Bracketology: Latest men’s volleyball NCAA Tournament projections

The inaugural college men’s volleyball bracketology of the season is here as Selection Saturday looms a month away.

Off the Block each week during the rest of the regular season and throughout each round of the postseason will unveil its latest projections to the NCAA Tournament.

The men’s volleyball Division I-II NCAA Tournament is comprised of six teams. Automatic bids are awarded to the winners of the Conference Carolinas, EIVA, MIVA and MPSF conference tournaments, and the NCAA men’s volleyball committee selects two teams for at-large bids.

The three-person selection committee meets following all of the conference tournaments to decide the at-large teams and the tournament seeding. For an in-depth look at the criteria used by the selection committee and the Off the Block bracketology projections, check out this breakdown.

The field for the NCAA Tournament is scheduled to be released during Selection Saturday on April 23.

The NCAA Tournament will begin with the two play-in matches and the two-top seeds earning byes to the NCAA Tournament semifinals that will played Thursday, May 5 in University Park, Pennsylvania.

Off the Block is in its sixth season of college men’s volleyball bracketology. It has in previous seasons accurately projected 96 percent of the teams in the NCAA Tournament field.

PROJECTED NCAA TOURNAMENT FIELD

LAST FOUR OUT
Stanford (15-3)
Ball State (15-5)
Loyola (12-5)
UC Santa Barbara (14-8)

Quick breakdown: UCLA’s non-conference performance propelled it past several teams in a tight race for the No. 1 overall seed. The Bruins finished their non-conference season undefeated at 6-0, including three victories against teams projected to be in consideration for a NCAA Tournament berth. Ohio State despite an early-season non-conference loss UCLA received the No. 2 seed and a bye to the NCAA Tournament semifinals. The Buckeyes have one of the nation’s best record against teams under NCAA Tournament consideration at 4-2. It also holds the head-to-head advantage against Long Beach State following a non-conference road victory versus the 49ers during the weekend. Both Penn State and Erskine are in first place in their conferences and are currently projected to earn automatic berths to the NCAA Tournament.