MLV Adds Five Teams and Two Conferences
Twelve teams for 2027, six east and six west, 26 regular-season matches each from January to May. The postseason format has not been decided.
Twelve Major League Volleyball teams will be split into an Eastern and a Western conference for the 2027 season, the women's professional league said in a release on 19 August that this desk had not covered until now.
The East is Atlanta, Columbus, DC, Grand Rapids, Indy and Orlando. The West is Dallas, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Northern California, Omaha and Vegas. Each team plays 26 regular-season matches between January and May.
Jaime Weston, the commissioner of Major League Volleyball, said this in the release.
"Adding five teams and shifting to a conference structure changes everything for us. Expanding into these incredible sports markets allows us to create genuine rivalries, energize an exciting postseason race and provide fans with the best volleyball in the country. Our players thrive on high-stakes competition, and this 26-match format delivers the world-class stage both our athletes and supporters deserve."
Five of the twelve are new, on her own count, so the structure she is describing is being built alongside almost half the league that will play inside it. That is a lot of rivalry to promise in advance.
The release does not say how the postseason will work and it does not publish a schedule, saying both will follow. A conference format with no announced playoff is a map with no destination marked on it.
Dallas beat Omaha 3-2 (20-25, 25-23, 15-25, 25-13, 15-9) in May to win the league's first championship, and in 2027 the two of them are in the same conference.
