THE AUTOMATIC BIDS:
Big West: #1 Long Beach State (23-0, 8-0)
- Two more wins for LBSU locked up the Big West regular season championship for them. Even at this point if they lost twice to Hawaii and immediately in the Big West Tournament they’d likely still make it as an at-large.
Conference Carolinas: #18 King (19-5, 15-1)
- King overtakes Barton in this regard by taking them down and winning the tiebreaker for the #1 seed in the league tournament coming up. While the two technically split, that’s good enough to put the Tornado in this spot.
EIVA: #16 George Mason (15-11, 11-1)
- George Mason fell for the first time in EIVA action by dropping one in five sets to Penn State, but they remain in the lead for the conference. They’ll have to win one of two with Harvard this week to stay here though.
MIVA: #6 Ohio State (20-5, 11-3)
- The Buckeyes were upended at Ball State in five sets this past week, but it came after Loyola Chicago lost to Lindenwood so they remain in front on a tiebreaker with the two splitting the regular season title.
MPSF: #2 BYU (20-6, 10-2)
- The Cougars were swept to finish the season by UCLA, but they had already wrapped up the MPSF regular season title after they took down Pepperdine. Therefore they stay in this spot as we head into the MPSF postseason.
LIVING AT-LARGE:
#3 UCLA Bruins (22-6, 9-3 MPSF)
- UCLA finished just short of the MPSF title, but they should feel good about how they’re playing right now following a sweep of BYU. They’re the highest rated team not winning their league in both the VolleyMob Top 20 and in the RPI (where they rank second).
#4 UC Irvine Anteaters (19-7, 5-3 Big West)
- UC Irvine got two huge victories over a top-10 CSUN team this week, which combined with Loyola Chicago losing gives them a bit more distance as the second at-large. It’s still very close though, but they are the second highest-ranked team in both the VolleyMob Top 20 and in the RPI (where they rank fourth).
FIRST TWO OUT:
#7 Loyola Chicago Ramblers
- Loyola’s loss to Lindenwood wasn’t just big from a MIVA standpoint, but also an overall one as it dropped the Ramblers from third to fifth in the RPI ratings. They’re still on UC Irvine’s tail, but need to make it to the MIVA Championship.
#5 Hawaii Rainbow Warriors
- With others losing around them, Hawaii had a big week to jump to fifth in the VolleyMob Top 20 Power Rankings and seventh in the RPI. They’ve still got work to do, but they host LBSU twice this week, and doing what no one else has in beating them would go a long way.
SEEDING THE BRACKET:
- (1) LBSU
- (2) BYU
- (3) UCLA
- (4) UC Irvine
- (5) Ohio State
- (6) George Mason
- (7) Barton
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