College volleyball bracketology, 3rd version

Haven't done one of these in the last couple of weeks, and with webcasts scant in the early parts of the week, I'm also looking for something to write about. Two birds with one stone I say!

I think this bracket will be very much closing in on it. Not a whole lot remains to be decided between now and Selecton Sunday, except for who specifically get automatic bids in the 1-bid leagues with conference tournaments (which are unpredictable pretty much definition). So let's get down to it.

SEEDS:

1. Texas
2. Penn State
3. USC
4. Washington
5. Florida
6. Missouri
7. Stanford
8. Nebraska
9. Colorado State
10. Minnesota
11. San Diego
12. Kentucky
13. Michigan State
14. Duke
15. Kansas
16. Wisconsin

LAST FOUR IN:

1. Arizona State
2. Ohio State
3. UCLA
4. Colorado

FIRST FOUR OUT:

1. Miami (FL)
2. St Mary's
3. NC State
4. Kansas State

NEXT FOUR OUT:

1. Virginia Tech
2. New Mexico
3. Washington State
4. Ball State

NEBRASKA REGIONAL:

(1) Texas vs Alabama State
LSU vs Tulsa

Marquette vs Iowa State
(16) Wisconsin vs Milwaukee

(9) Colorado State vs New Mexico State
Oklahoma vs Colorado

Creighton vs Arizona
(8) Nebraska vs Radford

KENTUCKY REGIONAL:

(5) Florida vs Florida A&M
North Carolina vs Yale

Purdue vs Cal
(12) Kentucky vs Morehead State

(13) Michigan State vs American
Ohio vs Butler

Hawaii vs VCU
(4) Washington vs North Dakota

USC REGIONAL:

(3) USC vs Manhattan
BYU vs Cal State-Northridge

Georgia vs East Tennessee State
(14) Duke vs College of Charleston

(11) San Diego vs Georgia Southern
Michigan vs Arizona

Utah vs Alabama
(6) Missouri vs Central Arkansas

ILLINOIS REGIONAL:

(7) Stanford vs LIU-Brooklyn
Florida State vs Ohio State

Louisville vs UCLA
(10) Minnesota vs South Dakota

(15) Kansas vs Wichita State
Illinois vs Arkansas

Western Kentucky vs Oregon
(2) Penn State vs New Hampshire

CONFERENCES BY NUMBER OF BIDS:

10 – Pac-12

9 – Big Ten

7 – Southeastern

4 – Big 12

3 – Atlantic Coast, Big East

2 – Big West, West Coast

1 – Other 24 conferences

It's sure not shaping up to be a good year to be a 'mid major,' whatever that means anymore (or ever meant in volleyball). It seems goofy as hell to give ten bids to the Pac-12 and acknowledge that yet an eleventh team is within shouting distance, but that's really the way things look right now. Chances are one or two of them will play themselves out of the picture by Selection Sunday, but there's still precious few at-large bids to go around. It's not at all like last year where I had trouble finding enough teams I thought were deserving and wound up with a couple of "Wow, really?"s on Selection Sunday. This year, there's gonna be some really good teams that don't go dancing. Not too much longer left for everyone to make their names are not on that list.