LOUISIANA La. - The addition of a women's golf program at the University of Louisiana is still in the university's plan for its athletic future, but that plan doesn't have a start date.

It's the next sport on the board for the Ragin' Cajun athletic program, and it will become reality - sometime.

The decision to add women's golf as the 17th varsity sport at the school was made several years ago when the athletic department submitted its plan for Title IX compliance to the Office of Civil Rights. That plan also included the addition of women's soccer, which has now been a part of the athletic program for five seasons.

"We've indicated that women's golf is a sport we'd like to add," said UL athletics director Nelson Schexnayder. "Because of finances it hasn't moved forward, but it is still in our plans. We just have to find the opportunity to do it financially."

Every other full-fledged member of the Sun Belt Conference fields a women's golf team in addition to its men's team. Florida International has no men's program, but does field a women's team.

"We know it's the next sport that we'll add," said Cajun men's coach Bob Bass, whose squad missed out on the Sun Belt title by only one stroke in last month's league championships. "It's in our NCAA plan for long-term athletic planning."

But both Bass and Schexnayder said that no specifics have been determined, and there is no timetable or deadline for the addition of the sport. Schexnayder said the university does not have to add the sport to be in Title IX compliance or for NCAA gender equity purposes.

"We don't need another sport in order to meet any type of requirement," Schexnayder said. "When we do it, it will be done because of a genuine response to interest in the sport."

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Dan McDonald