The Championship Landscape of NCAA Water Polo

Canyonview Aquatics Center-home of the 2014 NCAA Men’s Water Polo Final Four.

I am often asked how good my college team was when I played water polo at UC San Diego. Sometimes I say that my Tritons made it to our conference championship finals (but leave out the part where we lost to Loyola Marymount three years in a row by only one goal each year). If I really want to impress people, I tell them we made it to the elite eight of the NCAA tournament.  If I want to keep it simple, I say we finished ranked 8^th nationally in NCAA Division 1. All answers are completely accurate. But why so many answers to such a simple question?

Unlike most NCAA collegiate sports where a championship tournament consists of at least 16 teams, water polo takes an nontraditional approach to the NCAA Championships. The Men’s NCAA Championships consists of only four teams, while the Women’s NCAA Championships consist of eight teams (only four teams when I played in the early 2000’s.) Collegiate water polo does not have 1^st rounds and 2^nd rounds in tournament championship play. Water polo jumps right into the final four for the men, and the elite eight for the women.  You will see two “play-in” games for each gender; but those games are simply seen as just that: a game to qualify for the NCAA Championships. The play-in game losers are not recognized by the NCAA as a team that qualified for the championships.

So how does a team qualify for the NCAA Water Polo Championships? It’s simple: you win your conference, you earn an automatic qualifier…to compete for a spot in the finals. The men have four conferences, each owning an AQ. The women have seven conferences, six of which own AQs. In addition, there are two at-large berths on the men’s side, and four on the women’s side. Because water polo is a national collegiate sport, all divisions are represented in the championships. Like mainstreamed sports, if you fail to come home with a conference title, you have a chance at receiving an at-large berth.

With the 2014 NCAA Men’s Water Polo Championships this weekend, play-in games have taken place and the final four teams are set for the championship tournament: UCLA, Stanford, USC and UC San Diego. With all games being held at my alma mater UC San Diego, semi-finals will take place on Saturday, December 6^th, with the championship game and the third place game taking place on Sunday, December 7^th (water polo is a sport that actually plays out the tournament to determine all placing’s).

You must be wondering if, as a student-athlete, I was ever upset that there were limited spots in the national championship tournament. Sure, I would have liked to play in the tournament. But being upset was merely a way to get through the loss to LMU…three years in a row. The bottom line is although water polo is unique sport on many levels — specifically championship play — it does not differ in the fact that you simply have to be the best to make it to the final championship game.

The collegiate student-athlete experience is not only about qualifying for NCAA’s. It’s more than that. It’s about working the hardest you have ever worked before with 16 close friends at your side, experiencing victory and defeat together, learning how to juggle earning a degree and playing at a high level of competition, all while becoming a well-rounded, successful individual that will have a positive impact on society…playing in the NCAA Championships is just really good icing on the cake.

The 2014 NCAA Men’s Water Polo Final Four Championships will be held December 6-7, 2014 at Canyonview Pool on the campus of UC San Diego. Four of the best teams in men’s collegiate water polo will gather to determine the national champion.