NCAA.com will live-stream the 2017 Beach Volleyball National Championship Selection Show on Sunday, April 30th, at 7P.M. Eastern Time. No link has been provided yet, but when available, should be posted here.
The 8-team tournament is comprised of a minimum of 3 teams from the East Region and 3 teams from the West Region, with 2 at-large bids up-for-grabs. Last year, both at-large bids, Arizona and Hawaii, came out of the West Region, and it again looks like that will be the case this year.
Since Jared Anderson’s last selection projection, nothing has happened that should impact the East Region results. He projects Florida St., LSU, and FIU, all from the CCSA, to be the 3 teams chosen. FIU rose fast after beating LSU in that conference tournament to advance to the championship game, which Florida St. won.
Out west, however, things have shaken up significantly. USC and Pepperdine after winning the Pac-12 and WCC titles, respectively, should be locks (USC will be the #1 seed). UCLA also moved into the lock category by being the first team to beat USC in 62 matches in that Pac-12 tournament, even though the Trojans came back to win. That probably puts them ahead of Pepperdine for the #2 overall seed.
Hawaii, by virtue of beating Long Beach State twice to win the Big West tournament on Saturday, becomes a near-lock for an at-large bid. In spite of their losses (including 4-1 in the championship game), LBSU should be in as well thanks to an early exit for Arizona from the Pac-12 tournament. Arizona was the only other team who looked worthy of a claim on the other at-large bid, but they didn’t do much in the Pac-12 tournament to ensure a return to the tournament for the second-straight season.
TOURNAMENT QUALIFICATION PROCEDURES
The National Collegiate Beach Volleyball Committee will select the 8 teams in a two-step process:
Step 1: Regional Bids
The committee will select the top 3 teams from the East Region along with the top three teams from the West Region. Here are the selection criteria for those bids, direct from the NCAA pre-championships manual:
Selection criteria for regional bids into the championship:
- Record versus regional opponents
- Head-to-head competition
- Results versus common opponents
- Strength of schedule
- Overall record (must be .500 or above)
You can find the regional divides of all eligible institutions in the pre-championships manual linked above.
Step 2: At-Large Bids
The final two spots will be filled by at-large bids for teams from either region. Here are the criteria for those bids:
Selection criteria for at-large bid into the championship:
- Head-to-head competition
- Results versus common opponents
- Strength of schedule
- Overall record (must be .500 or above)
Those 8 teams will then be seeded. Regional bids are not guaranteed to be seeded higher than at-large bids, so the at-large bids are not necessarily teams #7 and #8.
Leave a Reply