DIII Tourney Update and Rankings – 11/9/16

Greetings to the Volleyball World! Here’s the Net Set Rankings for November 9, 2016.

Net Set (NS) DII Rankings and the NS Index are an average from the three 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, 11/8/2016. (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, DII coaches are voting on the teams in the DII 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, 11/7/2016. (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).

3. The NCAA DIII Regional Rankings, 11/7/2016. (http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/volleyball-women/d3).

The NCAA publishes a weekly poll for each DIII women’s from its member coaches in that division and region. Thus, DIII coaches from within the same region as the team in question are voting on the teams in that poll, and these are the women and men who really see these teams in action, up close and personal, and undoubtedly are one of the best sources on information for polls and ratings. To see the NCAA Regional poll intact go to: (http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/volleyball-women/d3).

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.

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 regional tournament phase of DIII women’s volleyball, to be followed by the DIII Women’s National Volleyball Championship. Here’s the dates.

NCAA DIII Regional Tournaments (8 of them), November 11 through November 13, at the various campus locations shown below.

• The College at Brockport – Brockport, New York
• Calvin College – Grand Rapids, Michigan
• University of Mary Washington – Fredericksburg, Virginia
• University of Northwestern-St. Paul – St. Paul, Minnesota
• Stevens Institute of Technology – Hoboken, New Jersey
• University of Texas-Dallas – Dallas, Texas
• Tufts University – Medford, Massachusetts
• University of Wisconsin-Whitewater – Whitewater, Wisconsin

NCAA DIII National Championship, November 17 through November 19, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

For more info, go to: (http://www.ncaa.com/news/volleyball-women/article/2016-11-07/womens-volleyball-diii-championship-field-announced).

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!