Pitt unanimous No. 1 in final VolleyballMag Super 16 Media Poll; Dayton, Baylor return

Pittsburgh finished as the unanimous No. 1 in the VolleyballMag Super 16 Media Poll of the regular season.

Nebraska is back to No. 2. Penn State, now No. 3, traded places with No. 4 Louisville. Stanford is No. 5, just one point behind.

Dayton, which moved back in, and Baylor cracking the list, tied at No. 16. Florida dropped out.

Rank, Team, Points, First-Place Votes, Previous ranking

1. Pittsburgh (176 points, 11 first-place votes, 1)
2. Nebraska (164, 1)
3. Penn State (153, 4)
4. Louisville (136, 3)
5. Stanford (135, 6)
6. Creighton (126, 5)
7. Wisconsin (106, 6)
8. Arizona State (93, 8)
9. SMU (82, 9)
10. Purdue (70, 11)
11. Kentucky (61, 13)
12. Texas (58, 12)
13. Kansas (55, 10)
14. Oregon (35, 14)
15. Utah (29, 15)
Tie — 16. Dayton (5, NR)
Tie — 16. Baylor (5, NR)
Also receiving votes: TCU, Minnesota
Dropped out: Florida
Note: One of our voters could not contribute this week, so there were just 11 ballots.

The voters

Lincoln Arneal (@Lincoln_VB) — Nebraska beat writer for Huskers Illustrated and co-host of the Volleyball State podcast
Abby Benton (@numberonevolleyball) — played at DII Catawba and DIII William Peace and has 54K Instagram followers and more than 116K on TikTok
Michella Chester (@michellachester) — THE volleyball voice of NCAA.com
Shelby Coppedge (@shelbycoppedge) — ESPN and Volleyball World TV analyst, Fan Duel Reporter; former Texas A&M-Corpus Christi DS
Emily Ehman @emilyehman) — Big Ten Network, ESPN, Volleyball World TV analyst; former Northwestern DS
Lee Feinswog (@VBMagazine) — editor of VolleyballMag
Daniel Gillman (@DanielGillman/@SixRotations) — host of Six Rotations for the AVCA, national play-by-play for multiple sports
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 USA Olympic coach
Amy Pauly (@acpauly10) — Head coach of the Orlando Valkyries of the Pro Volleyball Federation and the team’s vice-president of volleyball operations; former assistant coach at USC, head coach at UAB; libero at Alabama
Dennis Punzel (@DennisPunzel) — Wisconsin beat writer for the Wisconsin State Journal, author of Point! Wisconsin
Ed Strong (@VBMagazine) — VolleyballMag super Tweeter

Voter comments

Gillman: I liked the committee’s top 16 and agree with the top four, as well. Can’t overreact to a final week when looking at Louisville vs. Stanford all season. TCU vs. Baylor was a really close 16th spot. I’m with the RPI and thought TCU earned it.

Haley: Mystified how Baylor is hosting a regional with a loss last week and 20 on RPI and KPI. Baylor is not a top-16 team. Dayton had one bad loss for the season but their body of work is steady. This tournament lacks the sixth-year Covid players so it will be weaker; expect plenty of upsets, a real roll-coaster of a tournament. See ya’ll in Louisville!

Ehman: Ending with Pitt over Nebraska at No. 1 after the Huskers’ loss to Penn State, who came in at 3 for me. Stanford should be over Louisville at No. 4, otherwise why else play the matches? Plus Louisville’s other loss to Pitt this week. Utah and Baylor close it out for me at No. 15 and 16. HELLUVA season. Wow … This last week happened to be one of the most exciting of the year, which you couldn’t have drawn up better!

Punzel: Nebraska loss opened the path for Pitt to move back up to No. 1, but Georgia Tech came amazingly close to shaking that up. One of several upsets or near upsets that made for a fun week. In the end I have 15 of 16 teams hanging on, with Baylor moving up and Florida dropping off. Feels like my list is pretty close to selection committee’s, so it must’ve done a great job.

Benton: I feel like I kept most of everything the same as last week. I truly believe with last weekend’s matches it should be Pitt, Penn State, Nebraska, and Stanford, in that order for the top four. And after SMU’s loss to NC State, they should not even be in the top 10. I truly believe the last few matches before postseason matter more than non-conference.

Arneal: Lots of chaos during the final week of the regular season. Penn State and Stanford had the best wins of the week. I probably had those two lower than most entering the week, so the question of how big of a jump they would make. Penn State moved up three spots to No. 3, still behind Nebraska. “But head-to-head!” Yeah, I know, but I think Nebraska is still a better team and has a higher ceiling than the Nittany Lions at this point. Stanford also moved up three spots to No. 5, one place lower than Louisville. They split the season series, but the Cardinals won a set on the road. Florida fell on its face and opened the door for a team at No. 16, and I welcomed back Dayton, who didn’t play last week. Enjoy the chaos of the tournament.

Feinswog: I still went with Creighton at No. 3, which I have for most of the season. All Creighton does is win. The Bluejays can prove me right or wrong in the tournament. My top four was Pittsburgh, Nebraska, Creighton and Penn State. I’m not saying I would have seeded them that way, but that’s my vote for this poll.

Thanks to all our voters for their time and diligence this season!

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