Vinnie Lopes is the first to admit the situation isn’t ideal, and although the effort may be met by controversy, he’s going forward with plans to name a 2020 collegiate men’s volleyball champion.
Lopes is both the founder and editor of Offtheblock.com, a website dedicated to the coverage and promotion of collegiate men’s volleyball that’s hardly just a fan blog. Since Lopes created his site back in 2011, it has risen to become recognized and supported by most college coaches and won the 2017 AVCA Grant Burger Media Award for its coverage of the sport.
“You want to settle a championship on the court, no doubt, but you have to adjust to the truly unfortunate situation we’re at now and make the best of it. So that was my thought in all this.” — Vinnie Lopes, founder of Offtheblock.com
Recently Lopes announced Offtheblock.com will effort to name a men’s volleyball collegiate champion despite the NCAA announcing the cancelation of all athletics championships in this year’s winter and spring seasons.
“You want to settle a championship on the court, no doubt, but you have to adjust to the truly unfortunate situation we’re at now and make the best of it. So that was my thought in all this,” Lopes said. “We do end-of-the-season polls, anyway, so it’s sort of like what they used to do in late-1990s football.”
Indeed the college football national champion was named by the media and coaches polls before the advent of the Bowl Championship Series, and then the College Football Playoff system currently in place.
The plan is to invite every NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball head coach to be part of the voting committee along with members of the Off the Block National Media poll. Examination will then extend to inviting additional media members in hopes of generating most objective results possible.
“We want to be as transparent as possible with all of this,” Lopes said. “With polls there’s always concern if those involved are just voting for their favorite, and what not, so we’ll make every single thing as transparent as possible. We’ll release every ballot. We believe that’s the best way to do it and that’s the plan.”
Lopes will start the process immediately with hopes of finishing it all by early April.
The plan hasn’t been met without controversy, with a lot of surprising Lopes, to some degree.
“Fans are passionate, no doubt, and yeah, we’ve had some pushback already,” Lopes said. “But we believe most people will support what we’re trying to do and it really is about rewarding the truly great teams and players who won’t get the opportunity to prove it on the court.”
Lopes understands the national volleyball landscape as well as anyone, and is fully aware of how good of a team BYU has become, along with standout Cougar players like Davide Gardini and Gabi Garcia Fernandez.
“You look at a guy like Gabi, and how he’s been competing this year, and it’s truly been special, and I hate the fact he won’t be able to compete, along with everyone else at the end of the year,” Lopes said. “I feel it was going to be very competitive at the end of all of it, as it was planned, so it’s just so unfortunate to think that end has already come.”
Lopes will try and work with the NCAA in hopes of the organization recognizing Off the Block’s national champions, although he knows coordinating any effort will be a major uphill battle.
“We love men’s college volleyball. We’re passionate about it, as are many fans, and this effort is to reward the great players and teams around the country as best we can,” Lopes concluded. “It’s far from ideal, and in no way do we plan on ever having to do this again — we absolutely don’t want to, but to me, it’s making the best out of an awful situation, and we believe most coaches and fans will agree on that.”