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Off the Block each week throughout the rest of the regular season and during the postseason will unveil its latest detailed projections to the NCAA Tournament.
The men’s volleyball Division I-II NCAA Tournament is comprised of seven teams. Automatic bids are awarded to the winners of the Big West, ConfCarolinas, EIVA, MIVA and MPSF conference tournaments, and the NCAA men’s volleyball committee selects two teams for at-large bids.
The five-person selection committee meets following all of the conference tournaments to decide the at-large teams and the tournament seeding. The field for the NCAA Tournament is scheduled to be released during Selection Sunday on April 24.
The NCAA Tournament will begin with a play-in match and then two first-round matches. The top-two seeds will receive byes to the semifinals and will play the winners from the first round.
Off the Block is in its 11th season of providing college men’s volleyball bracketology.
PROJECTED NCAA TOURNAMENT FIELD
FIRST-FOUR TEAMS OUT
USC (17-6)
UC Santa Barbara (16-6)
Grand Canyon (16-9)
McKendree (13-10)
Quick breakdown: No, there is no typo in the bracketology. The MPSF is in serious trouble of being in a one-bid conference and not getting an at-large bid. Loyola’s win against Ball State on Thursday moved the Ramblers to be the projected winners of the MIVA Tournament, but the Cardinals are still in position for an at-large bid. USC’s bracketology data points have dropped after losing three of its last four matches. Even with two wins this weekend against Concordia-Irvine, USC’s at-large bid hopes will be significantly hindered if Hawai’i sweeps a two-match series against UC Santa Barbara. If the Gauchos lose both matches, they will fall out of teams under NCAA Tournament consideration and the Trojans will lose three wins in the historically critical selection criteria category. USC three weeks ago had the best record against teams under NCAA Tournament consideration. The team, though, with the possibility of UC Santa Barbara out and its recent losses to UCLA would plummet to 1-3 in this category. Ball State is projected to continue to hold several advantages in selection categories compared to USC, including RPI ranking and record against teams under consideration if UC Santa Barbara falls out of contention. The biggest blemish on Ball State’s at-large bid resume is its strength of schedule in the mid-20s. Hawai’i was the biggest beneficiary of Loyola now being the projected winner of the MIVA. The Rainbow Warriors, which twice beat the Ramblers to open the season, moved from 0-4 to 2-4 in the record versus teams under consideration selection category. It also will be in prime position to earn an at-large bid if it wins its remaining four regular season matches. There is zero leeway for the Rainbow Warriors, which could even fall out of at-large bid contention with two losses to the Gauchos this weekend. The entire bracketology data can swing significantly based on the outcome of this Hawai’i versus UC Santa Barbara series. It could also swing even more later this month if any of the teams mentioned win their conference tournament as a non-No. 1 seed.