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All the matches are finished and now the only thing left is for the NCAA Tournament bracket to be unveiled on Selection Saturday.
Off the Block has released its final projections to the NCAA Tournament hours before the selection show starts at noon (CST) Saturday.
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.
The NCAA Tournament will begin with the two play-in matches Tuesday in Palo Alto, California. In addition, the NCAA Tournament semifinals and finals will take place Thursday through Saturday in Palo Alto.
Off the Block is in its fifth season of college men’s volleyball bracketology. It has in previous seasons accurately projected 94 percent of the teams in the NCAA Tournament field and 72 percent of the teams’ NCAA Tournament seed.
PROJECTED NCAA TOURNAMENT FIELD
LAST FOUR OUT
Pepperdine (24-6)
Ohio State (22-9)
USC (19-10)
BYU (17-10)
Quick breakdown: Loyola in the final bracketology jumped up two spots to the No. 1 seed following its road victory against Lewis in the MIVA Tournament championship match on Friday. The defending NCAA champions are now projected to hold an edge versus UC Irvine in the majority selection committee criteria categories, including RPI ranking. In addition, the conference tournament victory is projected to be enough to move the Ramblers ahead of the Flyers for the top-seed. Despite Lewis still holding an edge in head-to-head record, Loyola now has the advantage in the majority of selection criteria categories because of that one victory. Lewis remains ahead of UC Irvine for the No. 2 seed and a bye into the NCAA Tournament semifinals. Among the majority of criteria categories the Flyers have an advantage in compared to the Anteaters includes head-to-head record with Lewis beating UC Irvine in their season-opener in January. Hawai’i is projected to overcome a conference tournament semifinal loss against Pepperdine to receive the final at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Rainbow Warriors with their two regular season victories against the Waves continue to hold an advantage in several criteria categories including head-to-head and record against teams under consideration. Penn State will beat-out Pfeiffer for the No. 5 seed because the Nittany Lions hold an advantage in the criteria categories of RPI and record against teams under consideration along with having the nation’s top-rated strength of schedule.