NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship

The NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship is the tournament that determines the national championship of American college volleyball.

The "Final Four" is a term used exclusively by NCAA Basketball but is commonly used to describe the Men's Volleyball Championship. The official name of this championship is the "National Collegiate Men's Volleyball Championship".

Schools from the Pacific Coast region have dominated this sport, in particular UCLA. Al Scates, the coach at UCLA, has won more NCAA Titles (19) than any other coach.

Competition 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

Men's volleyball, however, does not have an official divisional structure—all teams, regardless of their divisional affiliation, are eligible to compete for the NCAA championship. This is different from 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.

Although the NCAA only sponsors a single men's volleyball championship, open to all schools that sponsor the sport at varsity level (as opposed to club level), a parallel men's volleyball championship tournament is conducted that is open only to men's volleyball programs that are members of NCAA Division III. For sponsorship reasons, it is currently named the "Molten Division III Men's Invitational Volleyball Championship Tournament (Final Four)". Though it has never occurred, a NCAA Division III school may qualify for the at-large bid to the "NCAA National Collegiate Men's Volleyball Championship Tournament". Only NCAA Division III teams from the EIVA may earn an automatic bid.

There are three general regions for men's volleyball: "West", "Mid-West", and "East". The three major conferences that currently represent these regions are the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA), and Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA). The other conferences include Conference Carolinas, New England Collegiate Conference,^[1] the North East Collegiate Volleyball Association (NECVA), and the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC). Teams from the ECAC are members of the NECVA. 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 lack of an official divisional structure in men's volleyball, the three major conferences have member schools that normally participate in all three NCAA divisions. The MPSF men's volleyball league, otherwise made up entirely of Division I schools, has one Division II member, UC San Diego. Only four of the 7 members of the MIVA are Division I schools; the remaining seven members include three Division II schools. The 11 members of EIVA include eight in Division I and three in Division III. 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.

Currently, each of the three major conferences ((MPSF), (MIVA) and (EIVA)) receive an automatic bid to the Final Four with one additional at-large bid. The remaining bid is an at-large bid that may be awarded to any team in Division I, II, or III. Generally, the best team in the nation (usually from one of the 3 major conferences), who did not receive the automatic bid, receives the at-large bid.

Members

Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association

George Mason University

Harvard University

New Jersey Institute of Technology

Pennsylvania State University

Princeton University

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark

Sacred Heart University

Saint Francis University of Pennsylvania

Springfield College (NCAA Division III)

Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association

Ball State University

Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne

Loyola University Chicago

Ohio State University

Grand Canyon University (NCAA Division II)

Lewis University (NCAA Division II)

Quincy University (NCAA Division II)

Mountain Pacific Sports Federation

Brigham Young University

California State University, Northridge

University of California, Irvine

University of California, Los Angeles

University of California, Santa Barbara

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

California State University, Long Beach

University of the Pacific

Pepperdine University

Stanford University

University of Southern California

University of California, San Diego (NCAA Division II)

Conference Carolinas-NCAA Division II

Erskine College (begins sponsoring men's volleyball in 2012-13)

Barton University (begins sponsoring men's volleyball in 2011–12)

Lees-McRae College

Mount Olive College

Limestone College

Pfeiffer University

King College (TN)

North East Collegiate Volleyball Association-NCAA Division III

CUNYAC

Baruch College

Brooklyn College

City College of New York

Hunter College

Lehman College, City University of New York

Medgar Evers College

New York City College of Technology

York College

Metro

Lancaster Bible College

Kean University

New Jersey City University

Ramapo College

Skyline

Yeshiva University

Polytechnic University (New York)

The Sage Colleges

College of Mount St. Vincent

SUNY Purchase

New England

Elms College

Endicott College

Lesley University

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Newbury College

Regis College

Southern Vermont College

Wentworth Institute of Technology

Daniel Webster College

GNAC

Rivier College

Emmanuel College

Lasell College

Emerson College

Albertus Magnus College

Mount Ida College

Johnson & Wales University

United Volleyball Conference

Bard College

Medaille College

Nazareth College

D'Youville College

State University of New York Institute of Technology

Stevens Institute of Technology

New York University

Vassar College

State University of New York College at New Paltz

Pennsylvania State University Erie, the Behrend College

Elmira College

Hilbert College

Continental Volleyball Conference

Thiel College

Stevenson University

Philadelphia Biblical University

Juniata College

Eastern Mennonite University

The College of Mount St. Joseph (OH)

Fontbonne University

Milwaukee School of Engineering

Carthage College

University of California, Santa Cruz

Independent

University of Puerto Rico, Bayamon (NCAA Division II)

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez (NCAA Division II)

University of Puerto Rico, Rio Pidras (NCAA Division II)

University of Puerto Rico, Cayey (NCAA Division II)

St. Joseph's College, New York (NCAA Division III)

Championship teams

Main article: NCAA National Collegiate Men's Volleyball Championship Tournament

California-based universities dominate the men's volleyball national championship; Penn State, Ohio State and Brigham Young University are the only non-California universities to have won the NCAA Div. I championship; Hawaiʻi and Lewis also won the championship tournament, but had their victories vacated due to NCAA rules violations. Only six non-California universities have participated in the NCAA Div. I championship match (Brigham Young, Penn St., Ohio St., IPFW, Hawaiʻi, and Lewis), although universities such as Princeton and Ball State have participated in the final four.

UCLA, Southern California, Penn State, Stanford, and Long Beach State are the only schools in Division I to have won an NCAA national championship in both men and women's volleyball. (But for Hawaiʻi's vacated 2002 title, it would have matched this feat with 3 NCAA and 1 AIAW women's national championships.) In addition, Stanford (1996-97) and Penn State (2007-08) are the only universities the men and women's volleyball programs of which have won the national championship in the same academic year.

2011 Tournament

• May 5, 2011 – UC Santa Barbara def. Southern California, 29-27, 24-26, 25-15, 25-18; Ohio State def. Penn St., 25-18, 24-26, 25-22, 25-23.
• May 7, 2011 – Ohio State def. UC Santa Barbara, 20-25, 25-20, 25-19, 22-25, 15-9.

Year	National Champion	Score	Runner-up	City and venue
1970 [2]	UCLA (24–1)	3–0	Long Beach State	Los Angeles, CA	Pauley Pavilion
1971 [3]	UCLA (29–1)	3–2	UC Santa Barbara	Los Angeles, CA	Pauley Pavilion
1972 [4]	UCLA (27–7)	3–2	San Diego State	Muncie, IN	Irving Gymnasium
1973	San Diego State (21–5)	3–1	Long Beach State	San Diego, CA	San Diego State
1974	UCLA(30–5)	3–2	UC Santa Barbara	Santa Barbara, CA	UC Santa Barbara
1975	UCLA (27–8)	3–1	UC Santa Barbara	Los Angeles, CA	Pauley Pavilion
1976	UCLA(15–2)	3–2	San Diego State	Muncie, IN	Irving Gymnasium
1977	Southern California (18–1)	3–1	Ohio State	Los Angeles, CA	Pauley Pavilion
1978	Pepperdine (21–4)	3–2	UCLA	Columbus, OH	St. John Arena
1979	UCLA (30–0)	3–1	Southern California	Los Angeles, CA	Pauley Pavilion
1980	Southern California (22–6)	3–1	UCLA	Muncie, IN	Irving Gymnasium
1981	UCLA (32–3)	3–2	Southern California	Santa Barbara, CA	UCSB Events Center
1982	UCLA (29–0)	3–0	Penn State	University Park, PA	Rec Hall
1983	UCLA (27–4)	3–0	Pepperdine	Columbus, OH	St. John Arena
1984	UCLA (38–0)	3–1	Pepperdine	Los Angeles, CA	Pauley Pavilion
1985	Pepperdine (25–2)	3–2	Southern California	Los Angeles, CA	Pauley Pavilion
1986	Pepperdine (22–7)	3–2	Southern California	University Park, PA	Rec Hall
1987	UCLA (38–3)	3–0	Southern California	Los Angeles, CA	Pauley Pavilion
1988	Southern California (34–4)	3–2	UC Santa Barbara	Fort Wayne, IN	ACWMC
1989	UCLA (29–5)	3–1	Stanford	Los Angeles, CA	Pauley Pavilion
1990	Southern California (26–7)	3–1	Long Beach State	Fairfax, VA	Patriot Center
1991	Long Beach State (31–4)	3–1	Southern California	Honolulu, HI	Neal S. Blaisdell Center
1992	Pepperdine (24–4)	3–0	Stanford	Muncie, IN	John E. Worthen Arena
1993	UCLA (24–3)	3–0	Cal St. Northridge	Los Angeles, CA	Pauley Pavilion
1994	Penn State (26–3)	3–2	UCLA	Fort Wayne, IN	ACWMC
1995	UCLA (31–1)	3–0	Penn State	Springfield, MA	Springfield Civic Center
1996	UCLA (26–5)	3–2	Hawaiʻi	Los Angeles, CA	Pauley Pavilion
1997	Stanford (27–4)	3–2	UCLA	Columbus, OH	St. John Arena
1998	UCLA (28–4)	3–0	Pepperdine	Honolulu, HI	Stan Sheriff Center
1999	BYU (30–1)	3–0	Long Beach State	Los Angeles, CA	Pauley Pavilion
2000	UCLA (29–5)	3–0	Ohio State	Fort Wayne, IN	ACWMC
2001	BYU (23–4)	3–0	UCLA	Long Beach, CA	The Walter Pyramid
2002	Hawaiʻi (24–8)±	3–1	Pepperdine	University Park, PA	Rec Hall
2003	Lewis (29–6)±	3–2	BYU	Long Beach, CA	The Walter Pyramid
2004	BYU (29–4)	3–2	Long Beach State	Honolulu, HI	Stan Sheriff Center
2005	Pepperdine (25–2)	3–2	UCLA	Los Angeles, CA	Pauley Pavilion
2006	UCLA (26–12)	3–0	Penn State	University Park, PA	Rec Hall
2007	UC Irvine (29–5)	3–1	IPFW	Columbus, OH	St. John Arena
2008	Penn State (30–1)	3–1	Pepperdine	Irvine, CA	Bren Events Center
2009	UC Irvine (27–5)	3–2	Southern California	Provo, UT	Smith Fieldhouse
2010	Stanford (24-6)[5]	3–0	Penn State (24-8)	Stanford, CA	Maples Pavilion
2011	Ohio State (26-6)[6]	3–2	UC Santa Barbara (18-15)	University Park, PA	Rec Hall
2012				Los Angeles, CA	Galen Center
2013				Los Angeles, CA	Pauley Pavilion

±Vacated due to NCAA violations

NCAA Championships by University

The Pennsylvania State University Nittany Lions men's volleyball team are honored in June 2008 at the White House for President of the United States George W. Bush for the side's winning the 2008 national championship.

School	#	Last
UCLA	19	2006
Pepperdine	5	2005
Southern California	4	1990
BYU	3	2004
UC Irvine	2	2009
Penn State	2	2008
Stanford	2	2010
Ohio State	1	2011
Long Beach State	1	1991
San Diego State	1	1973

See also

• AVCA
• NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship
• Pre-NCAA Intercollegiate Volleyball Champions

Notes

1. ^ "Men's Volleyball". NECC website. New England Collegiate Conference. http://www.neccathletics.com/sports/mvball/index. Retrieved 25 June 2010. 
2. ^ 1970's UCLA Athletics
3. ^ 1970's UCLA Athletics
4. ^ 1970's UCLA Athletics
5. ^ "Stanford beats Penn State, wins NCAA men's volleyball title" (in english). USA Today. 13 may 2010. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/volleyball/2010-05-08-ncaa-mens-volleyball-championship_N.htm. 
6. ^ "Ohio State ends UCSB's surprising run to claim 1st NCAA men's volleyball title" (in english). Daily Reporter. 7 May 2011. http://www.greenfieldreporter.com/view/story/e3cb256aefdb42a2bc35315153d7182d/VOL--NCAA-Volleyball. 

External links

• UCLA's 2006 Men's Volleyball National Championship
• NCAA site - Men's Volleyball
• American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) - Men's Volleyball
• Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) - Men's Volleyball
• Official Website of the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA)
• Official Website of the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA)
• Official Website of the North East Collegiate Volleyball Association (NECVA)
• Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) - Men's Volleyball