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The MPSF will not be decreasing its conference schedule for the foreseeable future.
The conference head coaches at its recent league meeting voted 12-1 in favor of keeping its 24-match MPSF schedule through the 2016 season.
The MPSF last season increased its league schedule by two matches to 24 matches after adding Cal Baptist as the 13th member of the conference. This schedule change at the 2012 league meetings resulted in some concern among certain coaches because it decreased the amount of possible non-conference matches.
Men’s volleyball teams can schedule up to 28 matches per regular season. The NCAA also allows teams to schedule an additional regular season match per road match it plays against Hawai’i.
The new conference schedule implemented for the 2013 season resulted in a decrease of MPSF non-conference matches against non-West Coast schools by 32.6 percent compared to 2012.
Schools in the MPSF have won all but four national championships since men’s volleyball became an NCAA sanctioned sport in 1970. In addition, the MPSF went a combined 20-6 against non-West Coast schools during the 2013 regular season season.
One of the biggest reasons coaches voted to keep its current conference schedule is because a decreased 22-match schedule would be unbalanced with teams not playing each other an equal amount of times during the regular season, according to the league meeting minutes that were released Monday. The coaches also opted by 12-1 vote to spend $5,000 from the league’s reserve funds to look into developing a 24-match conference schedule through the 2018 season.
Coaches, though, did propose moving back to a 22-match conference schedule, according to the meeting’s minutes, if the MPSF expanded to include a 14th team.
In addition, the coaches expressed interest in bringing back the MPSF’s two-division format if conference expanded to 14 or more teams.