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The regular season is done and the college men’s volleyball bracketology is coming into focus with several teams still in contention for at-large bids and the No. 1 overall seed.
Off the Block throughout each round of the postseason will unveil its latest detailed 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 Sunday on April 23.
The NCAA Tournament will begin with the two play-in matches and the two-top seeds earning byes to the NCAA Tournament semifinals.
Off the Block is in its seventh season of college men’s volleyball bracketology. It has in previous seasons accurately projected 93 percent of the teams in the NCAA Tournament field.
NCAA TOURNAMENT PROJECTIONS
FIRST FOUR OUT
UC Irvine (19-6)
Lewis (22-6)
UCLA (17-9)
Grand Canyon (17-10)
Quick breakdown: The teams remaining in serious contention for an at-large bid continues to drop entering the postseason. Hawai’i swept a two-match road series against UCLA last week to maintain its edge for the final at-large bid. Those two losses for all mathematical purposes makes it highly unlikely UCLA will make the NCAA Tournament as an at-large bid. While the gap has widened between some teams, Hawai’i and UC Irvine continue to keep winning and remain in a close race for the final at-large bid. The Rainbow Warriors hold the advantage against the Anteaters in several of the critical criteria categories, including head-to-head record and RPI ranking. In addition, the MPSF Tournament bracket benefits Hawai’i more than UC Irvine in the criteria categories. The only way the Anteaters could play the Rainbow Warriors and possibly improve in the head-to-head category would be meeting in the MPSF Tournament finals. BYU continues to remain the projected No. 3 seed in the bracketology. However, if BYU wins the MPSF Tournament it will surpass Long Beach State and Ohio State to earn the top-overall seed. Ohio State will be the No. 1 seed if it wins the MIVA Tournament and any team besides BYU wins the MPSF Tournament.