semifinals. Originally, the quarterfinals were to be played at campus sites, with the Final Four at a separate predetermined site, but it was decided instead to have the entire championship tournament at one site. With the Big West Conference adding men's volleyball for the 2018 season and qualifying for an automatic tournament berth, the championship now involves seven teams. The bottom two tournament seeds contest a "play-in" match; from that point, the tournament format is identical to the one used from 2014 to 2017. Division I participation The 2023 men's volleyball season features 29 Division I schools, up from 26 in 2022, which had been the sport's highest D-I participation level since 1985. All three of the newest D-I programs are transitioning from D-II to D-I. Merrimack added a new team, and Lindenwood and Queens (NC), which already sponsored the sport, started transitions from D-II to D-I in July 2022. From 1986 to 2021, the number of Division I schools sponsoring men's volleyball fluctuated between 20 and 24 teams. No traditional D-I conferences sponsored men's volleyball until the Big West Conference added the sport for the 2018 season. The Big West became the first NCAA men's volleyball league to consist entirely of D-I members when UC San Diego, which was one of the six charter members of Big West men's volleyball, began a transition to D-I upon joining the Big West full-time in July 2020. Of the other four major conferences, the only all-sports league is the Northeast Conference (NEC), which started men's volleyball play in the 2023 season with six full conference members and two D-II members as single-sport associates. The Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA) and Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) are volleyball-specific conferences, while the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) is a multi-sport conference of schools whose primary conferences do not sponsor its ten sports. In addition to the 29 D-I schools, 31 Division II schools are competing in D-I volleyball during the 2023 season: Charleston (WV) competes in the EIVA. Lewis, McKendree, and Quincy compete in the MIVA. Concordia–Irvine has been an MPSF men's volleyball member since the 2018 season. Daemen and D'Youville, which had previously competed as men's volleyball independents, became single-sport NEC members for the conference's first men's volleyball season in 2023. Conference Carolinas, the first all-sports conference in either Division I or II to sponsor men's volleyball, currently has 8 competing teams. The