[fullmetal]

A large part of it is Title IX.  No schools are rushing to add large numbers of male varsity athletes to their rosters because of Title IX, so you will be unlikely to see increased sponsorship of men's rowing teams due to NCAA recognition.  The NCAA also has some ticky tack, nitpicky rules that would prohibit an old tradition where in certain races, the losers of the race give their shirts to the winners. This is, unfortunately, considered betting in the sense that the athletes are betting their shirts on the outcome of the race, and the NCAA does not allow betting.  (mindblown)

Anyway, there is an Intercollegiate Rowing Association whose existence predates that of the NCAA, and they've seen fit to steer the men's rowing, men's lightweight rowing, and women's lightweight rowing collegiate scenes on their own apart from the NCAA.  No real benefit to inclusion, they think.  Certainly there's incentive to not give up control of those sports to the NCAA, where the openweight women's rowing situation has departed substantially from the rest of collegiate rowing (not altogether bad).  The IRA does crib off of several NCAA administrative rules.  

So if NCAA recognition isn't going to grow the sport, the current administrators will probably not see any benefit to handing over governance to a largely non-rowing population of administrators.  The downside is that the NCAA media rights (tv broadcasting) is currently superior to whatever is going on right now.  I think the Ivy League has some races broadcast on ESPN+ or ESPNU, which is nice, but the other conferences are still a bit behind the times.

[fullmetal]

A large part of it is Title IX.  No schools are rushing to add large numbers of male varsity athletes to their rosters because of Title IX, so you will be unlikely to see increased sponsorship of men's rowing teams due to NCAA recognition.  The NCAA also has some ticky tack, nitpicky rules that would prohibit an old tradition where in certain races, the losers of the race give their shirts to the winners. This is, unfortunately, considered betting in the sense that the athletes are betting their shirts on the outcome of the race, and the NCAA does not allow betting.  (mindblown)

Anyway, there is an Intercollegiate Rowing Association whose existence predates that of the NCAA, and they've seen fit to steer the men's rowing, men's lightweight rowing, and women's lightweight rowing collegiate scenes on their own apart from the NCAA.  No real benefit to inclusion, they think.  Certainly there's incentive to not give up control of those sports to the NCAA, where the openweight women's rowing situation has departed substantially from the rest of collegiate rowing (not altogether bad).  The IRA does crib off of several NCAA administrative rules.  

So if NCAA recognition isn't going to grow the sport, the current administrators will probably not see any benefit to handing over governance to a largely non-rowing population of administrators.  The downside is that the NCAA media rights (tv broadcasting) is currently superior to whatever is going on right now.  I think the Ivy League has some races broadcast on ESPN+ or ESPNU, which is nice, but the other conferences are still a bit behind the times.