2024 NCAA women's volleyball bracket predictions, a little more than a month from selections | NCAA.com

We are just weeks away from the official bracket for the 2024 NCAA DI women's volleyball tournament, which has its selection show set for 6 p.m. ET on Sunday, Dec. 1 on ESPN.

Following the committee's top 16 ranking reveal on Oct. 20, NCAA's Michella Chester has made in her predictions. It's a yearly tradition, but it never gets easier. Chester projected the 64-team bracket while following the committee’s selection criteria and bracketing principles. It is based on where we are now with a little guess as to how the rest of the season will play out. Chester also chose the 31 automatic qualifiers, with the rest at-large bids.

Here's a quick reminder on how the selection information works, found on NCAA.org:

The Competition Oversight Committee has again approved a bracketing pilot for the Division I Women's Volleyball Championship. Fifty percent of the bracket will be seeded in four groupings of 1-8. Published seeding will be in four sets of 1-8 and the pairings will honor a 1-8 assignment. The committee will identify the top 32 teams. The top 16 teams will be identified in rank order and assigned a seed grouping from 1 to 4. The balance of the ranked teams, in turn, are assigned to one of the remaining seed groupings (i.e., 5 to 8). Once the seed assignment is finalized, it remains unchanged while placing the teams into the championship bracket. First and second-round conference matchups will be avoided.

Here's how Chester projects the bracket could look based on where she thinks teams will be at the end of the season:

*denotes host institution

Of the top-16 teams, Chester has six from the Big Ten (Nebraska, Penn State, Wisconsin, Purdue, Oregon, and Minnesota), four from the ACC (Pitt, Louisville, Stanford, and SMU), three from the Big 12 ( Kansas, Arizona State and TCU), two from the SEC (Texas and Kentucky). Creighton is the lone representative from the Big East.

Five seeds:

Six seeds:

Seven seeds

Eight seeds

Projecting the winners of every conference, here are Chester's 31 AQs in the NCAA tournament field. The remaining spots are given at-large bids.

To be considered during the at-large process, a team must have a record of .500 or better.

The following criteria shall be employed by a governing sports committee in selecting participants for NCAA championships competition [Bylaw 31.3.3; Criteria for Selection of Participants]:

In addition to Bylaw 31.3.3, the Women’s Volleyball Committee has received approval from the NCAA Division I Competition Oversight Committee to consider the following criteria in the selection of at-large teams for the volleyball championship (not necessarily in priority order):

Primary Criteria

Secondary Criteria

If the evaluation of the primary criteria does not result in a decision, the secondary criteria will be reviewed. All the criteria listed will be evaluated.

Here's how Chester picked her at-large teams:

*denotes a top-16 seed