The NCAA voted on Tuesday to allow women’s volleyball to begin matches starting Jan. 22, 2021.
In addition to the known start date, the NCAA also announced its plans for the NCAA Tournament in the spring. This year’s tournament will be selected on April 4 with the Final Four to be played the weekend of April 23-25. NCAA host sites are likely to feature more teams than usual, as well.
This year’s NCAA Tournament will featured a pared down field. The bracket will shrink from 64 to 48 teams, with 32 automatic qualifiers and 16 at-large bids. The Final Four had been slated to be hosted in Omaha before the season was postponed, and that could still be the case. The NCAA has not yet announced where the final matches will take place.
Some conferences like the Big 12 are playing a split season, with some matches in the fall and spring, but the Big Ten opted to play all of its matches in the spring only.
The NCAA said those fall matches will be factored in to the selection process next spring.
“Contests conducted in the fall term for all fall sport championships that will be conducted in the spring will count toward selection into that respective championship. Sport committees are encouraged to consider all data available to them at the time of selections.