When the 2025 season came to a close, BYU had finished inside the top echelon of the MPSF tied for third place, marking the second straight year the Cougars ended in third. A mature BYU roster had finished inside the top 10 again, but still narrowly missed the NCAA Tournament and proved to be little of a threat to win the MPSF.
The Provo school ultimately made a reset of sorts in the offseason, bringing in many new faces this year as it seeks to contend for a league title. Roster limits, the transfer portal, missionary service, graduating seniors and incoming freshmen have contributed to 11 different players lost and 11 gained compared to the Cougars roster a year ago.
“This team is going to be one of the most exciting teams you’ve seen in a handful of years,” BYU coach Shawn Olmstead said on the “Y’s Guys” livestream show last month. “We’ve got some physicality across the board that we haven’t had for a long time.”
The MPSF also has had plenty of turnover in the last couple seasons, adding four new schools to play men’s volleyball in the league, while losing another. The new-look league now stands at an even 10 teams after Grand Canyon cut its program in the offseason and the league made the additions of Menlo College and Vanguard University in 2025 and, this year, Jessup University and the University of California, Merced. All four new schools are members of the NCAA Division II.
Despite all the changes, the team that BYU, and the rest of the league, will continue chasing at the top remained the same in preseason polling. For a fifth year in a row, UCLA was picked to win the MPSF by coaches in the league’s preseason polling.
Of late, the Bruins have dominated their series with the Cougars, falling to BYU just once in the last nine meetings. The last time UCLA didn’t finish atop the MPSF was in 2021, when the Cougars won the league championship.
This year, BYU was picked fifth in the preseason poll, behind UCLA, Pepperdine, USC and Stanford, respectively. Concordia remains the only school, besides the league’s four newcomers, behind the Cougars. The fifth-place prediction comes as no surprise to Olmstead.
“From the outside looking in, we lost big-time contributors,” Olmstead said in the same livestream about the Cougars’ positioning in the preseason poll. “We lost those guys that really played a huge part for our team. So that’s right where I would expect (to be picked).”
As BYU nears the completion of its nonconference slate of matches, the Cougars will be gearing up for MPSF play, beginning Feb. 13-14 in a couple of matches against Menlo in the Smith Fieldhouse.
Fort Valley will break up BYU’s league matches, as the Cougars’ final nonconference opponent, the weekend after the Provo school faces Menlo. BYU will resume its MPSF schedule the first weekend in March on the road against UC Merced and Jessup before traveling to No. 17 Stanford the next week.
The Cougars then return home for four consecutive matches — two against Concordia and two against No. 6 Pepperdine. From there, BYU’s final six matches remain in pairs at Vanguard, home versus No. 4 USC, and back on the road against No. 1 UCLA to finish the regular season.
“Our slate with MPSF teams is really, really good,” Olmstead said on the “Y’s Guys” show. “And we’re hosting the MPSF tournament. … So that’s a big thing we’re talking about, is getting our guys in a position through these matches over the next few months to be ready for that tournament come the end of April.”
The Cougars will be looking to couple their home-court advantage in the league’s postseason tournament with the highest possible seed in April. As BYU’s MPSF schedule increases in difficulty throughout the season, the Cougars will be given opportunities to grow and play their best volleyball when it matters most.
Prior to beginning MPSF play, BYU will play three matches in four days, starting Friday against Lincoln Memorial, followed by Saturday at Harvard, and concluding in a Monday meeting with Merrimack.
