Division I Women's Volleyball Committee announces 2024 championship field

INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball committee announced the 64-team field that will compete in the 2024 NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship.Thirty-one conferences were awarded an automatic qualification, while the remaining 33 positions were filled with at-large selections to complete the bracket.

Pittsburgh, Nebraska, Louisville and Penn State earned the top seeds in this year’s tournament. The top four seeds have combined for 12 national titles in the tournament’s history. Pittsburgh finished the season with the best record in Division I (29-1), while winning its third straight ACC Championship. Nebraska and Penn State each claimed a share of the Big Ten Conference title after both posted 19-1 conference records, as well as both finishing the regular season 29-2 overall. Louisville secured its spot after finishing its season 25-5.

Click or tap here for the 2024 interactive bracket

For the third year, the top 32 teams were seeded nationally in pods of four and placed within four regions. Per the established bracketing principles, the top seeds were 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 Atlantic Coast, Big Ten and Southeastern conferences led all conferences with nine teams selected from their leagues to compete in the championship tournament. The Big 12 was next with six programs advancing to the post season.

This year’s field features 39 teams who played in the 2023 NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship. Two teams are making their first-ever tournament appearance: Chicago State and UTEP. The longest hiatus belongs to UT Arlington with its last appearance coming in 2002. Penn State remains the only team that has earned a berth to all 44 championship tournaments while Nebraska and Stanford have 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: Hawaii (1982, 83, 87), Kentucky (2020), Nebraska (1995, 2000, 06, 15, 17), Southern California (1981, 2002, 03), Stanford (1992, 94, 96, 97, 2001, 04, 16, 18, 19), Penn St. (1999, 2007, 08, 09, 10, 13, 14), Texas (1988, 2012, 2022, 2023), Washington (2005), and Wisconsin (2021).

First- and second-round matches will be played December 5-7 at 16 campus sites. Teams winning both matches will continue to regional play December 12-15. 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 8. 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 the University of Louisville, in conjunction with the Louisville Sports Commission, December 19 & 22 at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville. The national semifinal matches will broadcast on ESPN starting at 6:30 p.m. ET, and the championship match will broadcast on ABC at 3 p.m. ET.

All preliminary site match times can be found on the attached championship bracket or online at krikya18.com/volleyball.