With collegiate men’s volleyball number on the rise, the need for newer conference alignments has increased, allowing for teams to join new conferences. The MPSF has been no exception to this, as a number of teams spun off to the Big West Conference, leaving the MPSF with just seven teams for the 2018 season.
In the 2017 season, the MPSF has 11 teams competing in the conference:
- BYU
- Cal Baptist
- CSUN
- Hawaii
- LBSU
- Pepperdine
- Stanford
- UC Irvine
- UCLA
- UC San Diego
- USC
With realignments in this year’s conferences, only five teams from 2017 remain intact, while adding in two more competitors. Remaining in the MPSF for the 2018 season are BYU, Pepperdine, UCLA, USC and Stanford. Joining are Concordia-Irvine and Grand Canyon. Last season, Grand Canyon was a part of the MIVA while Concordia was deemed an independent in 2017 as they were finishing up their three-year probationary period and being approved as an NCAA institution this summer.
Last season, Concordia-Irvine went 18-12 overall while Grand Canyon finished 19-11 and were the runners-up to Ohio State in the MIVA Tournament.
With the transition, the MPSF now have just one Division II program in their midst – Concordia-Irvine. Last season, two programs were Division II – California Baptist and UC San Diego. Unfortunately for Cal Baptist, their men’s volleyball program was cut and will eventually add beach volleyball to their slate. UC San Diego, however, was one of the five teams to leave for the Big West.
NCAA Tournament
With the addition of the Big West in men’s volleyball, an at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament will be lost, as they have the required six teams to earn an automatic bid. With five teams earning automatic bids from their respective conferences (MPSF, MIVA, EIVA, Conference Carolinas and Big West) there will be just one at-large bid for the 2018 tournament – this being that the tournament is not extended in the meantime.
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