Where do you predict we start the season ranked next year?

You obviously have the perennials of Penn St, Louisville, and Nebraska. Wisconsin has made some big moves.

I felt like when we ended the season last year we were just a Jar below that elite group that made the final four. I think we should solidly be a Top 10 preseason. Just outside the top 5.

I'd go:

NU
Penn St
Wisconsin
Louisville
Pitt
tu (they'll always get the love)
Then a mix of Stanford, Creighton, A&M

Thoughts?

Great thread idea! I'm really hoping we're at the least top ten!! If we can beat Minnesota to start the year we are definitely a top the team maybe even closer to 5! I like the way the sec schedule is set up for us, it's pretty tame and then we get a big match with Kentucky. The SEC is really too heavy and if we can take down Kentucky and tu, we have a real shot of winning the conference!

What's really going to help us is our experience and continuity! A lot of the schools you listed, while extremely extremely talented, have a bunch of new faces and will take some to acclimate and grow! Whereas early on for us we should take advantage of that and come out a lot stronger than most teams! If we could take advantage of other teams slipping up and stay strong then we should be in a great position to climb up the rankings!

I think the SEC is a 3 team race between us, tu, and Kentucky! Great news is we get both of them at home along with some easy teams before we match up with them! If we can get some great crowds to those games, we can put ourselves to win the conference given we don't skip up anywhere else! If we start the year ranked 7-9 like I think we will be! Take care of Minnesota along with our non conference schedule, then put ourselves into contention for the sec, I think we can really be ranked near 5!

Also I really hope we can be ranked 8 so that we don't have to face any of Penn State, Nebraska, or Wisconsin, Louisville until an elite 8 or final! Penn State and Nebraska are by far the strongest in my opinion! So if we can be ranked closer to 6, we should be in a great spot to give ourselves a chance to advance to the elite 8! Then avoiding Penn State or Nebraska in the elite 8 would be amazing, but if we wanna advance and make some history we gotta get through the big dogs and make a name for ourselves!! I can't wait to see what unfolds!

Pitt lost a lot…. Stafford, Fairbanks, etc. I'd be surprised for a preseason top 5 ranking.

It's kind of surprising how little depth the SEC had in volleyball. Some decent teams and tu/Kentucky but no where near what the big 10 has, especially with the addition of all those pac 12 teams. Definitely makes it ripe for the taking for us.

waco_aggie05 said:

---

It's kind of surprising how little depth the SEC had in volleyball. Some decent teams and tu/Kentucky but no where near what the big 10 has, especially with the addition of all those pac 12 teams. Definitely makes it ripe for the taking for us.

---

I think SEC is more balanced but I wouldn't say little depth though. We had 9 teams in the tournament last year, same as for B10 and ACC. We had 5 in the sweet 16.

Also, I think SEC will get better and better as we've seen in many sports recently.

flintdragon said:

---

waco_aggie05 said:

---

It's kind of surprising how little depth the SEC had in volleyball. Some decent teams and tu/Kentucky but no where near what the big 10 has, especially with the addition of all those pac 12 teams. Definitely makes it ripe for the taking for us.

---

I think SEC is more balanced but I wouldn't say little depth though. We had 9 teams in the tournament last year, same as for B10 and ACC. We had 5 in the sweet 16.

Also, I think SEC will get better and better as we've seen in many sports recently.

---

That's fair and more accurate than how I stated it. The SEC just doesn't dominate the top of the polls like it does in a lot of other sports. It is still competitve.