Loyola beat BYU on January 3 in straight sets. The next night, BYU lost at Lewis. A couple weeks later, Loyola went to Lewis and won 3-1. Loyola has only lost once on the season, in their third consecutive game in three days against a ranked team (Southern California).

Yet despite the fact that Loyola is 15-1, BYU (12-3) is now only two points (and four first-place votes) behind Loyola. It seems like they'll pass the Ramblers next week if they don't lose, because Loyola is off for spring break. I guess it doesn't matter that Loyola is one of the three teams that beat them (in a sweep), or that Loyola beat one of the other teams that beat them-- on the road. They play out West, so they get the benefit of the doubt.

And the crazy thing is, men's volleyball writers, reporters, and fans deny that they have any bias against Midwestern teams, even when it's obvious and measurable.

Let's look at the big picture for Loyola 2014. They were preseason ranked 7th. They had never been ranked higher than #8. So they got a little respect from the voters who are comprised of 18 D1/D2 head coaches. It is a voting process. After the impressive 2-1 first week against the west coasters, Loyola shot up to #2 and eventually reached a tie for 1st, went back to #2, then back to #1 as the west coasters kept beating each other. So as is, Loyola is #1 and deservedly so.

West coast bias does exist in Men's Volleyball. That's for sure. I also saw your post, 63, on the Volleytalk site. There is one piece of evidence that may support your argument for Loyola having a wider margin from #1 to #2. Of the six west coast head coaches of the AVCA coaches poll, only one west coast head coach voted Loyola #1. Chris McGown of #2 BYU (who for some reason has voted his own team #5 where every other voter has BYU at #1 or #2, otherwise BYU would be #1 right now). The other five coaches voted BYU #1. Now do I think that these other west coast head coaches think that BYU is better than Loyola? I think they do. BYU, despite the two early losses to Loyola and Lewis, has one loss since to then #3 Pepperdine. So since that first week, they worked themselves back up the poll from #9 to #2 with an impressive 7-1 record against the top ten, with a 3-1 record against the top 5, including a win over #1 Long Beach.

I have to think that Loyola's weaker schedule also figures into the voters' minds. Loyola has faced one top ten opponent since that first week... the win at #10 Lewis. They are 3-0 against ranked teams from 11-15 but that's it. Despite this and BYU's run, Loyola still maintains the top spot.

There's a small bright spot. Despite the Pacific head coach moving Loyola down one spot to #2 this week, the Northridge and the Long Beach head coaches moved them up one spot in their ballots.

Well 63, the 6 west coasters went three and three for BYU and Lo g Beach this week. But Loyola expanded their lead a bit.

For all of the clamor about Loyola "not playing anybody" and the MPSF being so strong, Loyola has played 8 of its 16 matches against teams that have appeared in the rankings: #1 Irvine, #3 BYU, #11 USC, #13 Harvard, #15 Ohio State, #10 Lewis, #13 Ball State, and then-unranked IPFW (now ranked #12). Loyola is 7-1 against those teams. Loyola is 8-0 in a conference where 5 out of 8 teams are ranked. The Ramblers are also the only undefeated team on the road in men's volleyball.

Conversely, #3 BYU has played 11 of their 17 matches against ranked teams. Yet six of BYU's 13 wins have come against the unranked dregs of the MPSF. They've played twice against Pacific (2-17 overall on the season), twice against Cal State Northridge (6-11 on the season), once against Cal Baptist (4-14 on the season), and once against UC San Diego (1-18 on the season). Their only two regular season matches against non-California teams were a 3-0 loss at Loyola and a 3-1 loss at Lewis. BYU is 7-4 against ranked teams, and 13-2 in a conference where 9 of 13 teams are ranked. BYU is 6-0 at home (where they have the highest attendance in men's volleyball, averaging over 2500 per match), but only 7-4 on the road.

Number 2 Long Beach State has only played one non-MPSF team, Harvard, who they beat 3-1 at a neutral site. Long Beach State is 5-3 on the road, with losses at BYU, at Hawaii, and at UCSB. They lost 3-0 at home to USC, while Loyola's only home loss was to USC by 3-1 (the third match in 72 hours for Loyola).

Are the unranked MIVA teams (Lindenwood, Quincy, Grand Canyon) really so much worse than the unranked MPSF teams? Unranked MIVA team Grand Canyon beat Pacific in Stockton. It took UC San Diego five sets at home to beat Grand Canyon. Then-unranked IPFW beat Cal Baptist (ranked #15 in the preseason poll) 3-1 at a neutral site to open the season. Lewis also swept Pacific in Stockton.

I could use a Venn Diagram about now...

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