Bracketology: Latest men’s volleyball NCAA Tournament projections

A whole bunch of recent upsets has added even more madness to the bracketology with Selection Saturday 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.

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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 (19-4)
Ball State (17-5)
Loyola (14-5)
Pepperdine (11-7)

Quick breakdown: BYU is atop the latest RPI rankings, but UCLA is projected to get the overall No. 1 seed because the Bruins lead the Cougars in the majority of selection committee criteria categories. It’s a narrow gap, though, between the two teams. In addition, the two-match series between UCLA and BYU next week can potentially change the dynamics of the bracketology. Ohio State remains one of the top two seeds that will receive a bye to the NCAA Tournament semifinals. The team bolstered its resume with a road non-conference victory against Penn State last week and can move into sole possession of first place in the MIVA if it defeats Ball State on Friday. Along with the top three seeds, Stanford is projected to narrowly beat Long Beach State for the final at-large bid. The Cardinals hold the advantage in the majority of selection committee criteria categories including record against teams under NCAA Tournament consideration and RPI rankings. However, Long Beach State still has time to surpass Stanford in the bracketology, especially if the 49ers beat the Bruins on Saturday or the Cardinal next week.