'Six Rotations': NCAA Volleyball's Top Tier Stands Strong to Open Conference Play

Every week until a champion is crowned, the YouTube show "Six Rotations" will be available here, with a brief rundown of the episode and the top upcoming matches around the country.

Welcome to the Conference Season

While the top five teams held serve, there was a fair share of madness in this final week of September.

Six ranked teams fell to unranked teams, and for the first time this season, two new teams entered the rankings, as two dropped from the AVCA Taraflex Top 25 Coaches Poll on Monday, Sept. 28.

No. 22 Washington and No. 23 Utah surged into the rankings for the first time in 2026, with the Huskies joining No. 1 Nebraska and No. 2 Pitt as the lone unbeaten teams in the Top 25. Utah had a monster week, with a pair of ranked wins over No. 24 Colorado and No. 21 Baylor (both slipping in the polls).

Speaking of Pitt, the biggest news off the Taraflex this week came on the football field when Olivia Babcock and her teammate Blaire Bayless announced they would return for their fifth and final seasons.

No. 9 is TCU's highest ranking in program history (Sep 22, 2025), as they moved up two spots with Arizona State's Jekyll & Hyde season continuing after a five-set loss to West Virginia.

Every season, the Big 12 is the conference of chaos, and this didn't change coming into conference play, with No. 18 BYU completing a massive win vs. No. 21 Baylor on Friday behind a 7-0 run to finish the fifth set. This was paired with ASU, Colorado, and Baylor falling to unranked teams to kick off Big 12 action.

No. 8 Texas stayed in the Top 10 thanks to a reverse sweep in Knoxville in front of a record Tennessee crowd of 9,226 on Friday. Then on Sunday in Lexington, the Longhorns were swept by No. 3 Kentucky. The Wildcats were also without attacker Morgan Gaerte.

No. 2 Pitt and No. 5 SMU both swept No. 13 Stanford, as the Cardinal only fell one spot despite losing all six sets in the week.

Check out the No. 16 to 25 teams in the new AVCA-Taraflex Division I Women’s Poll.
No. 22 @UWVolleyball and No. 23 @UtahVolleyball enter the poll for the first time this season.#WeAreAVCA pic.twitter.com/X8VayQln8L
— AVCA (@AVCAVolleyball) September 28, 2026

Week 5 @AVCAVolleyball / Taraflex Dl Women's Volleyball Top 25 🏐 #NCAAWVB pic.twitter.com/NXyYLiomzM
— NCAA Women's Volleyball (@NCAAVolleyball) September 28, 2026

This week's 900 Square Feet Top 16 Media Poll is out.

Click the link below to see the full notes from our pollsters.

Anything surprise you? https://t.co/yz3Jg5Wty5 pic.twitter.com/DhiqhoJqUZ
— 900 Square Feet (@900squarefeet) September 28, 2026

The Week Ahead

October brings higher stakes, fewer excuses, and a boatload of ranked vs. ranked matches!

The month starts with a week filled with eleven matches pitting Top 25 teams, with three on Thursday and four on Friday.

This week is headlined by No. 3 Kentucky at No. 7 Florida on Sunday night on ESPN at 9:30 ET as part of a triple-header on the mothership.

Thu, Oct. 1	Time (EST)	Location	TV
No. 16 Penn State vs No. 1 Nebraska	8 p.m.	State College, PA	BTN
No. 6 Wisconsin vs No. 15 Indiana	10 p.m.	Madison, WI	BTN
No. 19 Kansas vs No. 23 Utah	8 p.m.	Lawrence, KS	ESPN+

Fri, Oct. 2	Time (EST)	Location	TV
No. 7 Florida vs No. 11 Tennessee	7 p.m.	Lincoln, NE	SECN+
No. 19 Kansas vs No. 18 BYU	7 p.m.	Lawrence, KS	ESPN+
No. 17 Oregon vs No. 10 Purdue	10 p.m.	Eugene, OR	BTN
No. 9 TCU vs No. 24 Colorado	8:30 p.m.	Ft. Worth, TX	ESPN+

Sat, Oct. 3	Time (EST)	Location	TV
No. 1 Nebraska vs Maryland	7 p.m.	College Park, MD	B1G+

Sun, Oct. 4	Time (EST)	Location	TV
No. 25 UNC vs Georgia Tech	2:30 p.m.	Chapel Hill, NC	ACCN
No. 15 Indiana vs Rutgers	3 p.m.	Piscataway, NJ	BTN
No. 21 Baylor vs No. 24 Colorado	4 p.m.	Waco, TX	ESPN
No. 12 ASU vs Iowa St	6 p.m.	Tempe, AZ	ESPN
No. 22 Washington vs No. 10 Purdue	6 p.m.	Seattle, WA	B1G+
No. 20 Minnesota vs No. 6 Wisconsin	7 p.m.	Minneapolis, MN	BTN
No. 7 Florida vs No. 3 Kentucky	9:30 p.m.	Gainesville, FL	ESPN

Next episode will be Monday, Oct. 5

You can find all archived "Six Rotations" episodes HERE

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