Wisconsin edges Nebraska by one point in VolleyballMag.com Super 16 Media Poll

This is the inaugural VolleyballMag.com Super 16 Media Poll, the first of its kind in coverage of NCAA Division I women’s volleyball. We’ve had requests over the years to do this, and the time is now as our sport and the excitement around it continues to grow on every level.

We’ve compiled a fantastic panel of media voters who cover the sport both regionally and nationally and, of course, follow NCAA volleyball every day around the country.

We chose to rank 16 teams because that’s how many teams get seeds in the NCAA Tournament. We also asked our voters to offer comments, and some of those appear after the list of pollsters.

Wisconsin is the top team and got eight of the 12 first-place votes and 185 points. Nebraska got the other four first-place votes and got 184 points, the slimmest of margins.

Here is the first VolleyballMag.com Super 16 with records and poll points in parentheses:

1. Wisconsin (11-0, 8 first-place votes, 185 points)
2. Nebraska (11-0, 4 first-place votes, 184)
3. Stanford (9-2, 163)
4. Florida (10-1, 148)
5. Louisville (11-1, 147)
6. Washington State (12-1, 134)
7. Oregon (12-1, 114)
8. BYU (13-1, 101)
9. Pittsburgh (11-2, 82)
10. Texas (7-3, 81)
11. Tennessee (11-1, 69)
12. Georgia Tech (52)
13. Minnesota (5-5, 43)
14. Arkansas (12-2, 42)
15. Penn State (8-3, 39)
16. Creighton (10-3, 29)

Also receiving votes: Arizona State, Baylor, Georgia, Purdue, Kansas.

The voters

Emily Ehman — Big Ten Network, ESPN analyst; former Northwestern DS
Ed Strong — VolleyballMag.com super Tweeter @VBMagazine
Michella Chester — THE volleyball voice of NCAA.com
Daniel Gillman — host of Six Rotations for the AVCA, Cal Poly play-by-play
Lincoln Arneal — Nebraska beat writer for Huskers Illustrated (and assistant VP of policy and leadership at Nebraska Children and Families Foundation)
Sam Gore — veteran broadcaster/studio host who does ESPN volleyball play-by-play, host of the Fifth Set during the NCAA Tournament
Mick Haley — ESPN analyst, former national-championship coach at Texas and USC and 2000 Olympic coach
Shelby Coppedge — ESPN analyst, former Texas A&M-Corpus Christi DS
Dennis Punzel — Wisconsin beat writer for the Wisconsin State Journal, author of Point! Wisconsin
Fran Flory — ESPN analyst, national champion at Texas, winningest coach in LSU history, AVCA Hall of Famer
Anne Marie Anderson — Emmy Award winner, volleyball play-by-play veteran who works NCAA matches for the Pac-12 Network, Big Ten Network and ESPN;…