The championship was approved by the NCAA Convention during the fall of 2015, and a committee was selected to determine the tournament's organizational structure. Before 2015, sand volleyball had been part of the
NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program (which included
women's ice hockey,
bowling,
rowing, and
water polo in the past). As such, a separate championship had been contested annually, since 2012, by the
American Volleyball Coaches Association. Before 2012 several championships were televised by
Collegiate Nationals. As of 2015, over 50 schools (from Divisions I, II, and III) had sponsored sand volleyball, ten more than the total number of required programs. The sport's name was changed from "sand volleyball" to the more usual "beach volleyball" in June 2015, and the committee overseeing the sport is now named the NCAA Beach Volleyball Committee.
Structure 2016–2021 The championship is held each May. From 2016 through 2021, eight teams participated, in a double-elimination style tournament with a single-elimination final, under standard beach volleyball rules. All duals consist of five matches, with each team needing to win three matches 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. •
ASUN 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)
2022, 2025-present From 2022 onwards, the championship tournament was expanded to 16 teams. In 2025 the number of conferences eligible for an Automatic Bid returned to 8 and the Tournament returned to 16 teams. •
Atlantic Sun Conference •
Big West Conference •
Conference USA •
Mountain Pacific Sports Federation •
Ohio Valley Conference •
Southland Conference •
Sun Belt Conference •
West Coast Conference Additionally, two teams from the East Region and two teams from the West Region will be given bids by the NCAA beach volleyball committee, while the final four teams will be selected at large.
20232024 Starting in 2023, the tournament switched to a standard single elimination bracket from the partial double elimination bracket system used before. The field was also expanded to 17 teams to allow for nine automatic qualifiers. ==Results==