page_title: NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship
section_title: Structure
hierarchical_section_title: NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship / History / Structure
caption_attribution_description: English: USC won the Inaugural Championship
context_page_description: The NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship is an NCAA-sanctioned tournament to determine the national champions of collegiate women's beach volleyball. It is a National Collegiate Championship featuring teams from Division I, Division II and Division III, and is the 90th, and newest, NCAA championship event. It was the first new NCAA championship to be created since the NCAA Division III Men's Volleyball Championship in 2012, and the first for women since the NCAA Bowling Championship in 2004.
context_section_description: The championship is held each May and consists of eight teams playing in a double-elimination style tournament with a single-elimination final, under standard beach volleyball rules. All matches consist of five sets, with each team needing to win three sets to advance.
  The NCAA does not add automatic qualifiers until two championship seasons have passed; but in 2016, the top 3 teams from the east and west were given automatic bids with 2 additional teams invited at-large.  
  As of fall 2019, seven conferences sponsor beach volleyball, all with at least six members — the minimum number for a conference to qualify for an automatic bid to other NCAA championship tournaments. Five of these conferences were represented in the inaugural tournament; the exceptions are the Ohio Valley Conference and Southland Conference, both of which begin beach volleyball sponsorship in the upcoming 2020 season.  
  Atlantic Sun Conference (7 members)
  Big West Conference (7 members)
  Coastal Collegiate Sports Association (12 members)
  Ohio Valley Conference (6 members)
  Pac-12 Conference (9 members)
  Southland Conference (9 members)
  West Coast Conference (7 members)
caption: USC at the inaugural tournament
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