A REAL FINAL FOUR

[ManoaFan]

I know it all has to do with money and because there are far less teams in Men's Div I then women's, but I think in order to have a true Final Four, the postseason format needs to be similar to the women's.

There needs to be seeding across the country and perhaps instead of having a 64 team field, have a 32 team field that seeds the top 8 or 16. That way, when it gets time for the final four, there would be a possiblility of having the top 4 teams in the country instead of the top one or two teams plus others that are not in the top 10!!!

[IdahoBoy]

Are there even 32 teams in DI and II combined ball?

[NobodySpecial]

All 12 in MPSF
All 7 in MIVA Shondell/Dunlap
5 of 7 in EIVA Tait
5 of 7 in EIVA Hay

Independents (all Division II)
Mount Olive
Lees-McRae
Puerto Rico-Mayaguez
Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras
believe there may be 1 or 2 other Puerto Division II teams

So there are at least 33 NCAA Division I or II teams. But in reality, the NCAA National Collegiate Men's Volleyball Championship includes all NCAA schools including NCAA Division III. The numbers go up to around 80.

[ACE]

idahoboy said:

Are there even 32 teams in DI and II combined ball?

They could just seed 16 teams, 4 teams in each region. There's just a regional semi and a regional final.

[Alohano]

LOL! That might be the only way UH gets into a FF.

[scmb19]

haha, 4 teams from each region? what a joke. the last place team from MPSF is probably better than the 3rd and 4th teams from the other conferences. It would be great to expand the tournament, but I think it would just be the MPSF tournament all over again.

[KO7]

4 teams from MPSF, 1 team from EIVA, 1 team from MIVA, 1 host team

+ 1 more team from either EIVA or MIVA depending on which conference's final 8 team finished higher in the previous year.


That's how I would do the NCAA national tournament.

[CityTechLegend]

It was stated before...there is a tentative agreement to expand the championship to 8 teams for the 2009 season. Its makes it difficult to have a large field format. The NCAA has requirement on all levels of competition. I believe the championship participation is based on the number of sponsored teams. SO maybe just maybe the push should be made to increase the number of D1 & D2 teams before you look to increase the field format, let alone set a seeding criteria.

[eiva]

keep it simple...

everybody is elgible--oh, that what we have now.

Lets get serious, anybody can win the NCAA VB championship...just win out. Even Carthage (the newest team aboard) can win out and get to the championship game.

[Mac]

And that is the problem. Does anyone really think a "Carthage" can hold a candle to Long Beach, Pepperdine, Hawaii, BYU... even USC who swept the mighty Nitney Lions this year.

An 8 team tourney, with true seeding is the only way for the NCAA to be fair to the better MPSF teams who don't go the FF because of the "geographic emphasis" with how the FF are chosen. Enough is enough.

[swingaway]

The national championship may have already been played. It was called the MPSF tournament. Top 8 teams in the nation qualified.

[Deleted]

You've got a point there swingaway. I'll take the MPSF to win it this year. Though being a midwest guy, I'd like to see a UCI, UCLA matchup. Although it would be freakin crazy if it was IPFW vs Penn St.