Division I Women’s Volleyball Committee announces 2022 championship field

INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball committee announced the 64-team field that will compete in the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship. Thirty-two conferences were awarded an automatic qualification, while the remaining 32 positions were filled with at-large selections to complete the bracket.

Texas, Louisville, Wisconsin and Stanford earned the top seeds in this year’s tournament. The top four seeds have combined for four national titles in the last six years. Texas claimed the Big 12 Conference title after posting nearly an unblemished record, finishing with an overall record of 22-1 and 15-1 in conference play. The Longhorns have held the top spot in the RPI in all eight rankings this season. Louisville earned the Atlantic Coast Conference automatic bid with a record of 26-2 including eight top 25 wins on the season. Wisconsin secured their spot after bringing home their fourth consecutive Big Ten Conference title and finishing the season on an 18-match win streak. Stanford is currently riding their longest winning streak since 2018, also at 18 games, while winning their 23rd Pac-12 Conference title in program history.

BRACKET: See the full 64-team field here

New for this year, the top 32 teams are seeded nationally in pods of four and placed within four regions. Per the established bracketing principles, the top seeds are provided the opportunity to host. Additionally, team pairings are determined within the pods (ones paired with eights, twos paired with sevens, threes paired with sixes and fours paired with fives) and assigned geographically within their pods, with the exception that teams from the same conference are not paired during the first- and second-rounds.

The Southeastern Conference led all conferences with seven teams selected from the league to compete in the championship. The Big Ten Conference and Pac-12 Conference were second with six while the Atlantic Coast Conference and Big 12 each earned five selections.

This year’s field features 38 teams who played in the 2021 NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship. Four teams are making their first-ever tournament appearance in Delaware State, Fairleigh Dickinson, Quinnipiac and Southeastern Louisiana. The longest hiatus belongs to Houston with their last appearance coming in 2000. Penn State remains the only team that has earned a berth to all 42 championship tournaments while Nebraska has appeared in all but one.

During the previous 41 years of the championship 12 schools have won a national title, nine of which earned a place in this year’s bracket. Previous winners competing in the field are: (listed alphabetically) Hawaii (1982, 1983, 1987), Kentucky (2020), Nebraska (1995, 2000, 06, 15, 17), Penn State (1999, 2007, 08, 09, 10, 13, 14), Southern California (1981, 2002, 03), Stanford (1992, 94, 96, 97, 2001, 04, 16, 18, 19), Texas (1988, 2012), Washington (2005) and Wisconsin (2021).

First- and second-round matches will be played December 1-3 at 16 campus sites. Teams winning both matches will continue to regional play December 8 & 10. Regionals for the NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship will be held at four non-predetermined campus sites, which will be announced on December 4. At each site, four teams will compete in single- elimination regional semifinal competition.

The regional winners will advance to the national semifinals and championship final hosted by Nebraska in conjunction with the Metropolitan Entertainment and Convention Authority (MECA), December 15-17 at CHI Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska. The national semifinal matches will broadcast on ESPN, and the championship match will broadcast on ESPN2.

All preliminary site match times can be found on the attached championship bracket or online at www.ncaa.com/volleyball.