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| Founded | 1969 |
|---|---|
| Number of teams | 6 |
| Current champions | University of California, Berkeley (17) |
| Most successful club(s) | University of California, Berkeley (17) |
| Website | NCAA.com |
The NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship is an annual tournament to determine the national champion of NCAA men's collegiate water polo. Beginning in 1969, it has been held every year except 2020, when it was postponed to March 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. With a limited number of NCAA water polo programs at the national level, all men's teams, whether from Division I, Division II, or Division III, are eligible to compete each year in the National Collegiate tournament. The tournament was expanded from a four-team bracket in 2013 by adding two play-in games that are contested by the bottom four seeds, effectively creating a six-team bracket with a first-round bye for the top two teams. This makes it the sport with the fewest teams reaching the NCAA tournament; this is because there are only 43 men's water polo teams between all three NCAA divisions.
While the championship often includes teams from around the country, most programs are located within the state of California, and no school from outside California has ever surpassed third place or participated in the NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship game.
The four California based Pac-12 schools have been the most successful. The University of California, Berkeley is the most successful program with 17 titles, followed by UCLA with 12 titles, Stanford (11 titles), and USC (10 titles).[1] One of these four schools has won the championship every year since 1998.