INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA Beach Volleyball Committee announced today the 16-team field for the 2026 National Collegiate Beach Volleyball Championship. The field was selected from the 104 NCAA institutions sponsoring the sport of beach volleyball. Eight teams were selected as automatic qualifiers, along with eight teams selected at-large from across the country. All 16 teams were then seeded.
Conferences receiving automatic qualification included ASUN Conference, Big West Conference, Conference USA, Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, Ohio Valley Conference, Southland Conference, Sun Belt Conference and the West Coast Conference.
All 16 seeds will face off in a single elimination bracket. The first round will take place on May 1, the quarterfinals and semifinals on May 2 and the championship dual on May 3. The championship will take place in Gulf Shores, Ala., hosted by the City of Gulf Shores, University of Alabama at Birmingham and Gulf Shores | Alabama’s Beaches Sports & Events.
The event will be televised live by ESPN networks, with ESPN2 providing live coverage on Friday, May 1 starting at 10 a.m. ET. Live coverage will continue Saturday, May 2 on ESPN2, starting at 10 a.m. ET and the championship dual on Sunday, May 3 at 12:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.
The seeds in order are as follows. Automatic qualifiers noted in parentheses:
1. Stanford
9. Long Beach St.
2. Texas (MPSF)
10. TCU
3. UCLA
11. Grand Canyon
4. Southern California
12. Stetson (ASUN)
5. Florida St.
13. A&M-Corpus Christi (Southland)
6. Cal Poly (Big West)
14. Tulane (Conference USA)
7. LMU (CA) (West Coast)
15. Georgia St. (Sun Belt)
8. California
16. Chattanooga (OVC)
TCU is the reigning champion, after defeating LMU (CA) 3-2 in last year’s national title match. Tulane is making its first appearance in the tournament.
Live streaming coverage of every court, starting with Friday’s duals, will be available on ESPN+. For championship site dual times and more information about the championship, log on to ncaa.com/beachvolleyball.
