Bracketology: Off the Block’s latest NCAA Tournament projections

Off the Block each week throughout the rest of the regular season and during 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.

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The five-person selection committee meets following all of the conference tournaments to decide the at-large teams and the tournament seeding. The field for the NCAA Tournament is scheduled to be released during Selection Sunday on April 25.

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 10th season of providing college men’s volleyball bracketology.

PROJECTED NCAA TOURNAMENT FIELD


FIRST-FOUR TEAMS OUT
Pepperdine (11-5)
Loyola (14-5)
Long Beach State (5-3)
McKendree (12-5)

Quick breakdown: UCLA after splitting its two-match series against BYU last week has now moved ahead of Pepperdine for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. The additional win in the selection criteria category of teams under NCAA Tournament consideration also moves UCLA ahead of UC Santa Barbara for seeding. The Gauchos, which are 0-3 against teams under NCAA Tournament consideration, are slated to receive the final at-large bid and compete in the play-in match against the ConfCarolinas champion. Pepperdine still has a chance to receive an at-large bid but will need to beat UCLA if the two teams meet in the upcoming MPSF Tournament. Along with the at-large bid race, the race for the No. 2 seed and a bye to the semifinals remains competitive. Lewis holds the edge against BYU in the majority of the selection committee criteria categories, but because of the schedule restrictions this season the Flyers did not play a team projected to be under NCAA Tournament consideration.