Despite being on the selection committee, Brigham Young University Associate Athletics Director Brian Santiago won't have a say if the Cougars men's volleyball team receives the only at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Santiago will recuse himself from the at-large selection process if No. 2 BYU is one of the teams the selection committee is considering, NCAA Men's Volleyball National Committee Chairman Brian Summers said earlier this week.
The Cougars (22-9) finished the regular season in second place in their conference. However, BYU lost to No. 3 Cal State Northridge (23-8) in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament semifinals Thursday.
The men's volleyball NCAA Tournament is composed of four teams: the three winners from the MPSF, Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association and Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association tournaments and the at-large bid.
Summers said it is NCAA procedure for a committee member to remove oneself in the discussion of at-large selections or tournament seeding if the member's school is involved in the processes.
Santiago declined to comment on the selection process when contacted by The Ball State Daily News prior to the start of the MPSF Tournament.
There are three members of the men's volleyball committee. If BYU is one of the teams in the discussion, the at-large decision will be decided by the committee's other two members — Summers, who is the assistant athletics director at Lewis University, and St. Francis University athletics director Robert Krimmel.
Summers said it is not uncommon for a committee member to leave the discussion because his or her school is involved in the conversation.
He also said the committee won't narrow down the teams being considered for the at-large bid until the committee has its phone conference Sunday.
The at-large bid and the seeding for the NCAA Tournament will be announced Sunday afternoon.
The at-large bid has gone to an MPSF team for the last 15 seasons. The final regular season top 15 coaches poll this year had 11 teams from the MPSF.
"Nine out of 10 times, it going to the West Coast school may be the case, but we'll be evaluating all the teams," Summers said. "It's not predetermined, and we are not just focusing on the West Coast come Sunday."
The committee will be evaluating multiple factors to determine the at-large bid, but Summers said the two factors that usually carry the biggest weight is head-to-head results among the teams in contention and results against common opponents. Summers said the difficulty in selecting the one at-large bid varies each year.
"It can be difficult some years," he said. "There are other years where it is a no brainer."
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