Continental Volleyball Conference
The Continental Volleyball Conference is an intercollegiate men's volleyball conference associated with the NCAA's Division III.
History
On April 4, 2011, Gary Williams, Associate Athletic Director of Carthage College announced in Milwaukee the formation of the Continental Volleyball Conference. The league was established as a direct result of the launch of the Division III Volleyball Championship">NCAA Division III">Division III Volleyball Championship in the next school year of 2011–12 where the inaugural tournament was held in April 2012.With the continued growth of Division III men's volleyball, the CVC announced in March 2014 that it would split into two leagues after the 2014 season. The league's six Eastern members retained the CVC name and branding, while the six Midwestern members, plus two other Midwestern schools that had been announced as incoming CVC members, formed a new men's volleyball conference that was later unveiled as the Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League. When the split was announced, the eastern members also added Rutgers–Newark, a Division III school which had previously played at the National Collegiate level as a "grandfathered" scholarship-granting program, for the 2015 season.
The conference added the newly launched men's volleyball program of Alvernia as its eighth member for the 2017 season.
Further membership changes were announced in 2016. First, on October 12, the Middle Atlantic Conferences, whose Commonwealth Conference was the all-sports home of charter CVC member Stevenson and new CVC member Alvernia, announced that its Middle Atlantic Conference would begin sponsoring men's volleyball in the 2018 season, leading to the departure of those schools from the CVC. Within a week of this development, the CVC announced that Kean, Neumann, and Southern Virginia would
become new members for the 2018 season, and that Thiel would leave after that same season. Then, on November 21, Ramapo was announced as an incoming member for the 2018 season.
Thiel did not initially announce its future men's volleyball affiliation, but would eventually be revealed as a new affiliate member of the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference effective with the 2018–19 school year.
While Thiel left after the 2018 season, the CVC added three new members for the 2019 season, all of which launched new varsity programs at that time. First, in October 2017, Randolph–Macon College was announced as an incoming member. Then, in December of that year, the CVC announced that Elizabethtown College and Immaculata University would also join.
On July 1, 2018, the New Jersey Athletic Conference announced they would add men's volleyball as a sponsored sport. Kean and Rutgers–Newark maintain dual membership in the CVC and NJAC starting in 2018–19. Ramapo College left the CVC and returned to the Skyline Conference; Rampo maintains dual affiliation for men's volleyball in the NJAC and Skyline.
Inaugural member Cairn departed the conference for the 2019–20 academic year after the university's all-sport conference, the Colonial States Athletic Conference, announced the addition of men's volleyball as a conference sport. The CVC added another member when Roanoke College announced the addition of men's volleyball for the 2022 season.
With the addition of men's volleyball in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, Eastern Mennonite, Randolph-Macon, and Roanoke departed the CVC after the 2024 season to participate in men's volleyball competition in their home conference.
Four more members are set to depart after the 2026 season. Drew, Elizabethtown, Juniata, and Wilkes will move men's volleyball to their primary home of the Landmark Conference, which will begin sponsoring the sport in the 2027 season.
Member schools
Current members
The league currently has 8 full members.Note that because NCAA men's volleyball is a spring sport, the year of joining is the calendar year before the first season of competition.
| Institution | Location | Founded | Joined | Type | Enrollment | Nickname | Primary conference |
| Drew University | Madison, New Jersey | 1867 | 2025 | Private | 2,113 | Rangers | Landmark |
| Elizabethtown College | Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania | 1899 | 2018 | Private | 1,636 | Blue Jays | Landmark |
| Juniata College | Huntingdon, Pennsylvania | 1876 | 2011 | Private | 1,593 | Eagles | Landmark |
| Kean University | Union, New Jersey | 1855 | 2017 | Public | 16,633 | Cougars | New [Jersey Athletic Conference|NJAC] |
| Marymount University | Arlington, Virginia | 1950 | 2013 | Private | 3,633 | Saints | AEC |
| Rutgers University–Newark | Newark, New Jersey | 1936 | 2014 | Public | 12,011 | Scarlet Raiders | NJAC |
| Southern Virginia University | Buena Vista, Virginia | 1867 | 2017 | Private | 1,106 | Knights | USA South |
| Wilkes University | Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania | 1933 | 2025 | Private | 2,245 | Colonels | Landmark |
Former members
School names and nicknames reflect those in use during the final season each school was a CVC member.In addition to the above schools, two other institutions that were adding men's volleyball for the 2014–15 school year : Benedictine University in Illinois and Loras College in Iowa—had been announced as new CVC members. They never officially joined the CVC, instead uniting with the six Midwestern CVC schools in the MCVL.
Membership timeline
As noted previously, the year of joining is the calendar year before the first season of competition.DateFormat = yyyy
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bar:1 color:pink from:2011 till:2019 text:Cairn
bar:2 color:pink from:2011 till:2024 text:Eastern Mennonite
bar:3 color:pink from:2011 till:2026 text:Juniata
bar:4 color:pink from:2011 till:2013 text:UC Santa Cruz
bar:5 color:pink from:2011 till:2014 text:Carthage
bar:6 color:pink from:2011 till:2014 text:Dominican
bar:7 color:pink from:2011 till:2014 text:Fontbonne
bar:8 color:pink from:2011 till:2014 text:Lakeland
bar:9 color:pink from:2011 till:2012 text:Mount St. Joseph
bar:9 color:pink from:2013 till:2014
bar:10 color:pink from:2011 till:2014 text:MSOE
bar:11 color:pink from:2011 till:2017 text:Stevenson
bar:12 color:pink from:2011 till:2018 text:Thiel
bar:13 color:pink from:2013 till:end text:Marymount
bar:14 color:pink from:2014 till:end text:Rutgers–Newark
bar:15 color:pink from:2016 till:2017 text:Alvernia
bar:16 color:pink from:2017 till:2022 text:Kean
bar:17 color:pink from:2017 till:2020 text:Neumann
bar:18 color:pink from:2017 till:2019 text:Ramapo
bar:19 color:pink from:2017 till:end text:Southern Virginia
bar:20 color:pink from:2018 till:2026 text:Elizabethtown
bar:21 color:pink from:2018 till:2022 text:Immaculata
bar:22 color:pink from:2018 till:2024 text:Randolph–Macon
bar:23 color:pink from:2021 till:2024 text:Roanoke
bar:24 color:pink from:2024 till:2026 text:Drew
bar:25 color:pink from:2024 till:2026 text:Wilkes
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