DIII Women’s Volleyball Top 25 – 11/2/16

There are 433 DIII women’s volleyball programs, spread all across the USA, and each school has some great volleyball being played there. DIII is the largest component of women’s college volleyball, larger than DI, DII, or NAIA. We are entering the conference tournament phase of DIII women’s volleyball, to be followed by regional tournaments and finally the DIII Women’s National Volleyball Championship, which is only two weeks away.

Event – NCAA DIII Championship

Dates – 11/17– 11/19

Location – Oshkosh, WI

Host Institution – University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh

Here’s the Net Set Rankings for November 2, 2016.

Net Set (NS) DIII Rankings and the NS Index are an average from the two polls or rankings listed below. The NS Rank is a numerical average based upon the positions of teams in these polls or rankings. In the Net Set Ranking, the team’s position in each poll or ranking is summed and then averaged to create the NS Index. This NS Index is then arranged, or ranked, in ascending order, with the lowest NS Index determining the number 1 team, the second lowest NS index determining the number 2 team, and so forth.

1. The AVCA Coaches Poll (http://www.avca.org/polls/diii-women/index.html).

AVCA, or the American Volleyball Coaches Association, publishes an outstanding weekly poll for each volleyball division from its member coaches in that division. Thus, DIII coaches are voting on the teams in the DIII poll, and these are the women and men who see these teams in action up close and personal, and undoubtedly one of the best sources on information for polls and ratings. To see the AVCA poll intact, with all 25 teams, first-place votes, adjusted ranking points, and other neat info, go to: (http://www.avca.org/polls/diii-women/11-1-2016.html).

2. The Pablo Rankings (http://www.richkern.com/vb/FreePage.asp).

The Pablo Rankings are an incredibly ingenious ranking system that operates on a probabilistic, algorithmic approach and analyzes and measures the difference in abilities between two teams overall and in a match. In terms of accuracy and predictive analytics, the Pablo Rankings are the most accurate mathematical model available today. You can find a detailed explanation of the Pablo Rankings at this web location: (http://www.richkern.com/vb/rankings/PabloFAQ.asp).

View the Pablo Rankings, the best pure statistical ranking available, at RichKern.com: (http://www.richkern.com/vb/rankings/FreePageRankings.asp).

Also, here’s a quick analysis of the DIII conferences in this rating along with their full conference names and the number of teams each conference has in the rating. The Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) has the most teams in the poll (four) with Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Wisconsin-Whitewater, and Wisconsin-La Crosse. The Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC), the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC), and the United Athletic Association (UAA) all have three teams in the Net Set ranking.

What is NCAA Division III, or DIII? Straight from the NCAA website we read the following explanation: “Division III institutions have to sponsor at least five sports for men and five for women, with two team sports for each gender, and each playing season represented by each gender. There are minimum contest and participant minimums for each sport. Division III athletics features student-athletes who receive no financial aid related to their athletic ability and athletic departments are staffed and funded like any other department in the university. Division III athletics departments place special importance on the impact of athletics on the participants rather than on the spectators. The student-athlete’s experience is of paramount concern. Division III athletics encourages participation by maximizing the number and variety of athletics opportunities available to students, placing primary emphasis on regional in-season and conference competition.”

http://www.ncaa.org/about/who-we-are/membership/divisional-differences-and-history-multidivision-classification

LET’S GROW VOLLEYBALL!