21 Best Volleyball Colleges – 2025 (Men’s & Women’s)
May 12, 2025
There are approximately 1,800 women’s collegiate volleyball programs and 239 men’s collegiate volleyball programs in the United States. And since volleyball became an NCAA championship sport—the men’s Division I championship was established in 1970, the women’s in 1981—a relatively small number of schools have dominated the sport. On the men’s side, the best volleyball colleges include schools like UC Irvine, Ohio State, and UCLA. The best volleyball colleges for women are powerhouses like Nebraska, Penn State, and Stanford. Check out a full list of the best volleyball colleges below.
Best Men’s Volleyball Colleges
11) USC
The men’s volleyball program at USC began in 1970, the same year the NCAA incorporated men’s volleyball into its championship program. The Trojans have won the Division I championship four times (1977, 1980, 1988, 1990), and they’ve finished runners-up seven times. They finished the 2025 season ranked 8th in the national standings with a record of 20-6.
10) Pepperdine University
I know Pepperdine primarily as a tennis powerhouse, but it’s one of the best volleyball colleges in the country too. The Waves have won the NCAA Division I championship five times (1978, 1985, 1986, 1992, 2005), and they finished the year ranked 15th nationally.
9) Penn State
The men’s Nittany Lions qualified for their first NCAA tournament appearance in 1981, and since then they’ve been one of the best volleyball colleges in the sport. The very next year, they made it all the way to the championship round, and over the next decade they made several runs to the semifinals. They finally broke through and won their first national title in 1994 under head coach Tom Peterson. The men’s Nittany Lions won their second NCAA championship in 2008, and they finished the 2025 season 22nd in the national rankings.
8) Stanford University
The Stanford men’s squad finished the 2025 regular season 17th in the national rankings, and they have two championships in their history (1997, 2010).
7) Brigham Young University
BYU solidified its legacy as one of the best volleyball colleges in the country with three national titles in the late 90s and early 2000s. The university established its men’s volleyball program in 1990, and in 1999 the Cougars won their first NCAA DI championship. They repeated the feat in 2001 and again in 2004. The men’s Cougars recorded a 19-9 record during the 2025 season and finished 7th nationally.
6) Loyola University Chicago
The men’s volleyball squad at Loyola Chicago isn’t quite as decorated as some of the very best volleyball colleges, but they’ve been a dominant force in the sport over the last decade. The Ramblers won back-to-back national titles in 2014 and 2015, and they recorded 23 wins against just three losses in the 2025 season. They finished the year at the fifth spot in the national rankings.
5) University of Hawaii
The University of Hawaii is home to one of the best collegiate volleyball programs in the country. The Rainbow Warriors are two-time national champs, winning the NCAA Division I tournament in back-to-back years in 2021 and 2022. In 2023, they made it back to the championship round of the tournament but were bested by UCLA. They closed out the 2025 season as the third highest-ranked team in the country and a 24-5 record.
4) California State University, Long Beach
The Long Beach State volleyball squad is currently the top-ranked men’s team in the country. They recorded a dominant 26 wins against just two losses this season, and last year they made it all the way to the championship round of the Division I tournament before being bested by UCLA. And the men’s Beach have a strong championship pedigree: they’re three-time NCAA champs, and they pulled off the feat of back-to-back titles in 2018 and 2019.
3) UC Irvine
The men’s Anteaters have an impressive volleyball resume. They’re four-time NCAA Division I champions (2007, 2009, 2012, 2013). They’re also a fixture in the upper echelons of the national standings. They finished the 2025 season ranked 4th overall.
2) Ohio State
The Buckeyes men’s volleyball team came into being in 1968, and from the get-go they dominated at the conference level. The men’s Buckeyes made their first NCAA tournament appearance in 1975, but it wasn’t until 2011 that they took home their first national championship. The Buckeyes also took home the DI champions trophy in back-to-back years in 2016 and 2017, which took their overall championship total to three and cemented their legacy as one of the best volleyball colleges in the country.
1) UCLA
UCLA is by a large margin the most decorated men’s collegiate volleyball team of all time. The Bruins have won an astounding 21 NCAA titles. They won a slew of championships in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and early 2000s, and then entered a relative down period in the 2010s. But the Bruins are now back at the top of the sport. They’re the two-time defending national champs and finished the 2025 season ranked 2nd in the overall standings.
Best Women’s Volleyball Colleges
10) University of Hawaii
The women’s volleyball team at the University of Hawaii is one of the best in the country. They’re four-time national champions (1979, 1982, 1983, 1987), and they’re a fixture in the NCAA Division I tournament.
9) California State University, Long Beach
The women’s Beach is another West Coast volleyball team that’s dominated the sport at the college level. The Long Beach State women have three titles in their history (1989, 1993, 1998), and between 1989 and 2001, they appeared in a total of five championship matches.
8) USC
The Trojans won the first-ever women’s NCAA Division I championship in 1981. A little more than two decades later, they captured two more national titles, in 2002 and 2003. The women’s Trojans are currently ranked 24th in the national standings.
7) UCLA
The women’s Bruins have won four national titles (1984, 1990, 1991, 2011) since the team was founded in 1965. It’s their remarkable consistency that makes them one of the best collegiate teams in the sport. The women’s Bruins have made the NCAA Final Four eleven times; only one school has made it that far in the tournament more.
UCLA is not only one of the best volleyball colleges in the country but also one of the best colleges for volleyball scholarships.
6) University of Kentucky
The women’s Wildcats are currently the 8th highest-ranked team in the country. In 2020, they beat Texas to win their first national championship.
5) University of Wisconsin
The women’s Badgers aren’t quite as decorated as some of the other schools on this list—their first, and so far only, national championship came in 2021. Nonetheless, Wisconsin is one of the best volleyball colleges in the country. Since 2000, the women’s Badgers have been one of the best teams in collegiate volleyball. They’ve made it as far as the semifinals of the NCAA Division I tournament six times; on three of those runs they made it through to the championship round. Finally, in 2021, the Badgers took home their first national title. They’re currently ranked 7th in the national standings.
4) University of Texas at Austin
The women’s Longhorns are one of the best programs in the history of collegiate volleyball. The women’s volleyball team was established at the University of Texas in 1982, and between their founding and 2022, they finished with a top ten ranking a total of thirty times. Only two schools—Nebraska and Stanford—have recorded more top ten finishes than Texas. They’ve won four NCAA Division I titles (1988, 2012, 2022, 2023), finished runners-up another five times, and they’ve made the Final Four of the national championship a record fifteen times. When the women’s Longhorns won their 2023 title, they defeated top-seeded Nebraska in a 3-0 blowout.
The Longhorns finished the 2024 season ranked 11th overall, with a 20-7 record.
3) University of Nebraska
Only two schools—Penn State and Stanford—have won more NCAA championships than the women’s Cornhuskers, who have won five (1995, 2000, 2006, 2015, 2017) since they were founded in 1975. But even though they’re not quite at the top of the leaderboard in terms of overall championships, there’s an argument that the women’s Cornhuskers are the best team in the history of college volleyball. To take a look at a few other telling metrics: Nebraska has won more games than any other school, they’ve spent more time ranked number one, and they’ve produced more AVCA (American Volleyball Coaches Association) All-Americans than any other college volleyball program. The Cornhuskers are also responsible for drawing one of the biggest crowds in women’s sports history. In 2023, a record 92,003 showed up for Volleyball Day in Nebraska at Lincoln’s Memorial Stadium.
The women’s Huskers finished the 2024 season 4th in the national standings after going 33-3.
2) Penn State
The women’s Nittany Lions have won eight NCAA Division I championships. And what makes their championship bona fides even more impressive is the fact that they won their first in 1999. The Nittany Lions were especially dominant in the mid-2000s and early 2010s: they strung together an incredible four NCAA titles in a row between 2007 and 2010, and they came right back in 2013 and 2014 to win back-to-back championships. They won it all again in 2024, finishing the year as the top-ranked team in the ACVA national poll.
1) Stanford University
Stanford is widely considered to be the best volleyball college in the country. It’s also one of the best colleges for volleyball scholarships; the school is known for giving out significant financial aid to its players.
The women’s Cardinals have won nine NCAA championships (1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2004, 2016, 2018, 2019), the most all-time. They’ve finished runners-up another eight times, and they’ve won 24 conference titles as well. The women’s Cardinal won their last national title in 2019, and they finished the 2024 season ranked 5th in the overall standings.
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