After a bloodbath of ranked MPSF teams over the weekend, Loyola, USC, and Ball State remain the only undefeated ranked teams in men's volleyball. Loyola took care of business with a sweep of Harvard at home to go 3-0 on the season (adding to wins over then #6 BYU and at then #10 Stanford). This makes #1 Loyola 32-1 over the past two seasons, including 15-1 against ranked teams. The Ramblers have won their last 13 consecutive matches against ranked teams, and have won 16 consecutive road matches dating back to the 2013 season. Lewis, who also beat Harvard this past week, came in at #2 in the poll-- the first time the MIVA has ever had the #1 and #2 teams in the rankings.

But one voter decided that USC should be #1. Yes, USC, which is 2-0 after needing to go to five games to beat Grand Canyon (picked for 6th in the MIVA preseason poll) in their first match of the season, and the USC team that ended up fifth this week in the concensus of voters. That single non-Loyola voter is UC Irvine coach David Kniffin, who picked Loyola second, his own team 6th, and Lewis 8th-- despite the fact that Lewis swept his team on their own court.

So Loyola gets 17 out of 18 first place votes. Most of the other MPSF coaches have come to the realization that the top two MIVA teams are at least on par with the top half of the MPSF this year, and there's some good strength in the middle of the MIVA. But Kniffin remains the only hold out on the idea that the MPSF is inherently superior, and any wins by the MIVA (even on the road) are a fluke.

Interesting note about Kniffen: He started his collegiate volleyball career at Loyola Marymount before transferring to a JC and then to UC-Irvine to finish his career. Maybe he has an axe to grind against the Jesuits? Not too keen of the name Loyola?

Also, this Dana Carvey meets skinny Rob Lowe lookalike has a very punchable face. This is what a google search of his name brings up.

I can't remember last year too well but I think Kniffen voted Loyola low for most of the 2014 season. I'll have to do some research.

I did find a forum topic from April when I apparently said that I was surprised that Kniffen voted Loyola low.

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=628

This sounds like red meat for swellafelon.

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A Volleytalk discussion late April 2014.

http://volleytalk.proboards.com/thread/53823/byu-1

More talk about Kniffin ranking Loyola low. I am not in the mind of David Kniffin, but I predict that he will keep ranking Loyola no higher than #2 for quite a while. West coast bias, eh JCT?

After the NCAA released documents showing the RPI from last year, most of the MPSF coaches and some of their fans have started to resign themselves to the fact that the MPSF is not sacrosanct as the preeminent conference. For those that didn't follow, there was controversy when Lewis received one of the at large bids in the 2014 NCAA tournament over Pepperdine-- all coming from MPSF fans and coaches. The hilarious part of the outrage was that Pepperdine hadn't played a single non-conference match for several years, and the basis for their anger over Pepperdine being shunned was the AVCA rankings (which are skewed by MPSF coaches voting their teams artificially higher). The RPI showed that Lewis was actually #2 in the country in RPI, and Pepperdine was something like #8.

So who did the MPSF coaches vote preseason #1 this year? Pepperdine. I'm actually surprised that most of the MPSF guys went ahead and voted for Loyola as #1 in the poll after Pepperdine lost in their first match against a ranked opponent. Kniffin was the exception.

It's too bad men's volleyball isn't as big of a sport to out this guy as a piece of work, because this petty stuff would never fly in football. Could you imagine the outrage over a Big 12 coach voting Ohio State 9th in the preseason poll next year?