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Off the Block each week throughout the postseason will unveil its latest detailed projections to the NCAA Tournament.
The men’s volleyball Division I-II NCAA Tournament is comprised of seven teams. Automatic bids are awarded to the winners of the Big West, ConfCarolinas, 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 22.
The NCAA Tournament will begin with a play-in match and then two first-round matches. The top-two seeds will receive byes to the semifinals and will play the winners from the first round.
Off the Block is in its eighth season of college men’s volleyball bracketology. In previous seasons, Off the Block has accurately projected more than 95 percent of the teams making the NCAA Tournament field.
PROJECTED NCAA TOURNAMENT FIELD
FIRST FOUR TEAMS OUT
Loyola (21-6)
Pepperdine (15-7)
Hawai’i (17-6)
Lewis (18-10)
Quick breakdown: UCLA continued to strength its hold on a possible at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament following a victory against BYU on Saturday. In addition, UCLA benefits from King surpassing Barton as the projected ConfCarolinas champions. The Bruins defeated the Tornado in January and now have an additional victory in the selection committee criteria category of record versus teams under NCAA Tournament consideration. Both BYU and Hawai’i, which defeated Barton in the regular season, would lose victories in this category if Barton does not win the ConfCarolinas Tournament. Hawai’i to remain in serious contention for an at-large bid likely needs to beat undefeated Long Beach State at least once in their regular season two-match series this weekend. Along with Hawai’i, Loyola continues to first-team out in the at-large race. Loyola fell behind UC Irvine in the RPI rankings following an upset loss to Lindenwood last week. In addition, the Ramblers will likely need the Anteaters to lose multiple matches before the NCAA Tournament to move up in the at-large bid race.