Established March 13, 2014 Division Division III Sports fielded 1 | Association NCAA Members 14 Region Midwest | |
The Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League (MCVL) is an intercollegiate men's volleyball conference associated with the NCAA's Division III.
Contents
History
The MCVL was founded in March 2014 by an amicable split of the Continental Volleyball Conference (CVC), which itself had only been created in 2011. The CVC's six Midwestern schools, which had previously formed a CVC division, wished to create a more geographically compact league. The two groups agreed that the CVC's eastern teams would retain the CVC name and branding. Since the CVC retained six members, that group also retained its automatic berth in the Division III national championship. It was also agreed that two Midwestern schools that were adding the sport for 2014–15 (2015 season) and had been announced as incoming CVC members, Benedictine University and Loras College, would instead join the new Midwestern league. The next month, the new league was unveiled as the MCVL.
In September 2014, two Illinois schools that were adding volleyball in the 2015–16 school year (2016 season), Greenville College and North Central College, were accepted as the league's 9th and 10th members. Three months later, four additional schools—Adrian College, Marian University of Wisconsin, Olivet College, and Wittenberg University—were announced as new members for 2015–16.
The MCVL was not eligible for an automatic berth in the Division III national championship in its first two seasons (2015 and 2016); during that time, its teams were eligible for at-large berths.
Current members
The league was founded with eight members, and six more joined for the 2016 season. All current members are private institutions, and only the Milwaukee School of Engineering is not affiliated with a religious body.
Beginning with the 2017 season, the conference formed Eastern and Western Divisions.
Note that because NCAA men's volleyball is a spring sport, the year of joining is the calendar year before the first year of competition.