2021 Men’s Basketball National Championship Opening Round Field Announced
The winners of each of these brackets advance to the 2021 NAIA National Championship Final Site in Kansas City, Mo., at the 83rd annual NAIA Men’s Basketball National Championship, March 18-23. For more information on the national championship, click here.
The field consists of 36 automatic qualifiers and one host berth – given to conference regular season champions, regular season runners-up, tournament champions, tournament runners-up, or a team selected by the conference in absence of a tournament, depending on the league. The number of participating teams in each league determines the number of automatic bids in each conference. Leagues that started with 10 or more schools receive two automatic berths, while conferences with less than 10 institutions receive one. If a conference started with 15 or more schools, they receive three automatic berths.
This year, due to COVID, each conference was allowed a drop of up to three schools from where they started in order to keep their original auto berth total. Any conference that started with one auto berth was guaranteed to keep it.
At-large teams were determined by the NAIA Men’s Basketball National Selection Committee (NSC). The NSC consists of one representative from each geographic area and six at-large members. The committee evaluated teams throughout the year on various criteria.
For more information on NAIA Men’s Basketball, click here.
Make sure to download the Experience NAIA Championship App for updated news and information for the 2021 NAIA Men’s Basketball Championships! Download the app HERE!
Opening Round Notes
• Overall, there are 30 repeat qualifiers from the both the 2020 Division I and Division II fields.
• Indiana Wesleyan boasts the highest win total in the field at 29-2 on the year.
• Georgetown (Ky.) leads the field with its 40th appearance in the men’s basketball championship field. Cumberlands (Ky.) checks-in at second on that list with its 29th while College of the Ozarks (Mo.) is third in its 24th. Bellevue (Neb.), Olivet Nazarene (Ill.), Xavier (La.) and Northwestern (Iowa) all now have at least 20 appearances under their belts.
• There are two newcomers to the opening round in this year’s field in Benedictine – Mesa (Ariz.) and Texas A&M Texarkana.
• The Crossroads and the Mid-South lead all conferences with four teams each.
| Institution | Overall Seed | Qualifying Method | 2021 Record | Appearances | Championship Record | Last Time | Consecutive |
| Arizona Christian | 7 | GSAC Regular Season Division Winner | 24-2 | 7th | 4-5 | 2019 | 1 |
| Bellevue (Neb.) | 43 | NSAA Tournament Champion | 20-13 | 20th | 24-9 | 2018 | 1 |
| Benedictine (Kan.) | 27 | HEART Regular Season Runner-Up | 20-6 | 12th | 14-10 | 2019 | 1 |
| Benedictine Mesa (Ariz.) | 46 | CalPac Tournament Champion | 5-8 | 1st | 0-0 | N/A | 1 |
| Bethel (Ind.) | 29 | At-Large | 20-10 | 2nd | 0-1 | 2013 | 1 |
| Bethel (Kan.) | 19 | KCAC Regular Season Champion | 19-6 | 17th | 32-13 | 2019 | 1 |
| Carroll (Mont.) | 26 | At-Large | 17-7 | 15th | 16-13 | 2020 | 6 |
| Central Baptist (Ark.) | 39 | AMC Tournament Champion | 19-6 | 4th | 0-2 | 2020 | 3 |
| College of the Ozarks | 48 | A.I.I. Tournament Runner-Up | 2-5 | 24th | 28-22 | 2020 | 3 |
| Cumberlands (Ky.) | 20 | At-Large | 17-9 | 29th | 17-27 | 2020 | 8 |
| Faulkner (Ala.) | 5 | SSAC Regular Season Champion | 25-2 | 12th | 11-9 | 2020 | 2 |
| Georgetown (Ky.) | 17 | At-Large | 16-7 | 40th | 73-37 | 2020 | 30 |
| Holy Cross (Ind.) | 40 | Chicagoland Regular Season Runner-Up | 13-6 | 2nd | 1-0 | 2020 | 2 |
| Indiana Tech | 37 | WHAC Tournament Champion | 21-8 | 12th | 4-11 | 2020 | 4 |
| Indiana Wesleyan | 1 | Crossroads Regular Season Champion | 29-2 | 14th | 31-9 | 2020 | 13 |
| IU South Bend (Ind.) | 38 | Chicagoland Tournament Champion | 6-0 | 2nd | 0-0 | 2020 | 2 |
| Jamestown (N.D.) | 21 | At-Large | 19-8 | 11th | 6-10 | 2019 | 1 |
| Keiser (Fla.) | 34 | The Sun Tournament Champion | 20-9 | 12th | 12-11 | 2020 | 2 |
| Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) | 4 | Cascade Tournament Champion | 18-1 | 16th | 6-14 | 2020 | 7 |
| Loyola (La.) | 16 | At-Large | 13-5 | 7th | 8-5 | 2020 | 3 |
| LSU Alexandria (La.) | 28 | At-Large | 16-4 | 7th | 10-5 | 2020 | 7 |
| LSU Shreveport (La.) | 3 | RRAC Tournament Champion | 16-1 | 17th | 12-15 | 2020 | 17 |
| Marian (Ind.) | 10 | Crossroads Tournament Champion | 22-4 | 8th | 10-5 | 2020 | 4 |
| Mid-America Christian (Okla.) | 24 | At-Large | 11-4 | 5th | 8-2 | 2020 | 3 |
| Morningside (Iowa) | 15 | GPAC Regular Season Champion | 20-5 | 18th | 15-16 | 2020 | 4 |
| Northwestern (Iowa) | 9 | GPAC Conference Tournament Champion | 23-5 | 23rd | 31-20 | 2020 | 2 |
| Oklahoma Wesleyan | 23 | KCAC Tournament No. 2-Seed | 19-6 | 9th | 14-6 | 2020 | 4 |
| Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) | 30 | Chicagoland Regular Season Champion | 15-4 | 20th | 12-19 | 2019 | 1 |
| Park (Mo.) | 35 | HEART Host Berth | 14-7 | 8th | 5-7 | 2017 | 1 |
| Providence (Mont.) | 11 | Frontier Tournament Champion | 17-2 | 3rd | 1-1 | 2020 | 2 |
| Rio Grande (Ohio) | 44 | RSC Tournament Runner-Up | 16-9 | 8th | 6-7 | 2003 | 1 |
| Rochester (Mich.) | 36 | WHAC Regular Season Champion | 13-3 | 3rd | 0-2 | 2017 | 1 |
| SAGU (Texas) | 12 | SAC Regular Season Champion | 10-2 | 9th | 5-7 | 2020 | 2 |
| Saint Francis (Ind.) | 14 | At-Large | 24-8 | 13th | 25-9 | 2020 | 2 |
| Science & Arts (Okla.) | 8 | SAC Tournament Champion | 17-2 | 10th | 12-8 | 2019 | 1 |
| Shawnee State (Ohio) | 6 | MSC Regular Season/Tournament Champion | 26-2 | 2nd | 0-0 | 2020 | 2 |
| Stillman (Ala.) | 13 | SSAC Tournament Runner-Up | 16-3 | 3rd | 0-1 | 2020 | 3 |
| Talladega (Ala.) | 18 | At-Large | 24-3 | 8th | 5-6 | 2020 | 3 |
| Tennessee Wesleyan | 42 | AAC Selection Committee Choice | 16-8 | 8th | 2-7 | 2016 | 1 |
| Texas A&M Texarkana | 22 | At-Large | 11-3 | 1st | 0-0 | N/A | 1 |
| Thomas More (Ky.) | 25 | MSC Tournament Runner-Up | 16-9 | 4th | 2-2 | 2020 | 2 |
| Union (Ky.) | 45 | AAC Tournament Champion | 13-9 | 9th | 6-7 | 2019 | 1 |
| Vanguard (Calif.) | 32 | GSAC Regular Season Division Winner | 8-3 | 5th | 6-3 | 2019 | 1 |
| Voorhees (S.C.) | 47 | A.I.I. Tournament Champion | 3-8 | 9th | 1-8 | 2019 | 1 |
| Warner (Fla.) | 31 | The Sun Regular Season Champion | 18-6 | 8th | 10-7 | 2019 | 1 |
| William Penn (Iowa) | 2 | HEART Regular Season/Tournament Champion | 24-1 | 11th | 15-9 | 2020 | 6 |
| WVU Tech (W.Va.) | 41 | RSC Tournament Champion | 12-6 | 5th | 1-3 | 2020 | 5 |
| Xavier (La.) | 33 | Gulf Coast Tournament Champion | 13-4 | 20th | 4-18 | 2020 | 2 |
Recent Comments