Omaha’s chance to be the site of the biggest week of the year in volleyball in the United States will have to wait.
As expected, the NCAA Tournament for Division I volleyball won’t happen this fall, NCAA President Mark Emmert announced Thursday afternoon. After more than half of the 330 teams indicated that they won’t be playing in the fall it triggered an automatic postponement of the championship.
The Final Four was scheduled to be played in Omaha on Dec. 17-19.
The fall sport championships for Division I women’s soccer and cross country have also been postponed.
This outcome for volleyball had been anticipated for a few days. On Tuesday, the Big Ten Conference postponed the season, and with each day, the number of conferences that wouldn’t be playing volleyball in the fall kept mounting.
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Already last week the Big West, Ivy League, Atlantic 10, America East and Patriot League said they wouldn’t play in the fall. The Summit League joined the list Monday, followed by the Big Ten and Pac-12 — the two most successful conferences in the sport — on Tuesday. The Big Sky and Big East each joined the list Wednesday.
As of now at least 200 teams won't play in the fall. The NCAA had previously announced that if 50% or more of eligible teams in a particular sport in a division cancel their fall seasons, there will be no fall NCAA championship in that sport.
The Nebraska volleyball team, and the rest of the Big Ten schools, are still hoping to play the season in the spring, and have sent a plan to the Big Ten office for how it can work.
Emmert said the NCAA will make an attempt to move fall sport championships to the spring.
“There are ways to do this,†Emmert said. “I’m completely confident that we can figure this out. If schools and conferences want to move forward, and more than half of them want to do it — and that’s surely the indication right now — then let’s do it.â€
But Emmert said the highest priority will be given to the sports that had championships canceled in 2020.
“First and foremost we’re going to protect (winter and spring sport championships),†Emmert said.
Emmert hinted at revised models for fall championship events in the spring, including shrinking brackets and placing teams in bubble or semi-bubble models used by professional sports leagues.
In volleyball, the first four rounds of the 64-team tournament are hosted on campuses of participating schools.
“There is a way to do it,†Emmert said. “Will it be normal? Of course not, you’ll be playing a fall sport in the spring. Will it create other conflicts and challenges? Of course. But is it doable? Yeah. It is doable and we want to do that. We want to make it work for these students.â€
The volleyball Final Four is held in a different city each year, but Omaha has been a regular stop, hosting the event three times during a 10-year stretch from 2006 to ’15.
"We cannot, at this point, have fall NCAA championships."
— Inside the NCAA (@InsidetheNCAA)
NCAA President Mark Emmert discusses the latest developments in fall sports and looks ahead to winter and spring championships.
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Omaha has been good for the volleyball tournament because of its passionate fans of the sport. And the Final Four in Omaha has been good to the Huskers, with two of Nebraska’s five national titles in the sport having been won in Omaha, in 2006 and ’15.
And it’s not just the matches that make up Final Four week. Each year in conjunction with the Final Four is the American Volleyball Coaches Association convention, which brings thousands of club, high school and college coaches to the same city as the championship.
The postponement is another financial hit for Omaha, which this year has already lost games it was scheduled to host in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament and the College World Series, along with the Olympic swim trials.
Only the 2021 Final Four has also been awarded, with the championship scheduled to return to Columbus, Ohio, that year. So if Omaha doesn’t get to host a rescheduled championship this spring, it’s possible that the city could quickly get another chance to host the Final Four.