Long before hash tags were trending, volleyball’s long-held mantra was “Grow the Game.”

It’s been particularly true in men’s volleyball where the addition of Conference Carolinas has allowed the expansion of the NCAA tournament from four to six teams.

A jump to eight teams doesn’t seem as far-fetched as even five years ago, not with the renewed interest of UC San Diego upgrading its athletic programs from Division II to Division I status. The domino effect could begin with the Tritons as one of the main tiles — or bones in domino parlance — and their move to the Big West Conference.

Although the NCAA men’s volleyball championship is a combined DI-II, UCSD joining the Big West would allow the 12-team Mountain Pacific Sports Federation — which has members from the DI Big West, Pac-12 and West Coast, and D-II California Collegiate Athletic Association and PacWest competing in men’s volleyball — to split, creating two west coast leagues in the MPSF and Big West. With five conferences competing, the NCAA postseason format would change to accommodate that growth.

“UCSD is serious about the potential move to NCAA Division I status and the Big West Conference,” Tritons coach Kevin Ring said as his team prepared for its two-match series this week at Hawaii. “The (UCSD) Intercollegiate Athletics Department feels that this is the right time to make such a move and is a move that would benefit not only the athletic department but the entire campus. The move would provide improved funding for the athletic department including increased athletic scholarship opportunities.

“UCSD joining the Big West would give the Big West Conference the opportunity to sponsor men’s volleyball, which would give the west coast two men’s volleyball conference in the Big West and the MPSF. This growth would be tremendous for college men’s volleyball.”

A minimum of six teams is required to form a conference. Five of the MPSF schools have the majority of their athletic teams in the non-football-sponsoring Big West: Hawaii, Cal State Northridge, Long Beach State, UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara.

The Big West expansion might not be limited to UCSD. Schools with men’s volleyball programs also making inquiries into membership are MPSF member Cal Baptist whose affiliation for other sports is in the PacWest; and former PacWest member Grand Canyon, the Rainbow Warriors’ most recent opponent, which competes in the Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association.

(The PacWest, with BYU-Hawaii, Chaminade, Hawaii Hilo and Hawaii Pacific as members, has discussed adding the sport — as well as women’s beach volleyball — but currently on Cal Baptist, Concordia and Holy Names are the only schools with men’s volleyball. PacWest commissioner Bob Hogue said no other schools have shown interest).

As for the Big West, “I think the talk has evolved into significant dialogue, where we’ve gone from ‘unlikely’ to closer to ‘inevitable,’” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “It would be great for (men’s) volleyball.

“I think what has hurt is having the hybrid conferences, the MPSF, the EIVA, the MIVA, the Carolinas where they have no conference voice in any NCAA committee. In terms of leadership, the Big West would be the first voice from a full-fledged conference. That would be significant.”

The growing emphasis on Ratings Percentage Index has led the MPSF to change its scheduling format starting next season, going from a 22-match conference schedule to one with 18 to allow for more out-of-conference competition within the limit of 28 regular-season matches. Details have not been finalized with several options on the table, including teams coming to Hawaii playing two matches, one that would count in the MPSF standings, the other that wouldn’t.

The RPI emphasis did affect the format of Hawaii’s signature event, the Outrigger Resorts Invitational, which had a representative from all four conferences instead of including Hawaii and another MPSF team. For only the second time in the 22-year history of the event, Penn State did not participate, the reason being the Nittany Lions wanted a second match against an MPSF team.

“We’ll see what happens next year,” said Wade, who is three wins away from his 100th at UH. “With fewer conference matches, it allows us to think about some things, like creating a second tournament or having Penn State or Ohio State come out to play two against us.”

As Wade sees it, the potential for having two west coast conferences would strengthen the sport. The Big West, with well-established volleyball programs would have a strong case to have an automatic qualifier (AQ) berth in an expanded NCAA tournament.

But that is for the future. This week’s focus for the Rainbow Warriors is on the Tritons, who have struggled but “we have played some very good volleyball in stretches,” Ring said. “Our goal now is to be more consistent with the level of play. We’ve had a couple of different lineups this season, which has given experience to a lot of players on what is still relatively a young team.

“I’ve had a chance to watch Hawaii in a few of their previous matches and they are well deserving of their No. 5 national ranking. I am looking forward to our matches in Hawaii as UH men’s volleyball has a great fan base who certainly support their team but also appreciate good volleyball by both teams.”

Hawaii has won its last 14 home matches dating back to last season. The Warriors lead the series with the Tritons 49-4, 23-1 at the Stan Sheriff Center. Since that lone home loss in 2011, Hawaii has won the last six against UCSD.

NOTE: Junior hitter Ian Colbert put down 19 kills and UC San Diego won its second straight, defeating Princeton 28-26, 24-26, 12-25, 25-22, 15-13 in a nonconference match Wednesday night in RIMAC Arena. Josh Schmidt added 10 for the Tritons (3-5, 0-4 MPSF) against the Tigers (0-5, 0-0 EIVA).