Michigan State Volleyball: Big Ten Media Days, B1G partners with VolleyballWorld.tv

Select members of the Michigan State volleyball team are at the Big Ten Network headquarters in Chicago, Illinois on Monday night for the first ever Big Ten Volleyball Media Days. The Big Ten Conference is the first league in the nation to have an in-person preseason volleyball media event.

MSU head coach Leah Johnson is joined by players Rebecka Poljan and Nalani Iosia to represent the program at the event. Poljan is a graduate student from Bath, Michigan who plays middle blocker. Iosia is a junior from Torrance, California and plays libero.

The Big Ten Network will air the first day's broadcast of Big Ten Volleyball Media Days from 8:00-9:30 p.m. ET. The programming will re-air again at 10:30 p.m. ET tonight and in the early hours of Aug. 2 at 1:00 a.m. and 3:30 a.m. ET. In addition to Michigan State, six other Big Ten programs will participate on Monday night, including Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, and Purdue. The other seven Big Ten programs (Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Penn State, Rutgers, and Wisconsin) will participate in day two of the event on Tuesday.

Ahead of Big Ten Volleyball Media Days tonight, the preseason poll was released earlier this afternoon. Michigan State was picked No. 11 in the Big Ten ahead of Iowa, Indiana and Rutgers.

Preseason All-Conference team honors were also released with no Spartans making the list. All 14 Big Ten coaches took part in the balloting and were permitted to vote for their own teams and players.

The Michigan State Volleyball season kicks off in just 25 days with a visit to East Lansing by the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns on Aug. 26. The Green & White Scrimmage will precede that matchup on Aug. 23. The full 2022 season schedule along with news regarding the team’s relocating this season to the Breslin Center was released last month.

Fans unable to attend games will still be able to catch a number of matches on television this season, however. The Big Ten Network announced earlier this afternoon that at least 55 total matches will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network, ESPN2, ESPNU, and FS1 networks.

Among those games are a number of MSU matchups. Those games include:

• Michigan State at Maryland - Sept. 30 - BTN - 6:30 p.m.
• Nebraska at Michigan State - Oct. 6 - BTN - 8 p.m.
• Purdue at Michigan State - Nov. 4 - BTN - TBD

There is also potential for further games to be added as the season progresses. For the full league television schedule, Big Ten fans can find that here:

In addition to media days scheduling, the Big Ten Conference also announced a new partnership with Volleyball World for a multi-year distribution deal that will result in at least 70 Big Ten Volleyball matches appearing on VolleyballWorld.tv. Volleyball World is "a new partnership between the FIVB and the CVC Capital Partners aimed at driving growth, innovation, and investment in volleyball around the globe"

The subscription based service of VolleyballWorld.tv will feature almost 50 matches to subscribers outside of North America and certain Caribbean islands along with access to 28 matches in B1G+ inventory aired concurrently on B1G+, the Big Ten Network's subscription streaming service.

In addition to match inventory, the Big Ten Network's "At The Net" show giving behind-the-scenes looks at the volleyball players and programs across the conference will be available to subscribers of VolleyballWorld.tv as well.