VBelo Scouting Report: February 07, 2023
NAIA Appreciation Day
VBelo only tracks Men’s Volleyball teams who compete for the NCAA National Championship. Technically, this includes programs that are at the D-I and D-II level, but I prefer to just call it D-I. All 57 teams, regardless of what division their school is in, compete at the Division I level. So let’s just call it D-I. Cool. Good talk.
But D-I is far from the only place to watch great collegiate Men’s Volleyball. D-III MVB is thriving right now. Huge shout out to the fine people frogs over at Frog Jump Volleyball for their dedicated coverage to the amazing world of D-III Men’s Volleyball. The growth we are seeing at the D-I level is exponentially greater at the D-III level right now, which is great for the sport.
There is still another great level of collegiate men’s volleyball though: NAIA. There are some really great programs in the NAIA and it is great whenever there are non-conference matches that include NAIA teams. Today we actually have 5 such matches (thus this discussion). In terms of VBelo, NAIA teams are handled similarly to D-III. Both levels have a “fixed” VBelo rating, meaning that every NAIA team has the same VBelo rating in every match they face a D-I opponent. The fixed score is different for D-III and NAIA and it is connected to the overall winning percentage these teams have against D-I opponents historically. In an ideal world, I would have dynamic VBelo ratings for D-III and NAIA, but I sadly don’t have the (metaphorical) bandwidth for that endeavor. Even though I don’t cover NAIA specifically, I want to give a special shoutout to NAIA teams, especially the ones who schedule matches against tough D-I opponents. It is a great way to grow the game and continue to get exposure for the sport. Keep up the great work!
In D-I news, the AVCA released its latest coaches’ poll yesterday.
As I mentioned yesterday, the top 4 teams seem to have some separation from the rest of the pack, but Grand Canyon is doing all it can to break into the party at the top. We are seeing some shuffling going on, which is great, but the coaches seem fairly unwilling to support programs like Charleston or Purdue Fort Wayne. I really hope this changes soon as those teams are very deserving to be considered on everyone’s ballot at this point.
Today we have several matches that feature teams that don’t often get as much coverage. In terms of the SIAC, we have 5 of the 6 teams taking the court today. Interestingly (and probably because of scheduling restraints), they are all taking on NAIA opponents. Since VBelo doesn’t have precise metrics for NAIA teams, the projections have less predictability.1 But I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw some good matches today from either side. Additionally, Charleston will be going for their ninth straight win to open the season. They are the only team in the nation that has not dropped a set! They will be interesting to keep an eye on, especially as we get closer to conference play.
Match Recaps
No matches yesterday
Match Projections
Non-conference
Sacred Heart (57%) vs American International (43%)
Charleston (73%) vs Alderson Broaddus (27%)
Life (63%) vs Morehouse (37%)
Central State (69%) vs Thomas More (31%)
Truett-McConnell (31%) vs Benedict (69%)
Reinhardt (41%) vs Fort Valley State (59%)
Kentucky State (32%) vs Campbellsville (68%)
Tweet of the Day
I haven’t looked into it yet, but I actually think the static VBelo rating for D-III and NAIA might be a little too high. But then again, D-III and NAIA are closing the gap between D-I programs.