Since the scheduling shift and given its major overall points contribution to the annual UAAP general championship tallies, the championship in volleyball has emerged as one of the most coveted titles that schools aspire for during every season in the league and is one of the most anticipated live TV sporting events in the Philippines.
The tournament begins with a double round robin group stage, where a team meets its opponent twice in a season.
From 2012 to 2015, the first seed team holds a thrice-to-beat advantage (or an automatic 1–0 lead in the finals in a best-of-five series) for sweeping the group stage.
In 2004, there was no Final Four since the DLSU Lady Spikers swept the double round-robin and were awarded the championship outright, becoming the only volleyball varsity team in the UAAP to win the championship outright with a 14-0 group stage sweep record.
In 2007, following the loss of the UE Red Warriors to the DLSU Green Archers in the Finals series of the UAAP Season 70 basketball tournaments despite UE's group stage sweep, the UAAP Final Four format was modified for elimination sweep cases.
The other three teams in the top four rankings underwent play-off games to determine which will qualify for a Finals berth.
Starting 2023, the twice-to-beat incentive for second-seeded teams in the stepladder format was removed.
In 2014 and 2015, ADMU emerged as the lowest Final Four-seeded volleyball team to ever win the UAAP championship (where they played through the stepladder playoffs format and won over 5 knockout games) as well as the first volleyball varsity team in UAAP history to both win the championship and achieve a perfect 16–0 season sweeps record (from group stage playoffs to championship series), respectively.
The number of schools participating in the girls' division increased to six in Season 76 (2013–14) when Adamson University fielded a team.