Follow
After more than a dozen of bids were sumbitted, it’s now down to seven finalists to host the men’s volleyball NCAA Tournament in the upcoming years.
The NCAA announced Wednesday afternoon that BYU, UCLA, IPFW, Ohio State, Penn State, USC and Stanford were all selected as finalists to play host to a NCAA Tournament between 2015 to 2018.
The three-person NCAA men’s volleyball committee selected the finalists from the 21 bids submitted to the committee earlier this month. Among the factors used to determine the winning sites included the arena to play the postseason matches, a proposed budget and how the host site planned to enhance the student-athlete and fan experience at the event.
All seven finalists for an upcoming men’s volleyball NCAA Tournament have previously hosted the event.
UCLA has played host to the NCAA Tournament a record 14 times. The most recent NCAA Tournament in May played at UCLA’s newly renovated Pauley Pavilion also had one of the largest men’s volleyball crowds for a match played on a neutral site in almost 15 years.
Penn State is looking to earn its sixth hosting bid and has been the site for the last three NCAA Tournaments played on the East Coast. In addition, Ohio State has won a bid to the NCAA Tournament four times and is one of two Midwest cities to host the NCAA Tournament in the last 10 years.
IPFW has played host to the event three times — including the 1994 NCAA Tournament that remains one of the most attended tournaments in college men’s volleyball history with more than 15,000 in total attendance. IPFW also joined with the city’s Visit Fort Wayne to submit their bid to the host the NCAA Tournament.
BYU, USC and Stanford each have played host to the NCAA Tournament one time.
The Trojans received the 2012 bid when they reached the NCAA championship match, while Stanford earned the 2010 bid and ended up winning the national title on its homecourt. In addition, the Cougars played host to the 2009 NCAA Tournament and in recent years have led the nation in home attendance average
The men’s volleyball NCAA Tournament has traditionally rotated between the West Coast, Midwest and East Coast. However, the selection committee is under no NCAA requirement to determine a bid for a specific year solely based on geography.
With the finalists being selected, the NCAA men’s volleyball committee and the NCAA Division I championship committee must now vote and approve on the winning sites for the 2015-18 NCAA Tournaments. The winning sites are scheduled to be announced Dec. 11 via webcast on ncaa.com.