“Little Brother Grows UP Fast” or DIII in Depth

Twenty years ago, I doubt if anyone other than a handful of small northeastern schools playing in the EIVA cared about men’s college volleyball (MCVB) in NCAA DIII athletics. Volleyball was the sport of the big schools and the West Coast, especially California. Now, however, with 73 teams primarily in the East, DIII men’s volleyball has grown rapidly to become the largest portion of men’s college volleyball by a huge margin. How times have changed, because “Little Brother” sure has grown up and moved out of Big Brother’s shadow.

DIII is now more than three times the size of either DI (22 teams) or DII (24 teams), and nearly three times as large as the NAIA (25 teams). This rapid growth can be attributed directly to the initiation of the NCAA DIII Men’s National Volleyball Championship in 2012.  This championship sanctioned men’s volleyball at the DIII level and provided a realistic goal for the small schools which simply can’t compete with “Gigantic U” and 20,000 or more students and the enormous athletic budget that always seems to accompany schools of this size.

From 1997 through 2011, DIII MCVB had an “official unofficial” championship called the Molten Invitational. A fantastic tournament, this event was held somewhere in the east and the winner was crowned the “DIII National Men’s Volleyball Champion.” Juniata and Springfield were the dominant teams during this era, and each school won the Molten title six times. The NCAA DIII tournament is now composed of ten teams, six of which come from automatic conference qualifiers while the other four teams receive at-large bids based on their records.  Teams nine and ten have a “play-in” match against teams seven and eight with the winners advancing and competing in the eight team bracket.

In 2012 Springfield College, under Coach Charlie Sullivan, won the inaugural official NCAA DIII title by defeating Carthage in the finals and Springfield hasn’t looked back since. Repeating as champions in both 2013 (over Nazareth) and 2014** (over archrival Juniata), the Springfield Pride have become the juggernaut of DIII and appear poised to become the next volleyball dynasty after the legendary UCLA Bruin empire under coaching wizard Al Scates.  During the past two seasons, the Pride, without athletic scholarships, have been competitive against DI, DII, and NAIA teams, compiling a commendable 3-3 record against competition from the MPSF, MIVA and EIVA.

So, DIII is where the growth in MCVB is found, plain and simple. I am an unabashed fan and lover of DIII athletics simply because I believe it to be the last bastion of pure college amateur sport – no scholarships, no money, they just play the game. And what a great game it is!

** The other eight teams in the 2014 DIII tournament (besides Springfield and Juniata) were: Carthage (at large) and SUNY – New Paltz (UVC) tied for third place; Endicott, Kean, Rivier, and Stevens tied for fifth place; and Baruch and MIT, tied for ninth place.