Bracketology: Latest men’s volleyball NCAA Tournament projections

A week remains before the postseason begins and there is still plenty of movement in the latest NCAA Tournament bracketology projections.


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.

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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
Long Beach State (21-6)
Ball State (20-6)
Loyola (17-7)
Pepperdine (13-8)

Quick breakdown: BYU has jumped to the projected No. 1 overall seed following its two road victories against then-No. 1/1 UCLA during the weekend. Despite holding the top seed, it is an extremely narrow gap among BYU, Ohio State and Stanford for the No. 1 spot. The race for a top two seed and bye to the NCAA Tournament semifinals will likely continue into the conference tournaments with any upset having the potential to greatly alter the bracketology. Beyond a possible top two seed, if Ohio State wins its remaining two regular season matches it will be a near mathematic lock to make the NCAA Tournament even if it loses in the conference tournament. UCLA following its two losses to BYU remains in the NCAA Tournament field and is projected to hold the final at-large bid. UCLA narrowly edged out Long Beach State for this at-large bid based on their 2-0 head-to-head record against the 49ers and having a better record against projected teams under NCAA Tournament consideration.