NCAA DI/DII Men's Volleyball - General Overview, Conferences, Teams

January 6, 2023

Overview
As the NCAA Men's Division 1/2 volleyball season is underway, I thought it would be helpful for many of our casual volleyball fans to get a brief overview of Men's NCAA Volleyball. What men's teams are there? What divisions are there? How is everything structured? All of this information seemed a bit difficult to find on the internet, so I thought I would put it altogether in a quick volleyball blog post.

We are in a period of rapid growth and change in NCAA Men's Volleyball. Teams are being added on a yearly basis, thanks in part to the work of John Speraw's First Point Foundation, and also the general push from the boy's/men's volleyball community to #growthegame. Despite boy's volleyball being among the fastest growing sports in America over the last ten years, the number of schools playing collegiate volleyball is still remarkably limited. As of today, there are 28 Division I Men's teams, and 33 Division II teams in all of the NCAA. Compare this to the Women's game, where there are currently 345 and 289 respectively! As such, on the men's side, Division I and II compete together in what is essentially a combined division. The men's end of season NCAA Tournament currently features the top 7 (tournament to expand in future years) teams determined by a bid process, regardless of division, where all 7 have a chance at being crowned NCAA D1/D2 Champions.

Also, because of the limited number of teams and the cross between D1 and D2, men's volleyball has set up its own unique set of volleyball conferences. Below is a list of how the conferences are set up today, but keep in mind that these shift year to year as teams are added and new conferences are being formed.

The Conferences

	The Big West https://bigwest.org/ DI: California State University, Northridge, Long Beach State University, University of California, Irvine, University of California, San Diego, University of California, Santa Barbara, University of Hawaii, Manoa
	Conference Carolinas https://conferencecarolinas.com/
	Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association https://www.eivavolleyball.com/ DI:
	Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball https://mivavolleyball.com/



Independent