VBM Super 16: Our final media poll heading into the NCAA tourney
Eva Hudson and Purdue held the No. 12 spot this week
This is the last VolleyballMag.com Super 16 Media Poll of the season and we give high fives and thank our voters for all the hard work to make this happen every week.
It’s been a great addition to VBM and we look forward to doing it again in 2024. We will start after — note, after — the non-conferenee season ends, because that’s the first time we should have polls.
There was not much movement this week. For that matter the top eight teams stayed the same before Arkansas and Tennessee exchanged places at Nos. 9 and 10.
Rank, Team, Points (Last week)
1. Nebraska, 175 (1)
2. Stanford, 161 (2)
3. Wisconsin, 158 (3)
4. Pittsburgh, 143 (4)
5. Louisville, 128 (5)
6. Oregon, 115 (6)
7. Texas, 113 (7)
8. Kentucky, 104 (8)
9. Arkansas, 75 (10)
10. Tennessee, 65 (9)
11. Washington State, 55 (11)
12. Purdue, 52 (12)
13. Creighton, 50 (13)
14. Kansas, 30 (16)
15. Penn State, 21 (14)
16. Georgia Tech, 17 (15)
First place votes: Nebraska 10, Wisconsin 1
Also receiving votes: BYU, Dayton, Florida, Arizona State, Florida State
Dropped out: Dayton
One pollster could not participate
Previous VBM Super 16 Media Poll Results
Week 9: November 20
Week 8: November 13
Week 7: November 6
Week 6: October 30
Week 5: October 23
Week 4: October 16
Week 3: October 9
Week 2: October 2
Week 1: September 25
The voters
Emily Ehman @emilyehman) — Big Ten Network, ESPN analyst; former Northwestern DS
Ed Strong (@VBMagazine) — VolleyballMag.com super Tweeter
Michella Chester (@michellachester) — THE volleyball voice of NCAA.com
Daniel Gillman (@DanielGillman/@SixRotations) — host of Six Rotations for the AVCA, Cal Poly play-by-play
Lincoln Arneal (@Lincoln_VB) — Nebraska beat writer for Huskers Illustrated and co-host of Volleyball State podcast
Sam Gore (@sambgore) — veteran broadcaster/studio host who does ESPN volleyball play-by-play, host of the Fifth Set during the NCAA Tournament
Mick Haley (@Michaelhaley6) — ESPN analyst, former national-championship coach at Texas and USC and 2000 Olympic coach
Dennis Punzel (@DennisPunzel) — Wisconsin beat writer for the Wisconsin State Journal, author of Point! Wisconsin
Abby Benton (@numberonevolleyball) — played at DII Catawba and DIII William Peace and has 48.6K Instagram followers and more than 90K on TikTok
Anne Marie Anderson (@AnneMAnderson, @annemarieandersontv) — Emmy Award winner, volleyball play-by-play veteran who works NCAA matches for the Pac-12 Network, Big Ten Network and ESPN; played at Hofstra, where she still ranks in the top 10 in blocks
Shelby Coppedge (@shelbycoppedge) — ESPN analyst, former Texas A&M-Corpus Christi DS
Lee Feinswog (@VBMagazine) — editor of VolleyballMag.com
Voter comments
Anderson: I put Wisconsin at No. 1 because of the impressive performance vs Nebraska. Could have stayed with Nebraska at 1, Stanford 2, Wisconsin 3 … but the Badgers played the best team in the nation. Seven through 11 could have gone any which way for me. The fact that ALL the teams felt like they could go up or down one tells me the tournament is going to be wild!
Ehman: Feels like 1-4 has to be Nebraska, Stanford, Wisconsin and Pitt in that order. Tennessee dropped a few after South Carolina loss. Head to my Twitter for more. I’m tired.
Benton: I strategically made it so the top 16 would hypothetically never play one another in the regional semifinals or elite 8 (very proud of myself, lol). I really do think Wisconsin deserves the No. 2 spot after sweeping Nebraska. I moved Tennessee down after the loss to South Carolina. Besides that, everything looks fairly similar.
Gillman: My final tw (Penn State, BYU) feels like a coin flip with Arizona State and Georgia Tech. Excited to see how it turns out! I strongly believe Wisconsin deserves the 2 or 3 (and am not sure if there’s too big of an advantage to being 2 vs. 3).
Punzel: It seems I get less confident with my list each week as conflicting results keep confusing the issue. The one pick I’m 100 percent on is Nebraska at No. 1, even though I just saw it lose to Wisconsin, which I moved up to No. 2 ahead of Stanford on the strength of that win over the Huskers. Either way, those are clearly the top 3 in my mind and deserve to be regional hosts. I went with Pitt over Louisville on a coin flip, although I could argue with myself that it should be Louisville. After that it feels like I have to rank teams higher than I think I should, just because somebody has to go there. I added Kansas and Washington State to the last two spots because RPI, KPI and Massey are unanimous that they belong in the top 16, so who am I to argue?
Arneal: Nebraska suffered its first loss of the season but stays No. 1. The Huskers’ season-long resume is too impressive and features wins over six of my other Top 16 teams. Stanford and Wisconsin have also proven to be the next two best teams in the country. The next four are so tight, but I like how Pitt closed the year and they get a slight edge over Louisville, like a 17-15 fifth-set edge. Texas has been solid all year but dropped too many sets to lower competition. Kentucky continues its rise from the ashes and deserved its No. 8 seed.
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