October 6, 2023
The Old Dominion Athletic Conference announced it is adding men’s volleyball in 2024-2025. It will be the conference’s 26th sport.
ODAC men’s volleyball will debut in January 2025 with seven teams.
Randolph-Macon, Roanoke College, & Eastern Mennonite will be moving from the CVC-Continental Volleyball Conference to the ODAC.
There will be 4 new team emerging on the D3 landscape and will be included in the division. Virginia Wesleyan, Averett, Randolph and Lynchburg plan to add men’s volleyball for the 2024-25 school year.
The ODAC is already tapped for hosting the 2025 NCAA D3 Championships. The 2024 Championship will be hosted by Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa on April 25-27, 2024.
The D3 landscape continues to grow at enormous rates. After a sizeable 10% increase in programs from 2022-2023. the upcoming additions are even more sizable. In addition to the program additions noted above, the following schools will be added for the upcoming season:
Clark Summit College is being added to the CSAC.
Calvin College is being added to the MCVL.
Manhattanville College is being added to the Skyline Conference.
Hobart will be a new addition to the UVC.
Independent additions will be: Bethany, Buffalo State, Cabrini, Chatham, Houghton, UW-Steven’s Point, and Warren Wilson. Simpson will also be an independent as the move their program from the NAIA.
So far, new additions for 2025 include Grove City, as well as Lynchburg and Randolph mentioned above.
For 2026, Wheaton is scheduled as an addition.
As noted in the D3 Men’s Volleyball annual meeting, there is also a AVCA All-Star game in the works. The game would take place during the NCAA D3 championship weekend. That is not finalized yet but sounds like a great idea.
For the new season, we expect pool expansion for the D3 championship tournament to rise to 18 teams. This is still pending final approval.
11 conferences will be approved for automatic qualification to the 2023-2024 NCAA Division III Men’s Volleyball Championship:
Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference
City University of New York Athletic Conference
College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin
Continental Volleyball Conference
Great Northeast Athletic Conference
Middle Atlantic Conference
Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League
Northeast Volleyball Conference
Northern Athletic Collegiate Conference
Skyline Conference
United Volleyball Conference
Proposed Pool Allocations: 18
Pool A – 11 Automatic Bids
Pool B – 3 Independent Bids
Pool C – 4 At-Large Bids (From Auto Bid Divisions)
InsideHitter.com coverage will be starting soon for the upcoming season. Stay tuned.