College volleyball bracketology, 6th and final version

So this is it. Put-up or shut-up time. I have no intention of doing the latter, so here's what I'm putting up!

It's been a wild season, and I've covered far less of it than I would have liked. The numbers in brackets, following my match reports? I've mentioned that they're a running count, but what I haven't mentioned is why I was doing them. I had a pie-in-the-sky notion months ago of trying to be credentialed media at the Final Four, and at one point I recall reading among the various and sundry regulations describing who qualified to be credentialed that having covered a media outlet having covered 100 events of competition would qualify. Certainly, I didn't expect to cover 100 matches myself — I wish to have a life in addition to volleyball! — but I wanted to know how close I'd come. 21 isn't great; I thought I'd get closer to half. Maybe next season.

So here we go.

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

The top of the mountain is a little bit weak. Most would have you believe Colorado State's loss to San Diego State cooks their chances to host, but I'm really not sure who replace them, unless it's Hawaii. I could be spectacularly wrong, but I really don't think the Wahine are hosting having sustained 3 conference losses. One, and they still were, but that disastrous CSUN/UCD road trip did them in in my book. The committee need to have their socks blown clean off to send 3 teams to the islands rather than bring one Hawaii team to the mainland, and I don't think (24-4, 13-3), even with an early-season win over the #1 team in the land by most metrics, does that.

There's some question as to whether Duke can in fact host (whether their facilities are available), but there's precedent for a team being seeded without hosting, so I'm putting a number next to their name. All things equal, they merit it.

LAST FOUR IN:

1. Cal State Northridge
2. Tulsa
3. Ohio State
4. Arizona State

FIRST FOUR OUT:

1. UCLA
2. Georgia
3. NC State
4. Colorado

NEXT FOUR OUT:

1. Miami
2. Xavier
3. St Mary's
4. Tulane

NEBRASKA REGIONAL

(1) Texas vs Texas State
TX-San Antonio vs Texas A&M

Creighton vs Tulsa
(8) Nebraska vs New Hampshire

(9) Minnesota vs Hampton
Iowa State vs California

Utah vs LSU
(16) Colorado State vs LIU Brooklyn

KENTUCKY REGIONAL

(5) Florida vs Alabama State
North Carolina vs Georgia Southern

Ohio vs Michigan
(12) Kentucky vs Morehead State

(4) Washington vs Idaho State
Hawaii vs Purdue

Louisville vs Butler
(13) Duke vs Radford

USC REGIONAL

(3) Missouri vs IUPUI
Central Arkansas vs Oklahoma

Arkansas vs Arizona State
(14) Kansas vs Wichita State

(11) Wisconsin vs Milwaukee
Marquette vs Oregon

UC Santa Barbara vs Ohio State
(6) USC vs New Mexico State

ILLINOIS REGIONAL

(7) Stanford vs College of Charleston
BYU vs Illinois

Cal State Northridge vs Arizona
(10) San Diego vs American

(15) Florida State vs Jacksonville
Alabama vs Michigan State

Yale vs Duquesne
(2) Penn State vs Fairfield

CONFERENCES BY NUMBER OF BIDS:

9 – Big Ten

8 – Pac-12

7 – Southeastern

4 – Big 12

3 – Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big West

2 – Conference USA, West Coast

1 – Other 23 conferences

As I've said, I think I'm gonna miss a few. The picture is murky. But here's my best guess, and here's to tomorrow when all guessing ends.