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Midway through the conference tournament semifinals and there is still potential for a lot of movement with the bracketology.
Off the Block each week during the rest of the regular season and throughout each round of the postseason will unveil its latest projections to the NCAA Tournament.
The men’s volleyball Division I-II NCAA Tournament is comprised of six teams. Automatic bids are awarded to the winners of the Conference Carolinas, EIVA, MIVA and MPSF conference tournaments, and the NCAA men’s volleyball committee selects two teams for at-large bids.
The three-person selection committee meets following all of the conference tournaments to decide the at-large teams and the tournament seeding. For an in-depth look at the criteria used by the selection committee and the Off the Block bracketology projections, check out this breakdown.
The field for the NCAA Tournament is scheduled to be released during Selection Saturday on May 2.
The NCAA Tournament will begin with the two play-in matches on May 5 in Palo Alto, California. In addition, the NCAA Tournament semifinals and finals will take place May 7-9 in Palo Alto.
PROJECTED NCAA TOURNAMENT FIELD
LAST FOUR OUT
Pepperdine (23-5)
USC (19-8)
Ohio State (22-9)
BYU (17-10)
Quick breakdown: It may appear that nothing has changed compared to the last bracketology. However, there have been significant developments with the MIVA Tournament and EIVA Tournament semifinal match results. Both Lewis and Loyola will be in the NCAA Tournament regardless of what team wins in their upcoming MIVA Tournament championship match. The Flyers and Ramblers hold an edge in the majority of selection committee criteria categories compared to every other team in the nation. The loser of their conference tournament match is a mathematical lock to get an at-large bid. There is also a possibility Lewis and Loyola could receive the top-two seeds for the NCAA Tournament. UC Irvine and Hawai’i remain in the best position among the MPSF teams for the final at-large bid if they lose in the conference tournament. Pepperdine, though, could move ahead of Hawai’i in the at-large race if it wins their conference tournament semifinal match on Thursday and George Mason wins the EIVA championship on Friday.