NCAA Volleyball Rules & Regulations

The rules of NCAA volleyball are very much the same as the generally accepted rules of the sport. Volleyball is played at the collegiate level by both men and women, and the rules for both are nearly identical. One of the areas that is heavily regulated by the NCAA regards the management and delivery of athletic scholarships. The organization has rules that limit the number of scholarship players a team may have. Those regulations are a big part of the game at the NCAA level, along with the rules that govern the playing of the game itself.

  1. Recruiting

    • Colleges at the NCAA Division I and Division II levels provide athletic scholarships to volleyball players under rules set by the NCAA. Women's volleyball has more scholarships available than men's volleyball, and they are managed differently. NCAA Division I women's volleyball is a head-count sport, meaning that each scholarship must be a "full ride" given to one player. Scholarships cannot be broken up to cover partial funds for a larger group of athletes. Teams may have up to 12 players on scholarship at any one time. Men's Division I volleyball is an equivalency sport, so a school's 4.5 scholarships may be split up to cover more than four or five players. Division II scholarships are all equivalency-based; men's teams have 4.5 while the women have eight. There are no athletic scholarships in Division III.

    Player Lineup and Positioning

    • Coaches are required to map out the position of their players at the start of each set and present that lineup card to the game officials before the set begins. The card details the starting position of each player on the court at the outset and also informs the referee if the team will be using libero in that game.

      Each time a team wins back the serve by taking a point when the other side is serving, its players must rotate clockwise through six different court locations. Each player must be in her correct spot when the serve is delivered or it will cost the team a point and send control of the serve back to the other side of the net.

    Libero Position

    • Each team in NCAA volleyball is allowed to use one player who is a defensive specialist. This player is known as the libero and he is identified by wearing a shirt that is a different color than the rest of the team. The libero substitutes in for another player when that player is on the back row, and stays on the court for the three back-row positions to provide passing and defensive presence. A team is not required to use a libero, but its desire to do so must be indicated before a set begins.

    Scoring the Game

    • The NCAA has adopted rally scoring as its standard. Teams score every time they win a point, regardless of which side is serving. The team that won the most recently completed point controls the serve and maintains control until its loses a point. When that happens, the serve moves to the other side of the net.

      Matches are played in best three-out-of-five format, with the first four sets played to 25 points in women's volleyball and 30 in men's volleyball. If a match requires a fifth set to find a winner, the final set is played to 15 points. In any set, a team must have a two-point lead to win a set. If it does not, the set continues until someone earns a two-point lead.