OMAHA, Neb. — With the home-state Nebraska Cornhuskers among the final four teams, this week's NCAA volleyball championship is a sure sellout.

American Volleyball Coaches Association executive director Kathy DeBoer said Tuesday that even though the state is the "epicenter of volleyball fandom," she's not in favor of making Omaha the permanent site for the championship.

The 17,000-seat Qwest Center is sold out, and it will be nearly impossible to pack in more than the two-night record 34,060 who attended the semifinals and final in 2006. The Huskers won the title that year, which was the last time the event was held in Omaha.

The tournament's top four seeds advanced this year. No. 3 Texas (29-3) plays No. 2 Stanford (30-3) in the first semifinal. No. 4 Nebraska (31-2) meets defending national champion and top-seeded Penn State (36-0).

Participants will play before some of the most knowledgeable fans in the nation, DeBoer said. She said Nebraska is to volleyball what Kentucky is to men's basketball and Tennessee to women's basketball.

"The fun thing about being in a city like Omaha is you can be in a restaurant or bar and you can hear a debate about middle blockers, or about which outside hitter is playing better or whether someone ought to be playing the opposite position," DeBoer said. "Those are all volleyball-specific tactical things you hear people in Nebraska debating because they know the game that well."

The Division I women's volleyball championships are enjoying a run of unprecedented popularity, thanks to ESPN and packed venues. Last year's final four in Sacramento, Calif., drew 26,679, the second-highest attendance mark behind Omaha in 2006.

The 2009 championship will be held in Tampa, Fla.

Omaha has been home to the College World Series since 1950 and has locked up an agreement to continue hosting the Division I baseball championship through 2035. There was some buzz last year that Omaha might try to persuade the NCAA to make the city permanent home to the volleyball championship, but that talk has cooled, said Omaha Sports Commission chairman Harley Schrager.

Schrager said he believes Omaha stands a good chance to host the volleyball championship every two or three years. He said Omaha is bidding for the 2010 and 2012 events and that another record or near-record turnout this week will help the cause.

Omaha will host a volleyball regional in 2009.

DeBoer said coaches prefer that the championship rotate among cities. The reason is twofold, she said.

If Omaha were permanent host, she said, the Huskers would have a competitive advantage playing in front of their fans in years they make it to the final four.

"It would be like making Knoxville, Tenn., the permanent site for the women's basketball final four or Chapel Hill, N.C., the permanent site for the men's Final Four," she said.

The second reason, she said, is that the AVCA annual convention is always held in conjunction with the championships. Attendees were greeted Tuesday by single-digit temperatures and 3 inches of snow.

"I don't want anyone to take this as a slight on the town, but for me to consistently draw 1,400 or 1,500 coaches in the winter to a cold-weather town would be tough," she said. "Would they still come? I think they would. We love coming to Omaha and want the championship to come back here on a periodic basis, but we're not sold exactly that it makes sense to make this a permanent site."