DI is still the image most people have when they think of men’s college Volleyball. UCLA, Penn State, Ohio State, and Loyola, – need I go on? These names and the other 16 teams which make up DI are the “rock stars” of the men’s College Volleyball world. Let’s do a quick review of DI, including the tournament, the teams, and the pre-season poll.
THE TOURNAMENT
The 2015 National Championship Tournament, which includes both DI and DII, will be held Tuesday, May 5th through Saturday, May 9th at the Maples Pavilion on the Stanford University campus in Palo Alto, California. Tickets are available now on the NCAA website, www.ncaa.com/sports/volleyball-men/nc.
The tournament will consist of four automatic bids (one each to the Conference Carolinas, EIVA, the MIVA, and the MPSF) and two at-large bids, for a total of six teams. The teams will be ranked one through six and the top two seeds will receive a “bye” into the tournament semi-finals.
- On Tuesday May 5th, the 3 seed will play the 6 seed while the 4 seed will play the 5 seed in two “play-in” matches to establish the other two semi-finalists.
- On Thursday May 7th the four semi-finalists will compete in two matches to determine the two finalists.
- On Saturday, May 9th, the finalists will do battle to decide the National Champion.
Loyola University, from the MIVA and coached by Shane Davis, is the defending National Champion.
THE TEAMS
Twenty-two programs are currently competing in men’s DI Volleyball. They compete in three “blended conferences” known as the EIVA, the MIVA, and the MPSF.
THE EIVA (Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association) is composed of seven DI schools and, as the name implies, is localized in the Eastern United States. Penn State is the powerhouse program in the EIVA and has won the last 16 EIVA Championships
- George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia
- Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts
- NJ Institute of Technology in Newark, New Jersey
- Penn State University in University Park, Pennsylvania
- Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey
- Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut
- Francis University in Loretto, Pennsylvania
The MIVA (Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association) is composed of five DI programs and four DII programs localized in the Midwest, although it’s difficult to consider Grand Canyon and Phoenix as the Midwest. Loyola is the reigning National Champion and the preseason favorite in the MIVA.
- Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana
- Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona
- IPFW in Ft. Wayne, Indiana
- Loyola University in Chicago, Illinois
- Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio
The MPSF (Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) has long been considered the strongest DI conference, although we are seeing more parity now, with three of the last seven National Champions being teams outside the MPSF. The MPSF is composed of ten DI programs and two DII programs, concentrated in the Western United States. BYU is the defending MPSF champion and Pepperdine is the preseason favorite.
- BYU in Provo, Utah
- CSU – Northridge in Northridge, California.
- Long Beach State University in Long Beach, California
- Pepperdine University in Malibu, California
- Stanford University in Palo Alto, California
- UC – Irvine in Irvine, California
- UC – Santa Barbara in Santa Barbara, California.
- UCLA in Los Angeles, California
- University of Hawaii in Honolulu, Hawaii
- USC in Los Angeles, California
AVCA PRESEASON POLL
1 Pepperdine
2 Loyola-Chicago
3 Penn State
4 UC Santa Barbara
5 UCLA
6 BYU
7 Southern California
8 UC Irvine
9 Lewis
T-10 Hawai’i
T-10 Stanford
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