The addition of a new conference – the Big West – to Men’s Collegiate Volleyball has created a few alterations to the 2018 edition of the Men’s NCAA Volleyball Tournament, including a seven-team field.
For starters, the Big West’s birth into the Men’s side of things creates another automatic bid for the NCAA Tournament. Previously in 2017, the Conference Carolinas, Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA), Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) and Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) were the lone automatic qualifying leagues. Moving on to 2018, the Big West makes it five leagues with an automatic bid on the line.
Beyond the teams who clinch a spot in the tournament, last year two schools made the event as at-large qualifiers selected by the NCAA Tournament committee. The addition of the Big West will not affect that number, as still a pair will be chosen to supplement the secured five.
Based on simple math, the new rules mean that seven teams – a record for Men’s NCAA Volleyball – will make the NCAA Tournament in 2018. In this format, teams pegged as the sixth and seventh seeds will battle in a play-in match according to Penn State head coach Mark Pavlik, who discussed the changes in a video previewing his season. From there, #4 plays #5 while the winner of #6/#7 plays #3. The two victors in that quarterfinal round advance to the semifinals where they will meet up with the top two seeds who earned byes.
So to sum things up, the newest conference – the Big West – will get an automatic bid along with the previous four leagues, which will join the two at-large teams for a seven-team field. Six will play seven to narrow things back down to the quarterfinal round where the rest will go the same as in previous years.
The 2018 NCAA Tournament will be played in Los Angeles, California at UCLA and Pauley Pavillion from May 3-5.
Here we go again, another year loaded with west coast bias in what has become a meaningless tournament, thanks voters who give us the rankings every week, kind of surprised they didn’t have the School of the Blind and Deaf at Pauley Pavillion ranked ahead of all of the Midwest teams all year long Go ahead and have your little meaningless tournament with 4, count ’em 4, west coast teams picked out of only 7 total to play for the mythical championship. Yes mythical because when you leave the superior Midwest teams out of it, how can you call it a championship? Really? UCLA and even BYU whom Loyola beat on their own court are in ahead of Loyola? The 2 time defending champ wins the toughest conference and gets a #6 seed out of 7 teams? What a biast joke! Even Lewis might win in the 2 weaker west coast conferences. Have a great tournament and celebrate your WEST COAST champion, certainly not the NATIONAL champion. #Tainted#
The same Lewis team that was swept by UC Irvine, Hawaii, LBSU and lost at BYU? The same Loyola team who lost to UC Irvine, LBSU, AT CONCORDIA IRVINE and at CSUN? Didn’t OSU lose for the only time at home to BYU and they lost at UCLA? Also why would they take last two year’s successes into account for this year? Only mistake they may have gotten is not having Ohio State 1 spot higher or a different west coast team being in lol. You living in a weird world my man