State of the Sport – DIII

If there were a national championship for the state of the sport in men’s volleyball it would undoubtedly be won easily by the DIII division. DIII is definitely the “hot spot” for men’s volleyball, where 84 teams will “line up” to play volleyball for the 2016-2017 season, and ten more will start play in the 2017-2018 season. That’s 94 teams total, and, it looks like DIII men’s volleyball will just keep on growing!

Separate and equal with the DI-II men’s volleyball conferences, Division III has nine major volleyball conferences: CUNYAC, CVC, GNAC, MCVL, NEAC, NECC, Skyline, UVC and, in 2017-2018, the MAC (Middle Atlantic Conference). For 2016-2017, however, only the CUNYAC, CVC, GNAC, MCVL, NEAC, NECC, Skyline, and UVC will receive automatic qualifying (AQ) bids to the DIII national tournament. There are also two prominent independents in DIII, Springfield College and UC – Santa Cruz.

Eight of the nine DIII volleyball conferences are in the east – City University of New York Athletic Association (CUNYAC), Continental Volleyball Conference (CVC), Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC), Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC), North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC), New England Collegiate Conference (NECC), Skyline Conference, and United Volleyball Conference (UVC). Additionally, all five DIII men’s volleyball champions have come from the east – Springfield College in 2012, 2013, and 2014, Stevens Institute of Technology in 2015, and the State University of New York at New Paltz in 2016. So, it is apparent that DIII men’s college volleyball is still centered in the eastern United States. However, the fourteen teams of the Midwest College Volleyball League (MCVL) are trying to shift the epicenter of DIII men’s volleyball to the Midwest.

For info purposes, then, here’s the websites of the nine major DIII conferences and the two most prominent DIII independents – Springfield and UC Santa Cruz.

CUNYAC – http://www.cunyathletics.com/index.aspx?path=mvball

CVC – http://thecvc.org/landing/index

GNAC – http://www.thegnac.com/sports/mvball/index

MAC – http://www.gomacsports.com/#

MCVL – http://mcvl.org/landing/index

NEAC – http://neacsports.com/sports/mvball/index

NECC – http://neccathletics.com/sports/mvball/index

Skyline – http://www.skylineconference.org/index.aspx?tab=volleyball2&path=mvball

United – http://theuvc.org/

Springfield College – http://www.springfieldcollegepride.com/sports/mvball/index

UC Santa Cruz – http://www.goslugs.com/sports/mvball/index

Here’s the top 15 DIII teams from the AVCA preseason poll dated January 4, 2017.

1.  Springfield

2 . SUNY New Paltz

3.  Stevens

4.  Carthage

5.  Stevenson

6.  UC Santa Cruz

7.  Nazareth

8.  Vassar

9.  Wentworth

10.  Kean

11.  Rutgers-Newark

12.  Milwaukee SOE

13.  Dominican

14.  NYU

T-15.  Juniata

T-15.  Rivier

And, wherever the center of DIII men’s college volleyball resides, though, here are all 94 teams that sponsor or will sponsor DIII volleyball by the 2018 season.

*Starts Competition in 2017-2018 season

Overall, then, DIII men’s volleyball is very healthy and is rapidly becoming the most powerful entity in men’s college volleyball, since it is more than twice the size of any other element in the equation. DIII may not have the budget of the bigger DI schools, but DIII obviously has the upper hand in sheer numbers and participants. If this growth trend continues, look for DIII to assume much of the role of the standard bearer of men’s college volleyball.