Committee receives 21 bids to host future men’s volleyball NCAA Tournaments

The bids are officially all in from schools vying to host the men’s volleyball Division I-II NCAA Tournament in upcoming years.

NCAA officials informed Off the Block via email Tuesday that 21 bids were submitted to the league office requesting the right to host a college men’s volleyball national championship during the next five years.

The NCAA did not release the names of the schools or cities making the bids. However, the organization stated in the email that sites fro the 2015-18 men’s volleyball NCAA Tournaments will be officially announced Oct. 30.

Schools from the West Coast have played host to the annual event 26 times since men’s volleyball became an NCAA sanctioned sport in 1970. In addition, schools in the East Coast and Midwest have played host to the NCAA Tournament a combined 18 times.

The West Coast has been site for the last two NCAA Tournaments with USC playing host to the 2012 NCAA Tournament, while UCLA played host to the most recent national championship in May.

The 2014 NCAA Tournament, which will be located in Chicago at Loyola, is the first NCAA Tournament to be played in the Midwest since 2007 when Ohio Stated hosted the event. Penn State in 2011 was the last East Coast school to win a NCAA Tournament bid.

The sites for the 2015-18 NCAA Tournaments will be determined by the NCAA men’s volleyball committee. The three-person committee is comprised of athletics department officials with the East Coast, Midwest and West Coast each having one representative.

Among the information that potential sites were required to submit with their NCAA Tournament bids included facility evaluations, a proposed budget and a detailed outline on how they intend to enhance players and fan experience at the event.

The NCAA Tournament starting in 2014 is expanding to include a fifth team and a play-in match as a result of the Conference Carolinas qualifying for an automatic bid. The NCAA also announced in September that it was exploring the possibility of expanding the tournament field.

The 21 bids to host the men’s volleyball NCAA Tournament were part of the almost 2,000 bids submitted for all the NCAA Tournament between the 2014-15 and 2017-18 academic school year. Along with men’s volleyball, the NCAA announced Monday that 27 sites submitted bids to host the women’s volleyball NCAA Tournament in 2017.