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Texas A&M Won the National Title. Why Do 62 of 63 Coaches Have Somebody Else at No. 1? 🤔
The Aggies got one first-place vote in the AVCA preseason poll and came out eighth. There is a real case for that, and a real case against it.
Texas A&M swept Kentucky in the national championship match on Dec. 21 and finished the year 29-4. Eight months later, 63 coaches filled out the AVCA preseason ballot. One of them put the Aggies first. Nebraska got 57.
A&M came out eighth. Behind Texas, Kentucky, Pittsburgh, Stanford, Wisconsin and Louisville. Behind the Kentucky team it beat in straight sets for the trophy.
The Case for Eighth Is Mostly Arithmetic
Nebraska went 33-1 last season and lost a regional final to the eventual champion. It returns Andi Jackson and Harper Murray, both first-team All-Americans, plus Bergen Reilly, the 2025 AVCA setter of the year and Big Ten player of the year. That roster came back whole. Coaches vote on what they can see, and what they can see in Lincoln is a 33-win team with nobody missing.
A&M's situation is different. Eight newcomers. A championship roster that turned over. Ballots go out in July, when the only evidence is a spring roster sheet.
Kentucky went 30-3 and put four players on the national player of the year watch list, more than any school in the country. Texas was 26-4. Pittsburgh has the two-time reigning national player of the year in Olivia Babcock. None of those are bad answers to the question of who is best.
The Case Against It Is the Part Nobody Says Out Loud
Here is the other side. A&M did not back into anything. It beat Pittsburgh 3-0 in a national semifinal, then beat Kentucky 26-24, 25-15, 25-20 in the final. Three sets, no fifth-set drama, against the teams now sitting third and fourth in this poll.
Kyndal Stowers, the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, came back. Natalie Ring arrived from Marquette with 497 kills and a third-team All-America season behind her. On Aug. 16 the Aggies beat No. 21 Baylor 3-1 in an exhibition, Ring with 16.
So eight teams are ranked ahead of a defending champion that returned its best postseason player and added an All-American. That is a program being graded on the résumé it carried in November instead of the one it earned in December.
The Poll Is a Guess and Everybody Knows It
Preseason polls have never predicted much. They set a starting line and hand everybody a talking point. Nebraska's 57 first-place votes say the sport believes the best roster in the country is in Lincoln, and that is defensible on the numbers. A&M's single vote says the sport is not convinced the champions are still the champions.
The Aggies get to start answering at 5 p.m. Central tonight against No. 7 Louisville, then No. 11 SMU on Sunday. Two ranked opponents in three days moves a number fast.
