The 2026 Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Men’s Volleyball National Championship is coming to NAIT. The CCAA announced on March 21 that NAIT will host the four-day tournament in March 2026, bringing the best collegiate players from across Canada to Edmonton.
Just one season removed from NAIT’s men’s volleyball program’s first national championship win in 2024, Director of Athletics & Recreation and Chair of the CCAA Organizing Committee Jordan Richey is “excited and honoured” to host the tournament.
“With Edmonton’s vibrant volleyball community, state-of-the-art facilities, and our experienced team, we look forward to showcasing Canada’s best collegiate talent,” Richey said in the press release.
The national championship will run from March 11-14, 2026 and feature teams from the Pacific Western Athletic Association (PACWEST), Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC), Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference (MCAC), Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA), Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) and the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association (ACAA).
The host team automatically qualifies for one of eight available spots, which leaves the final seven spots to the six conference champions plus a “conference wildcard” determined by a ranking system. The system ranks each conference’s finishing position in the previous three national tournaments by assigning points to each position and adding them together. The conference with the highest number of points is then awarded the wildcard spot for that tournament.
NAIT Athletics has begun renovating the NAIT Gymnasium in preparation for the event. The E and J hallways will receive more Ooks branding, the individual sports roster pictures on the wall in the J Wing will be digitalized and the flooring outside the concession area will be replaced over the summer, with construction expected to be finished by the end of May. The renovations also include plans to re-sand the gym floor and repaint the gym’s lines in December.
The department hopes adding new features for the upcoming season will bring new life to the area ahead of the tournament.
“We have some aging facilities. It’s no doubt with some of these brand new facilities that are popping up around the league…we’re a little bit behind,” Richey explained in an interview with the Nugget.
“You won’t recognize the gym at all. It’ll look completely different.”
The event schedule and tickets will be released at a later date closer to the tournament.
