Happy Birthday America! Wow, 238 years old and still going strong. Like the musician John Mellencamp (or John “Cougar” Mellencamp if you’re old like me) said, “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A., R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.”! I wonder if the founding fathers, with their vast wisdom and foresight, ever envisioned anything like volleyball. Can you even imagine George Washington and Thomas Jefferson coaching against each other in a National Championship match in 1776? Now, back to reality.
Division II men’s college volleyball (MCVB) is mixture of various items, circumstances, and ingredients, much like stew, or gumbo, or jambalaya, or even potpourri. Necessity, size, convenience, and opportunity all blend together to provide the most intriguing aspect of MCVB. Simply put, without these 24 DII teams, men’s college volleyball as we know it and love it, simply would not exist. The DII MCVB teams have added much of the numbers, diversity, enthusiasm, and even some fanaticism to allow MCVB to continue to have a National Championship; frankly, with just 22 teams in DI competing, I’m not sure the NCAA would (or could) allow the National Championship to exist for DI alone. So, DII MCVB, give yourself a pat on the back because you are giving MCVB the time it needs to grow and prosper, showing off a great sport to the country and world.
And, I’m sure you’re wondering, just who are these 24 teams in DII men’s college volleyball?
The Conference Carolinas (CCAR), with 10 teams, is the current “hot ticket” in DII men’s volleyball. With an automatic bid to the big dance, the CCAR is beginning to compete with Big Brother, or as we usually call it, DI. Last year Erskine, the eventual CCAR champ, defeated California Baptist of the MPSF in a five set thriller at Riverside, CA. This match is noteworthy since it marked the first time a CCAR team defeated an MPSF team. The other schools playing MCVB in the ten team CCAR, beside 2014 champion Erskine, include Barton, Belmont Abbey, Emmanuel (GA), King, Lees-McRae, Limestone, Mount Olive, North Greenville, and Pfeiffer. The average undergraduate enrollment of these ten schools, which are growing and supporting MCVB, is 1,478 students. Kinda makes me wonder where the bigger schools are!
Six remaining DII teams play in established conferences: Lewis, Lindenwood, McKendree and Quincy in the MIVA; and California Baptist and UC-San Diego in the MPSF. In 2003, Lewis became the first DII team to win the combined MCVB National Championship, although this title was later vacated by the NCAA for rules infractions. In spite of the vacating of the title, however, this feat is still quite an accomplishment.
The eight remaining DII schools are Independents and include Coker, Charleston, Concordia-Irvine, Holy Names, University of Puerto Rico (UPR)-Bayamon, UPR-Cayey, UPR-Mayaguez, and UPR-Rio Piedras.
Well, that’s Middle Brother in a single portrait. Obviously, there is much more to DII MCVB than this quick and simple overview. But the game is remarkably the same, and the players sweat and bleed and make great plays, just like their Big Brother does.
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