The Bracket is Set
The final 9 teams have been selected and seeded. Now we wait.
The NCAA Selection Show, all 13 1/2 minutes of it, gave us the seedings for the 2025 National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship.1 Although it was advertised as live, it was definitely pre-recorded. That aside, it is great that the NCAA acknowledged that Men’s Volleyball exists.
But let’s talk about the good stuff!
The Bracket
Long Beach
Hawaii
UCLA
Loyola
Pepperdine
Belmont Abbey
Penn State / Daemen
Fort Valley State
If you seeded the teams based only on RPI (which is a terrible idea and I know the committee didn’t do this), the only difference would be Fort Valley and Daemen swapping places. If you used only KPI, Penn State and Belmont Abbey would also switch places.
If you used only the VBelo rankings to seed the teams (which sounds like a fun idea to me), the only difference would be Penn State and Belmont Abbey swapping places. In the end, Penn State having a losing record (14-15) earned them the spot as the away team in the Opening Round.
At first glance (and without running projections yet), the top four teams of the tournament are really strong. I won’t be surprised if we have a highly chalk tournament that is incredibly exciting.
Without doubt, the first team out was UC Irvine. If UCLA would have won the MPSF Tournament, I think the Anteaters make it. But alas, fate was not on their side. The fact that a top 5 team is not in the national tournament is a crime against the sport. The NCAA needs to approve the budget to expand the tournament so that the best teams can all compete for a national championship. Right now, only some of the best teams are allowed to compete and that has to change.
Predictions? What Predictions?
This aged…okay?
Overall, I feel pretty good about where my predictions landed. I correctly picked seeds 1-5. The only real question for this group was if Hawaii could edge out Long Beach for the top spot. Otherwise, I felt very good about this part of the bracket.
For the lower seeds, I missed the order. But the thing I did get right was that the committee picked an Opening Round matchup that didn’t include air travel and that it would be for the 7 seed. With ground travel being the preference, there were two options and I picked the wrong one. I see where the committee went with this and I don’t have any major complaints.
I know this was not the intention, but putting the NEC in the Opening Round match means that there is a chance the NEC does not have representation in Ohio. This is the first season the NEC received an AQ to the tournament so it would be very disappointing if they don’t get to make it to the host site.
How did you do on your predictions? Any thoughts on the seedings?
“National Collegiate” is the NCAA’s way of saying D-I & D-II.