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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 23.
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 12th season of providing college men’s volleyball bracketology.
FIRST-FOUR TEAMS OUT
BYU
UC Irvine
Ohio State
Ball State
Quick breakdown: Little remains settled in the bracketology with about three weeks before Selection Sunday. UCLA remains the front-runner for the No. 1 overall seed in large part because of its nation-best 7-2 record against teams under NCAA Tournament consideration and its No. 1 ranking in the RPI. Penn State also is on pace to earn the other bye to the NCAA Tournament semifinals but will likely need to run the table to keep that No. 2 seed. Along with the race for the top-two seeds, the race for the final at-large bid remains highly competitive. Grand Canyon holds the head-to-head advantage against BYU and UC Irvine and is projected to earn the last at-large bid. However, Grand Canyon can further solidify its hold on an at-large bid with a victory this weekend against UCLA.