Men’s volleyball aficionado Dennis Stuart, who played club volleyball at Michigan and follows the men’s game closely, has coached and officiated at various levels of the sport, from Division I to beginning club players.
He ranked all the teams playing NCAA men’s volleyball this season.
There are a total of 42 universities that compete in DI/II collegiate men’s volleyball divided among four conferences. Those 42 will be whittled down to six in May for the 2017 NCAA DI/DII Men’s Volleyball Championship in Columbus, Ohio, and the hometown Ohio State Buckeyes are my choice to win it all again.
There are a few other teams out there that could turn some heads and surprise the Buckeyes come tournament time, but it will be hard to defeat Ohio State in St. John Arena, its home gym.
| Stuart’s Ranking | School | 2016 Record | AVCA 2016 ranking | AVCA 2017 ranking |
| 1 | Ohio State | (31-3) | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | UCLA | (25-7) | 3 | 2 |
| 3 | Long Beach State | (25-8) | 4 | 4 |
| 4 | BYU | (27-4) | 2 | 3 |
| 5 | Lewis | (19-13) | 9 | 6 |
| 6 | Pepperdine | (13-11) | 7 | 5 |
| 7 | Hawai’i | (16-12) | 8 | 7 |
| 8 | UC Irvine | (10-20) | NR | 8 |
| 9 | Loyola, IL | (20-8) | 10 | 11 |
| 10 | Penn State | (19-10) | 12 | 13 |
| 11 | Ball State | (20-9) | 13 | 15 |
| 12 | George Mason | (18-12) | 11 | 10 |
| 13 | UC Santa Barbara | (20-10) | 5 | 12 |
| 14 | Cal Baptist | (14-16) | NR | 17 |
| 15 | Stanford | (19-6) | 9 | 6 |
| 16 | CSU Northridge | (14-15) | 14 | 14 |
| 17 | Barton | (22-7) | NR | NR |
| 18 | St. Francis, PA | (19-10) | NR | 16 |
| 19 | USC | (7-19) | NR | 18 |
| 20 | IPFW | (10-19) | NR | NR |
| 21 | Harvard | (13-11) | NR | NR |
| 22 | McKendree | (11-14) | NR | NR |
| 23 | UC San Diego | (5-23) | NR | NR |
| 24 | Grand Canyon | (17-12) | NR | NR |
| 25 | Mount Olive | (12-12) | NR | NR |
| 26 | Concordia, CA | (13-7) | NR | NR |
| 27 | Belmont Abbey | (18-11) | NR | NR |
| 28 | Quincy | (18-23) | NR | NR |
| 29 | Princeton | (4-18) | NR | NR |
| 30 | Erskine | (21-7) | NR | NR |
| 31 | Limestone | (10-15) | NR | NR |
| 32 | Sacred Heart | (7-17) | NR | NR |
| 34 | NJIT | (8-18) | NR | NR |
| 35 | Coker | (14-9) | NR | NR |
| 36 | King | (8-24) | NR | NR |
| 37 | Charleston, WV | (4-24) | NR | NR |
| 38 | Pfeiffer | (16-8) | NR | NR |
| 39 | North Greenville | (11-14) | NR | NR |
| 40 | Alderson Broadhus | (11-12) | NR | NR |
| 41 | Lees McRae | (1-25) | NR | NR |
| 42 | Lincoln Memorial | (0-0) | NR | NR |
