying glass to travel expenses as part of the road toward solvency. And, unfortunately, few sports have more trouble justifying their travel dollars than men's volleyball. Only 11 Division I programs exist in the West, which means unless you are located in Southern California, you're probably hopping on a plane to get to many of your matches. When the plane has to come here and you're an athletic director on the Mainland, that is an expense that jumps off the spreadsheet at you.

So, take a good look at men's volleyball — while you can.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.