UC Irvine To Compete In Big West Conference Beginning In 2018
May 31, 2016 | Men's Volleyball
Big West Release Big West Video
Irvine, Calif. -- The Big West Conference today announced the creation of a men's volleyball championship beginning in 2018, becoming the first NCAA Division I conference to sponsor competition in the sport.
"The Big West is truly now a volleyball conference as it offers men's, women's and sand," UCI head coach David Kniffin said. "All of these teams have produced consistent levels of success and I look forward to seeing a heightened level of competitiveness that the conference teams will have in the Big West."
UC Irvine will compete in a six-team league consisting of full conference members CSUN, Long Beach State, UC Santa Barbara, and Hawai'i. A sixth team, UC San Diego, will join the group as an associate member and will give the conference the minimum six teams required for postseason NCAA automatic qualification. An associate member in the Big West is any institution that participates in three or less conference championships.
Competition for the regular season championship will be contested in a double round-robin format for a total of 10 matches. A six-team, single elimination postseason tournament will be conducted at a campus site one week prior to the NCAA Championship Selections.
Men's volleyball will become the 18th sport in which the conference conducts an annual championship.
The six programs, which have been competing in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation since 1993, come to the newly formed conference having played a prominent role in men's volleyball on the national scene. The schools have produced five NCAA national championships, 12 runner-up finishes and 26 Final Four appearances.
The Anteaters have won four of the last 10 national championships (2013, 2012, 2009, 2007) and have been ranked No. 1 in eight different years since 2003 (2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2009, 2007, 2006, 2003).
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