This is a list of colleges and universities with National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) - sanctioned men's indoor volleyball teams that compete for either the NCAA Men's National Collegiate Volleyball Championship or the NCAA Men's Division III Volleyball Championship.
Structure
The competition structure of men's volleyball is dramatically different from that of most sports sponsored by the NCAA. In most sports, teams are divided into three divisions:
- Division I, generally consisting of large universities that devote the most resources to athletics; these schools offer substantial numbers of athletic scholarships to attract team members (with a few voluntary exceptions, most notably the Ivy League).
- Division II, generally consisting of smaller institutions; these schools are also allowed to offer athletic scholarships, but in substantially smaller numbers.
- Division III, generally consisting of smaller schools and a few large institutions that prefer to focus on academics; schools in this group are not allowed to offer athletic scholarships
Before the 2011â€"12 school year (2012 championship), men's volleyball did not have an official divisional structure; even now, that structure is truncated. The National Collegiate Championship remains as the NCAA's top-level championship, but Division III members now have their own championship, officially known as the NCAA Men's Division III Volleyball Championship.
With the introduction of an official Division III championship, schools in that division are no longer eligible for the National Collegiate Championship. The last exception, Rutgersâ€"Newark, had been a grandfathered scholarship program in men's volleyball and could compete for the National Collegiate Championship through the 2014 edition. After that season, Rutgersâ€"Newark completed a transition to D-III men's volleyball.
This structure differs from that of the NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship, in which separate tournaments are conducted for all three divisions, mainly because there are far more NCAA member schools offering women's volleyball than the men's game. All schools that sponsor men's volleyball and are members of either Division I or II are allowed to offer financial aid for the sport that is equivalent to a maximum of 4.5 full scholarships.
Before the creation of the NCAA Division III championship in 2012, an unofficial men's volleyball championship tournament was conducted that was open only to Division III men's volleyball programs. For sponsorship reasons, it was known as the "Molten Division III Men's Invitational Volleyball Championship Tournament (Final Four)". Though it never occurred, a NCAA Division III school could, before 2012, qualify for the at-large bid to the National Collegiate Championship. Only NCAA Division III teams from the EIVA were able to earn an automatic bid.
Historically, there have been three general regions for men's volleyball: "West", "Mid-West", and "East". Before the Big West Conference became the first Division I all-sports conference to sponsor men's volleyball in the 2017â€"18 school year (2018 season), each region was represented by one "major" conference (defined here as a league that includes full Division I member schools)â€"respectively the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA), and Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA). The East Region is also represented by Conference Carolinas, a Division II all-sports conference that was the first all-sports league in either Division I or II to sponsor men's volleyball. It received an automatic berth in the National Collegiate Championship for the first time in 2014, when the championship expanded from four teams to six. When the Big West established its men's volleyball league, it took six teams from the MPSF men's volleyball leagueâ€"half of that conference's pre-2017 men's volleyball membership. However, because the MPSF retained six teams, it kept its automatic NCAA bid, and soon announced it would add two more teams for the 2018 season. With pre-split member California Baptist dropping the sport after the 2017 season, the MPSF now has seven teams. Two conferences from the "West" now earn bids.
In Division III, the conference alignment radically changed with the creation of that division's NCAA championship. Before the 2012 season, the majority of the Division III schools with men's volleyball programs were members of the North East Collegiate Volleyball Association (NECVA). Other Division III schools were members of other leagues, among them the New England Collegiate Conference, and the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC). Teams from the ECAC were members of the NECVA. After the NCAA announced the creation of the D-III championship, the NECVA disbanded after the 2011 season. Two all-sports conferences whose men's volleyball programs had previously formed NECVA divisionsâ€"the CUNY Athletic Conference and Great Northeast Athletic Conferenceâ€"began officially sponsoring the sport. Two other D-III all sports conferences, the North Eastern Athletic Conference and Skyline Conference, also started sponsoring men's volleyball. The volleyball-only United Volleyball Conference was founded in 2010 in advance of the establishment of the NCAA D-III championship; another volleyball-only circuit, the Continental Volleyball Conference (CVC), was formed the following year. In 2014, the CVC amicably split along regional lines, with the Eastern members retaining the conference name (plus their automatic bid to the D-III championship) and the Midwestern members forming the new Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League. The Middle Atlantic Conference and Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference will begin sponsoring men's volleyball in the 2018 season.
Members of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), a separate athletics governing body whose members are primarily smaller institutions, regularly play matches against NCAA teams.
Because of the historic lack of an official divisional structure in men's volleyball, all four of the major conferences have member schools that normally participate in NCAA Division II:
- The 7-member MPSF men's volleyball league, otherwise made up entirely of Division I schools, has one Division II member, with Concordiaâ€"Irvine having joined from the independent ranks for the 2018 season. The conference had two D-II members in the 2017 season, California Baptist and UC San Diego, but California Baptist dropped the sport after that season and UC San Diego left to join the new Big West men's volleyball league.
- The eight members of the MIVA consist of four full Division I members and four Division II members.
- Like the MPSF, the 8-member EIVA consists entirely of D-I members save for one Division II school, namely Charleston (WV). Through the 2014 season, the EIVA included Rutgersâ€"Newark, the only remaining Division III school competing for the National Collegiate Championship, until that school completed its transition to Division III men's volleyball after that season.
- The Big West, the first Division I all-sports conference to sponsor men's volleyball, has six teams in its inaugural 2018 season, consisting of five full conference members plus D-II UC San Diego.
The sizes of the conferences have fluctuated over the years as new men's volleyball programs arise and other programs are dropped from their schools. The creation of the men's Division III national championship led to several D-III schools leaving the EIVA.
Through 2013, each of the three major conferences of that day (MPSF, MIVA and EIVA) received an automatic bid to the Final Four with one additional at-large bid. The remaining bid was an at-large bid that could be awarded to any team in Division I or II (which included Rutgersâ€"Newark through the 2014 season). Beginning in 2014, the tournament expanded to six teams, with the top two seeds receiving byes into the Final Four and the remaining four teams playing for places in the Final Four. Conference Carolinas now receives an automatic berth in the tournament, and one extra at-large team also receives an invitation. Generally, the best teams not receiving an automatic bid (usually from one of the three major conferences) receive the at-large bids. Unless the tournament is expanded, one at-large bid will be lost when the Big West begins sponsoring men's volleyball in the 2018 season. As noted earlier, the Big West will have the required six members to earn an automatic berth, and the MPSF will retain its automatic berth since it will have five pre-split members plus two new schools.
Members
All affiliations are current for the upcoming 2018 men's volleyball season.
Division I & II
Big West Conference (Begins Spring 2018)
- California State University, Northridge
- University of Hawai'i at MÄnoa
- California State University, Long Beach (Long Beach State)
- University of California, Irvine (UC Irvine)
- University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego; NCAA Division II)
- University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara)
Conference Carolinas
- Barton College (NC) (NCAA Division II)
- Belmont Abbey College (NC) (NCAA Division II)
- Emmanuel College (GA) (transitioning from the NAIA to NCAA Division II)
- Erskine College (SC) (NCAA Division II)
- King University (TN) (NCAA Division II)
- Lees-McRae College (NC) (NCAA Division II)
- Limestone College (SC) (NCAA Division II)
- Mount Olive College (NC) (NCAA Division II)
- North Greenville University (SC) (NCAA Division II)
Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association
- University of Charleston (NCAA Division II)
- George Mason University
- Harvard University
- New Jersey Institute of Technology
- Pennsylvania State University
- Princeton University
- Sacred Heart University
- Saint Francis University of Pennsylvania
Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association
- Ball State University
- Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne
- Lewis University (NCAA Division II)
- Lindenwood University (NCAA Division II)
- Loyola University Chicago
- McKendree University (NCAA Division II)
- Ohio State University
- Quincy University (NCAA Division II)
Mountain Pacific Sports Federation
- Brigham Young University
- Concordia University Irvine (Concordiaâ€"Irvine; transitioning from NAIA to NCAA Division II)
- Grand Canyon University
- Pepperdine University
- Stanford University
- University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
- University of Southern California (USC)
Independents
- Alderson Broaddus University (WV)
- Coker College (SC)
- Lincoln Memorial University (TN) (began play in the 2017 season)
- Queens University of Charlotte (Queens (NC); begins play in the 2018 season)
- University of Puerto Rico, Bayamon
- University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez
- University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras
Division III
City University of New York Athletic Conference
- Baruch College
- Brooklyn College
- City College of New York (CCNY)
- Hunter College
- John Jay College
- Lehman College
- Medgar Evers College
- York College
Continental Volleyball Conference
- Cairn University
- Eastern Mennonite University
- Juniata College
- Kean University (moves from Skyline Conference for 2018 season)
- Marymount University
- Neumann University (begins play in the 2018 season)
- Ramapo College (moves from Skyline Conference for 2018 season)
- Rutgers Universityâ€"Newark
- Southern Virginia University (began play in the 2017 season; joins CVC for 2018 season)
- Thiel College (leaving after the 2018 season)
Great Northeast Athletic Conference
- Albertus Magnus College
- Emerson College
- Emmanuel College (MA)
- Johnson & Wales University
- Lasell College
- Mount Ida College
- Rivier College
- Wentworth Institute of Technology
Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
- Pratt Institute
- Webb Institute
Middle Atlantic Conference
Conference play begins in the 2018 season.
- Arcadia University (began play in 2017 season)
- Alvernia University (began play in 2017 season; moves from CVC for 2018)
- Messiah College (begins play in 2018 season)
- Misericordia University (begins play in 2018 season)
- Stevenson University (moves from CVC for 2018)
- Widener University (begins play in 2018 season)
- Wilkes University (begins play in 2018 season)
Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League
- Adrian College
- Carthage College
- Fontbonne University
- Greenville College
- Loras College
- Mount St. Joseph University
- North Central College
- Olivet College
- Wittenberg University
New England Collegiate Conference
- Elms College
- Endicott College
- Lesley University
- Newbury College
- Regis College
- Southern Vermont College
North Eastern Athletic Conference
- D'Youville College
- Keuka College
- Hilbert College
- Lancaster Bible College
- Medaille College
- Penn State Altoona
- State University of New York Institute of Technology at Utica/Rome
- Wells College
- Wilson College (PA)
Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference
Conference play will begin in the 2018 season. The five established teams had previously played in the MCVL.
- Aurora University (begins play in 2018 season)
- Benedictine University
- Concordia University Wisconsin (begins play in 2018 season)
- Dominican University (IL)
- Lakeland College
- Marian University (WI)
- Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE)
Skyline Conference
- College of Mount St. Vincent
- New Jersey City University
- Sarah Lawrence College
- The Sage Colleges
- St. Joseph's College-Brooklyn
- St. Joseph's College-Long Island
- SUNY Purchase
- Yeshiva University
United Volleyball Conference
- Bard College
- Elmira College
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- Nazareth College
- State University of New York at New Paltz (New Paltz)
- New York University (NYU)
- Penn State Erie, The Behrend College (Penn State Behrend)
- Stevens Institute of Technology
- Vassar College
Independents
- California Lutheran University
- Illinois Institute of Technology
- Pine Manor College
- Rust College
- Springfield College
- University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz)
See also
- NCAA Men's National Collegiate Volleyball Championship
- NCAA Men's Division III Volleyball Championship
- NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship
Notes
External links
- NCAA Division I Men's Volleyball
- NCAA Division III Men's Volleyball
