MCC Teams in
the 2005 National
NAIA Tournament
Huntington
Taylor
MCC Teams in
the 2006 National
NAIA Tournament
Huntington
Taylor
MCC Teams in
the 2007 National
NAIA Tournament
Huntington
Ind Wesleyan
St Francis |
NAIA Information  Qualification Process
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Tournament Qualification . . . |
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The NAIA tournament qualification plan is the result of several factors, including the number of conferences, the number of schools who participate in post-season play in each conference, the number of recognized independents, and exceptions granted conferences whose petitions are approved. As a result, the allocation of tournament berths may vary from year to year. For 2009-10, there are 140 schools (132 in 15 conferences and 8 independents) that are eligible to participate in NAIA Division II men's basketball post-season competition.
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The NAIA rules give conferences which have six or more participating schools 1 berth in the national tournament. Each conference with 10 or more schools gets 2 berths and conferences with 15 or more schools gets 3 berths. This season, the NAIA plans to give an Independent one berth, based upon a playoff of top teams. One berth is guaranteed to the Host School (College of the Ozarks) if they do not qualify otherwise. This practice eliminates a neutral court, but the NAIA prefers the gate receipts.
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Conference
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Berths
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American Mideast
Appalachian Athletic
California Pacific
Cascade Collegiate
Chicagoland Collegiate
Dakota Athletic
Great Plains Athletic
Kansas Collegiate
Kentucky Intercollegiate
Mid-Central College (MCC)
Midlands Collegiate
Midwest Collegiate
Sun Conference
Sunrise Conference
Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic
Independents
Host School |
2
2
1
2
1
1
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1 |
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For the 2010, the table at right shows automatic berths granted 15 conferences, one independent and the host school. These assign 21 berths leaving at least 10 "At Large" berths available for the highest ranked teams in the Final Ratings who do not qualify in any other way. If College of the Ozarks actually qualifies by virtue of their conference selection process, an additional "At Large" berth would be available. Further, if the NAIA decides no independent qualifies for the tournament, that berth would also be available for an "At Large" team.
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The NAIA allows each member Conference to fill its automatic berth(s) in the manner it chooses. It may be based on conference records, a conference tournament (as in the MCC), a combination of the two, or even a coin flip (as happened in the Heart of America Conference in 2004).
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The system used by the NAIA does not guarantee that the 32 highest rated teams will be in the tournament. A conference may have no teams ranked in the Top 25, but they still get a berth. In fact, such schools usually never play a Top 25 rated opponent in the regular season. Be that as it may, the process brings together teams from all over the country and it manages to get nearly all of the top 25 teams into the national tournament each year.
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The men's teams qualifying for the NAIA Division II National Tournament the past few seasons can be found at the Tournament Qualifiers page. |
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