Jessup & the Growing Quagmire of MVB Conferences
It's all fun and games until the conferences don't want you to have fun and games with them. Men's volleyball is near a breaking point and some teams are suffering because of it.
A couple of weeks ago, I highlighted the new teams for the 2025 season. Thankfully, I have great readers who ask great questions, make quality observations, and point out the times where I make mistakes. One of those mistakes was omitting Jessup University from that list. But there is some nuance here.
When preparing for this season, Jessup came up in my research. What didn’t come up was what conference Jessup would be a part of for 2025. When the Warriors announced the addition of men’s volleyball for the 2025 season, they mentioned their plans to be part of the MPSF in their official press release.
Clearly the plans announced last January and the reality of this January are not the same. The MPSF accepted two new programs this season, Menlo and Vanguard, but not Jessup. All three of these schools are in the process of transitioning to D-II. The difference is that Menlo and Vanguard had volleyball programs prior to this year. Menlo has fielded a team since 2017 and finished last season with a 12-8 record. Vanguard has been around since 2020 and finished the 2024 campaign with a 15-4 record and a trip to the NAIA national tournament.
Transitioning to D-II
Interestingly, Menlo, Vanguard, and Jessup are all in the same year of their transition to D-II. Per the NCAA, here are the schools transitioning to D-II for the 2024-2025 school year.
New Full Members
Edward Waters University - Men’s volleyball team in the SIAC
Allen University
Emory & Henry University
Westmont College
Year 3 of Transition
Thomas More University - Men’s volleyball team in the IVA
University of South Carolina Beaufort
Year 2 of Transition
Roosevelt University - Men’s volleyball team in the IVA
Menlo College - Men’s volleyball team in the MPSF
Vanguard University - Men’s volleyball team in the MPSF
Jessup University - Men’s volleyball team…
Sul Ross State University
Year 1 of Transition
UC Merced - NAIA men’s volleyball since 2014
University of Jamestown - NAIA men’s volleyball runner-up in 2024
Point Park University
University of Texas at Dallas
The MPSF & D-II
With its 9 members this season, the MPSF is tied for the largest conference in National Collegiate volleyball. As it stands, all of the teams are not scheduled to play each other for conference play. From just a logistical standpoint, this would be 16 conference matches which leaves little room to schedule important non-conference matches.
As Charlie Wade pointed out earlier this season, the D-II teams are getting left to fend for themselves. Concordia Irvine is a perfect example of what is happening. For MPSF play, the Golden Eagles play two matches against BYU and 2 matches against Grand Canyon. They then finish their season with this 8 conference-match stretch.
Your eyes aren’t seeing double, these D-II programs are getting shoved into a corner. I don’t want to completely throw the MPSF under the bus. They are in a difficult position with the growing game of men’s volleyball. As a new program, Jessup is bearing the weight of these difficult decisions, though.
The thing is, the MPSF didn’t solve their problem; they only postponed it. Next year, I would imagine Jessup would want to join the programs in their area in the MPSF. To make matters more complicated, UC Merced (another team in the same general area) will likely want to join the MPSF. That could mean 11 teams in a single conference…but there is about a 0% chance of that happening.
Where do we go from here?
Looking to next year, D-II will have at least 40 teams competing in men’s volleyball. This is enough to break away and have their own championship, but that would leave less than 30 teams at the D-I level. It is hard to see this being a mutually beneficial arrangement, but it is going to take some creative solutions.
Men’s volleyball is in the midst of growing pains, but that does not mean that things are hopeless. I am a firm believer that the best days of men’s volleyball are ahead of us, even if I don’t know exactly what that looks like.
So, what do you think? How many teams does each division need to field their own championship? What do you want to see with the influx of teams in the MPSF? What are your hopes for men’s volleyball in the years to come?
Since I didn’t include Jessup in the previous post, here is the long awaited quick view and a way to follow this new team.
Jessup University
Location: Rocklin, California
Mascot: Warriors
Volleyball Conference: NCCAA
School Conference: D-II, PacWest (previously NAIA)
Schedule
Next Match: 1/23 (today) vs Sacramento State
Latest Polls
We have a new #1, but that isn’t too surprising. For the second week in a row, the same programs are represented in the poll. With no schools dropping out or being added to the mix, I hope we can see some more movement in the near future. Given the impressive start for the Big West, I imagine we will see several of them at the top.
What about VBelo Rankings?
Great question (imaginary person asking this question)! Once we get out of January and some of the initial dust has settled, I will put out the rankings from the VBelo model here. I just don’t want to jump the gun while we are still getting a sense of all of the teams.
That being said, the projections of who is likely to win (percentages in the daily emails) will continue. Overall, those projections are still worth putting out, even early in the season.
In’s & Out’s
A section for all of the random things that don’t fit anywhere but belong somewhere.
NCAA D-III Kill Record: Congrats Andrew Kim!
AVCA Player of the Week: Jalen Phillips (Opposite, CSUN)
Triple-Double Watch 2025: 😔
As I've mentioned before, the growth in men's volleyball needs to come from the top down, not "bottom" up. Larger schools need to add men's VB and perhaps follow the conference alignment found in the women's game. Yes, it's messy and there are growing pains.
That said, here's a suggestion for the 2026 season regarding the MPSF: Create two divisions:
North
BYU
Menlo
Stanford
GC
Jessup
South
USC
UCLA
Pepperdine
Concordia
Vanguard
This format could simplify scheduling and place two D-11 schools in each division for balance.