The Lady Bison earned respect in their first season of Great American Conference volleyball last year.
The coaches picked Oklahoma Baptist to finish second in the league standings, according to the GAC preseason volleyball coaches’ poll.
OBU garnered 106 points and a first-place vote in the poll. The Lady Bison finished 14-2 in league play in 2015, good enough for second place in the GAC, although they were ineligible for Division II postseason play due to the transition process from the NAIA.
Arkansas Tech, which has won the regular season title three of the last five years, topped the poll with 116 points and seven first-place votes.
Defending GAC tournament champion Southwestern came in third in the voting with 103 points also picked up two first-place votes.
The remaining two first-place votes went to Southern Nazarene. The Crimson Storm were third in the conference standings in 2015.
2016 GAC preseason volleyball poll
| Rank | Team | Points (First-place votes) |
| 1. | Arkansas Tech | 116 (7) |
| 2. | Oklahoma Baptist | 106 (1) |
| 3. | Southwestern | 103 (2) |
| 4. | Southern Nazarene | 96 (2) |
| 5. | Harding | 76 |
| 6. | Southern Arkansas | 66 |
| 7. | Northwestern | 61 |
| 8. | Ouachita | 54 |
| 9. | Southeastern | 42 |
| 10. | Henderson State | 31 |
| 11. | Arkansas-Monticello | 24 |
| 12. | East Central | 18 |