Much awaited news about tournament expansion has finally arrived! Yesterday, the AVCA broke the news that the NCAA approved a 12-team tournament for the 2026 Men’s Volleyball National Collegiate Championship.1 This is an expansion from the 9-team tournament that was held just four months ago.
This is huge news. Back in the summer of 2022, three long years ago, the NCAA Division I Competition Oversight Committee approved the idea of 12 teams. It was not until September of 2025 that the funding (the really important part) was approved by the NCAA.
The expansion is great news, but there is a catch: the locations. That’s right, locations, plural. Only four teams will make it to the final location (UCLA in 2026)2. In order to make it to the final four, teams will compete in 4 different regional rounds. Each region will consist of 3 teams, with the top seed receiving a bye to the regional final.
On the one hand, there will be more sites for post-season action. Give the people what they want and what they want is postseason volleyball! On the other hand, it feels disappointing that not everyone will make it to the final site. This should not be too shocking, however. With the 9 team format, only 8 teams made the final site.
This feels like a cost saving measure and I understand. If this was the way to get 12 teams into the postseason, then so be it. What concerns me more is how these regional groups will be selected. Finances will definitely come into play again, as travel is expensive.
For the 2024-2025 season, the NCAA’s championship travel cutoff was 400 miles. Less than 400 miles meant a team would have to take ground transportation. Over 400 miles of travel is air travel, paid for by the NCAA. For anyone that has travelled, plane tickets are way more expensive than chartering a bus. The math is pretty easy.
I would be very surprised if travel was not taken into account for these regionals. The balancing of these groups, particularly as it relates to the West Coast teams, will be very interesting. I can already imagine the outrage of regional placement. And of course, let’s not forget the at-large snubs.
As it stands, there are 7 conferences with auto-bids3, which would leave 5 at-large spots. Even if we get all five in 2026 (which is not a sure thing yet), those at-large spots won’t last long. The ECC will surely try to get a spot when they make the team threshold and the GLVC (who will begin sponsoring Men’s Volleyball in the upcoming season) has it’s eyes on a spot in 2 years (or maybe 1 year with a waiver). It’s too early to know for sure how the conferences will pan out, but growth is growth!
There are still a lot of questions, but for the time being we should celebrate that the NCAA is acknowledging the growth that men’s volleyball is experiencing. This is a win, even if we wanted it sooner and don’t love all of the details. This is part of growing the game, and it is great to see.
Interestingly, I could not find anything on the NCAA website about this decision. Am I surprised? Not really.
2027 and 2028 will both be held in Las Vegas at the Orleans Arena.
Big West, Conference Carolinas, EIVA, MIVA, MPSF, NEC, and SIAC.