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 15 titles, followed by UCLA with 12 titles, Stanford (11 titles), and USC (10 titles). One of these four schools has won the championship every year since 1998.
Championships summary
Notes
Team titles
Appearances by team
Key
National Champion
National Runner-up
Semifinals
Quarterfinals (8 teams 1969 to 1994, 2 teams 2013 to present) Opening Round (1 or 2 teams since 2015, except for 2020)
Recent championships
2009 Championship
Semifinals scores (Princeton University, December 5, 3:00 pm and 5:00 pm (ET)): #1 USC 13 vs. #4 Princeton 3; #2 UCLA 9 vs. #3 Loyola Marymount 8 (2 OT)
National Championship (Princeton University, December 6, 2:00 pm (ET)): #1 USC (25-2) vs. #2 UCLA (23-6)
2009 NCAA All-Tournament Teams:
First-Team – Shea Buckner, USC; Scott Davidson, UCLA; Ben Hohl, UCLA; Tibor Forai, LMU; J. W. Krumpholz, USC; Andy Stevens, LMU; Jordan Thompson, USC (MVP) Second-Team – Edgaras Asajavicius, LMU; Matt Hale, Princeton; Cullen Hennessy, UCLA; Chay Lapin, UCLA; Matt Sagehorn, USC; Josh Samuels, UCLA; Eric Vreeland, Princeton; Griffin White, UCLA; Mark Zalewski, Princeton
2010 Championship
Semifinals (December 4, 2010, Spieker Aquatics Complex, University of California, Berkeley, California) USC def. St. Francis (NY) 10-7 California def. Loyola Marymount 7-6 Championship (December 5, 2010, Spieker Aquatics Complex, University of California, Berkeley, California) USC def. California 12-10 (OT)
2010 NCAA All-Tournament Teams:
First-Team – Peter Kurzeka, USC (MVP); Ivan Rackov, CAL; Zachary White, CAL; Tibor Forai, LMU; Nikola Vavic, USC; Andy Stevens, LMU; Brian Dudley, CAL Second-Team – Boris Plavsic, SFC; Ikaika Aki, LMU; Marko Gencic, SFC; Jeremy Davie, USC; Joel Dennerley, USC; Matt Burton, USC; Cory Nasoff, CAL
2011 Championship
Conferences receiving automatic qualification included the Collegiate Water Polo Association, the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and the Western Water Polo Association. The remaining team was selected at-large without geographical restrictions.
Semifinals (December 3, 2011, Spieker Aquatics Complex, University of California, Berkeley, California) USC (22-3) def. Princeton (21-9) 17–4 UCLA (23-4) def. UC-San Diego (17-9) 10–1 Championship (December 4, 2010, Spieker Aquatics Complex, University of California, Berkeley, California) Third-place game, Princeton def. UC San Diego 9-7 Championship game, USC def. UCLA 7–4
2011 NCAA All-Tournament Teams: First-Team – Joel Dennerley (MOP), Peter Kurzeka and Nikola Vavic, USC; Josh Samuels and Cullen Hennessy, UCLA; Thomas Nelson, Princeton and Graham Saber, UC San Diego. Second-team – Matt Rapacz, Griffin White and Cristiano Mirarchi, UCLA; Jeremy Davie and Mace Rapsey, USC; Drew Hoffenberg, Princeton, and Brian Donohoe, UC San Diego.
2012 Championship
The NCAA men's water polo championship was held December 1 and 2, 2012 at Southern California's McDonald’s Swim Stadium. Conferences receiving automatic qualification included the Collegiate Water Polo Association, the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and the Western Water Polo Association. The remaining team was selected at-large without geographical restrictions. All four championship games will be streamed live on www.NCAA.com.