NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship

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NCAA Men's Volleyball, is divided into 3 divisions similar to many other NCAA sports. There are 3 general regions for Men's Volleyball: "West", "Mid-West", and "East". The 3 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 the NEVCA (North East Collegiate Volleyball Association), and the ECAC (Eastern College Athletic Conference). Teams from the ECAC are members of the NEVCA. The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) regularly play matches against the NCAA.

It must be noted that the three major conferences are not exclusive to Division 1. The MPSF has one Division 2 school (UC-San Diego). The MIVA only has four Division 1 schools of the eleven members. The remaining 7 members include four Division 2 schools and three Division 3 schools. The EIVA has seven Division 1 schools among its thirteen members. The other six comprise of three Division 2 schools and three Division 3 schools. The sizes of the conferences have fluctuated over the years as new volleyball programs arise and other programs are dropped from their schools.

Currently, each conference receives 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 1, 2, or 3. 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.

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".

Division 3 also has a Men's Volleyball Championship of their own. It is currently named the "Molten Division III Men's Invitational Volleyball Championship" that is exclusive to Division 3 Men's Volleyball programs. Though it has never occurred, a Division 3 school in the EIVA conference may qualify for the "NCAA 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 more NCAA titles (19) than any coach (male or female) in any sport.

[edit] Champions

National Collegiate Championship match, best of 5 games.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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