UCLA is atop a key ranking used for selecting the NCAA Tournament field.
The Bruins were ranked No. 1 in the season’s first men’s volleyball RPI that the NCAA released on Monday.
A team’s RPI ranking is calculated using a mathematical formula that includes its winning percentage, strength of schedule and opponents’ strength of schedule.The RPI also is one of the criteria categories the selection committee uses to determine the NCAA Tournament field.
UCLA has seven wins against top-10 teams in the RPI rankings, including a win versus Penn State on Thursday. The Bruins edged the second-place Nittany Lions by 0.01456 points for the top spot in the rankings.
Grand Canyon, Long Beach State and Hawai’i round out the top five of the RPI.
An updated RPI rankings will be released each Monday throughout the regular season and conference tournaments. The final RPI rankings before the seven-team NCAA Tournament will be unveiled on Selection Sunday.
RPI rankings (March 13)
1. UCLA – 0.68363
2. Penn State – 0.66907
3. Grand Canyon – 0.66572
4. Long Beach State – 0.65292
5. Hawai’i – 0.64485
6. UC Irvine – 0.60318
7. BYU – 0.59485
8. Loyola – 0.59227
9. Pepperdine – 0.58456
10. Ball State – 0.58366
11. Charleston
12. Ohio State
13. CSUN
14. Daemen
15. George Mason
16. Lindenwood
17. Concordia-Irvine
18. Purdue Fort Wayne
19. Princeton
20. USC
21. Stanford
22. NJIT
23. Long Island
24. Lincoln Memorial
25. Harvard
26. Lewis
27. McKendree
28. UC Santa Barbara
29. UC San Diego
30. North Greenville
31. Queens
32. Quincy
33. Limestone
34. King
35. St. Francis Brooklyn
36. Erskine
37. Saint Francis
38. Central State
39. Lees-McRae
40. Edward Waters
41. Sacred Heart
42. D’Youville
43. Belmont Abbey
44. Mount Olive
45. Missouri S&T
46. Merrimack
47. Barton
48. Tusculum
49. Emmanuel
50. Fairleigh Dickinson
51. Maryville
52. Fort Valley State
53. Benedict
54. Alderson Broaddus
55. American International
56. Morehouse
57. Kentucky State